UK traffic

I always have near-death experiences with traffic in the UK, and had enough close calls this time that I have formulated two ironclad rules for all future trips to the UK, Ireland, Japan, and other left-side-of-the-road countries.

1. I never cross against a traffic light unless I’m *absolutely* sure there are no vehicles coming. My instincts are backwards, so they can’t be trusted in left-side environments.

The same holds true in Germany, but for different reasons. In Germany, it is so extremely assumed that all pedestrians will follow what the lights say that the drivers do absolutely crazy things *within* the framework of that assumption. For instance, in Germany you might think you’re sure there’s no traffic nearby, but then some guy comes whipping around the corner in a sports car in the middle of the city, assuming that you’d never dare be crossing his lane when he has a green light. So, you’d better not. At least in Egypt no one expects anyone else to follow any rules, so they keep an eye out for you.

2. But many of my UK near-death experiences are not at crosswalks. What happens is that I’m a pretty fast walker on sidewalks, and UK sidewalks tend to be narrow and crowded, so I’m often instinctively tempted to pass people ahead of me by walking out into the street. That’s a big mistake, because big double-decker buses silently roll down the lane right next to the sidewalk, and perhaps 12-14 times in the UK over the years I’ve missed being flattened by a hair’s breadth. It’s been so close so many times, only the Guardian Angel theory comes to mind as an explanation for survival.

But today I noticed something odd… This problem wouldn’t occur if I were walking on the right side of the street, facing the oncoming traffic.

Instead, it seems that I’m almost always instinctively choosing to walk on the left side of any given street.

Why? Probably for exactly the same reason we’re talking about now. Since I so instinctively go into the street to pass slower walkers, I must have internalized in the U.S. at an early age that I’d better be walking on the side of the street facing traffic.

So now I need to start choosing the right-side sidewalk in the UK whenever possible.