British Driving, 2026

For our homes and gardens tour, we had a small rental car, a Toyota Yaris (a hybrid) for three weeks, May 13-June 2, and, as in the past, driving around the British countryside was an adventure. Happily, once more, there were no incidents, no scratches, no dents, and, as in the past, the vow never ever to do this again, ever. The driving has its one major challenge for foreigners--right-hand drive, on the left side of the road, roundabouts reversed, some of the controls reversed, although this time we had an automatic transmission and so avoided the left-hand shifting issues. In addition, there is the age of the place, tiny pre-automobile roads in hamlets, towns, and cities. Especially out in the countryside the roads are tiny, often one lane with occasional turn-outs, with visibility limited by hedgerows, in holloways, etc. British drivers are almost without exception skilled, careful, considerate...they know the tiny one-lane roads, however, and will zoom along at 50mph, not fully expecting a stranger plodding along around the next bend or over the hill, on-coming and 200 yards away. We imagine that brake pads get changed pretty often in the UK. Anyhow, along with the foregoing, there are other challenges for the foreign driver, documented below, as well as the usual curiosities. Photos by Vicki.

Objects in the road...in New Forest (so named by William I), near
Winchester, there are small herds of wild horses

And consequent stoppages

The "weak bridge" sign occurred alarmingly often

Other objects in roadway

This is the only still pic of the car I took...lots of video on check-out
and return, but just the one still, mainly for entering the registration at
assorted carparks' meters; note the "New Driver Caution" sign we put 
up in the back window...

The great homes and gardens, some abbeys or parish churches, as well
as archaeological sites, tend to be out in the boonies, and so much of
the scenery en route looks like this

Waiting in the turn-out for a tour bus or tanker to pass...

Steady as you go

Dead slow

On the freeways we loved the crawler lanes...

We also loved the air quality speed zones in Wales

Seriously

Some British trucks are extremely tall and would not make
it through our 14 foot overpasses in the US; the good news is
that heavy goods vehicles throughout Europe and the UK
are limited to 55mph; if you're not in a hurry you can just
tuck in behind one and relax...as we mostly did

Calm before the storm...on the M3 just before the M25,
London's outermost ring road...two hours of gridlock and
seemingly glacial progress

Always a happy moment, returning the rental car, unscathed...