Today I woke
up after 12 hours of sleep (as shocking as that may seem to people who know
me), so it seems a little aimless pondering might be in order.
It will be a miracle if I don’t get squashed by a bus or taxi
or at least knocked down at some point by a motorist. In not implying the British are bad drivers – in fact,
they seem to be quite good (especially by American standards) and very
courteous to pedestrians and cyclists – both
motor and human powered – of which there are many.
The problem lies in the fact that despite clear guidance
telling me where to look for oncoming traffic, my American brain struggles to grasp the fact traffic is coming
at me from the opposite direction than I expect. Not only that but on those rare occasions I
do manage to look the right way and attempt to catch the eye of a driver, I
continue to look at the wrong side of the car.
Right-hand drive will likely continue to confuse me for the duration of
my stay.
But it’s not just the moving
vehicles that addle my brain – the parked ones have a
role as well. Parking in London is
readily available on most streets and there appear to be no hard and fast rules
in regard to the direction you park
your vehicle. It is a regular site to
see cars, motorcycles or scooters facing both directions along the curb
regardless of the direction of traffic on the street. (Molly has a great photo
as an example but I won’t ruin it for you here)
As long as I’ve touched on the topic of cars and driving, I may
as well stay on it a bit longer.
One of the many things that make London a pedestrian-friendly
city (in my opinion) has as much to do with the courteousness of the drivers as
it does with the lack of traffic. For a
city the size of London, there is surprisingly less traffic than could be
expected. There is certainly more than
you will find in downtown Toledo for example but significantly less than found
in New York or Chicago.
Most of that, I am sure, can be attributed to the city’s extremely
efficient mass transit system while the remainder, perhaps, can be credited to
the drunken sailors what planned London’s streets. The only rationale for London’s winding maze
of roads is that a group of sailors, just off the ship having spent a year at
sea and at least a week in the nearest pub, managed to obtain the original
street plans and modified them as part of a major practical joke on future
generations.
The unpredictable course of London’s streets creates what Molly
has dubbed the “Alice in Wonderland Effect.” This is where you begin wandering
in a specific direction, make few changes in course or major turns and, after
an hour or so, wind up right back where you began. I experienced this phenomenon both with and
without her so I trust her theory is true.
While wandering the streets, I also am constantly reminded that
I am not
But I seriously doubt I would drive it in London. During my short stay, I have gotten lost
walking and I can’t imagine what would happen if my focus turned from where I
am going to watching the cars and pedestrians on the street. As a tourist, getting lost in an unfamiliar
place is expected (and I can always count on the Alice in Wonderland Effect to
return me to familiar ground) but when driving you should have some idea where
you are going.
Not that getting lost couldn’t be
explained my London’s street signs – or lack
of them in some cases. The same sailors
who planned the streets must have had a hand in the rules for marking the
streets because there does not seem to be any hard and fast rules for
displaying street names at intersections.
Unlike the US where we post signs
on every corner of hang them above intersections beside the traffic lights, the
British, at least here in London, mount the street names to the sides of
buildings – often at varying heights and distances from
the corner on the same building. Where
buildings don’t exist, beside a park for instance, signs are sometimes
positions at ground level in close proximity to the corner assuming there is a
sign at all.
The confusion found walking and driving in London is also seen
in the city’s mass transit system to some extent. Molly lives a few short blocks (the length of
a London block varies drastically depending on the original landscape, historical
landmarks, location of pubs and degree of drunkenness in the sailor in charge
of determining the layout of a particular area) from King’s Cross and St.
Pancras where all of the city’s bus and underground routes converge and are met
by the international and domestic trains.
The end result, for Molly at least, is that no matter where her
wanderings take her, she can always make it back to King’s Cross.
As a side
note, King’s Cross is the station where Harry Potter caught the train to
Hogwarts in the films. Of course, he
departed at Platform 9 ¾, the location of which is in a terribly bland part of
the station so they actually used a location in the area of platforms 4 and 5.
Also, the outside footage that they call King’s Cross Station is actually St.
Pancras which is a much more elegant building and, aside from being wrong, is a
much better place to imagine Harry departing to Hogwarts.
That does not mean, however, that the Underground in London is
any easier to navigate than the surface streets. Much like the American
railroad system, the London underground rail was built by a number of different
entrepreneurs who created a network on competing systems completely
disconnected from each other. Unlike the
New York Subway where the different lines often converge making transferring
from one line to the next as simple as getting off your train and waiting for
the next to arrive, the London Underground requires that you leave your train and the station, possibly travelling
several blocks to board your transfer.
Buses, on the other hand, can actually be the most efficient,
practical and easy choice. The drivers
of these hulking, double-decker behemoths glide them effortlessly through the
busiest of London streets with a skill and grace I could not imagine ever
seeing in the US. In addition to the efficiency
of buses to get a person from one place to the next, riding atop one of them
provides a wonderful view of the city and a degree of terror as they move
within inches of other vehicles.
Then there are the cabs – which I rarely see empty and have never seen picking up a
passenger. I doubt I will take a cab at
any point during my trip here, not because of any lack of desire but more a
lack of needing to do so. Cabs in
London, while they look very cool, seem to be one of the least efficient forms
of transportation. 
Most
of the cabs I have seen, obviously there have been exceptions, are the same
design and make. After a little
research, I have learned that most are made by the London Taxi Company in
Coventry, owned by the Chinese automaker Geely.
While there are a few different cabs on the road, mostly multiple-passenger
vans, these cabs have the definite look and feel of a London cab – much the way Americans may look back fondly at the Checker
Cab of yesteryear.
While they may all be of a similar design, they certainly do not all look
alike. Many of these taxis have become
literal rolling billboards and promote travel destinations, internet services,
stage and television shows and much more.
While this advertising, reportedly intended to reduce the cost of owning
and driving a taxi, may be fun to look at, the bottom line is that they are not the most effective mode of transit
in London. The bus can move through the
city faster with its dedicated lands on many streets and, if that doesn’t work,
taking the Tube is still more efficient.
The
list of transportation options in London continues because bicycling in the
city is very common. Despite traffic
(which, as I pointed out, is not as heavy as could be expected), bicycling London
is extremely popular and a wide variety of options – from high tech road bikes to foldable commuter bikes – can be seen on the streets.
Most busy streets feature bike lanes and it appears that drivers are
very aware of the riders and yield to them accordingly.
One truly brilliant
innovation, which appears to be a cooperative effort between Barclay’s Bank and
Transport for London, the city’s mass transit system, is Cycle Hire. Cycle Hire allows a person to rent a bicycle
for the day as long as they only use it for 30 minutes at a time. The idea is to promote commuting and not recreational
use of the bikes and racks of them can be found strategically located all over
the city.
Anyone with a valid
credit card can rent a bike which is locked in a heavy-duty rack. The bikes feature fat tires for absorbing the
shocks and bumps of the road, lights front and back for visibility and baskets
for holding packages and purchases. The
bikes can be picked up in one location and returned to another of the system’s
tamper-resistant racks that both secure and protect the vehicles.
But let’s face facts, if
you aren’t in a hurry, walking is the best way to really experience London and
see the sites. With the twisting,
drunken-sailor streets, secret hidden gardens, and unusual and historic locations,
walking is hands-down the best way to
discover the city. Not that walking in London is without complications as well.
In many parts of the
city where Molly and I have wandered (and possibly all of it for that matter),
the sidewalks are made using the equivalent of backyard paving stones similar
to those you might buy at Home Depot.
This
For people travelling
with small children in strollers or individuals with mobility issues, prepare
to be challenged. Ramps leading into
buildings are few and far between and appear to be available only when it fits
the original design of the building as opposed to being an accessible
convenience. In many cases, entering stores and shops would be impossible with
a wheelchair or stroller and many of the pubs I have visited have restrooms
located in the basements of the buildings, requiring trips down very steep stairways.
Nevertheless, people
here apparently take all of this in stride, fighting their way up or down steps
or lifting strollers and children together without complaining. From all appearances, they simply accept this
challenge as part of the reality of living in London.
No comments :
Post a Comment