Driving on the Wrong Side of Everything: My First London Adventure
Make Peace With Life™ Goes to London — Part 1: Cars, Cyclists, Confusion, and a Metaphysical Lesson in Letting Go
I've traveled to some pretty amazing places in my life, but my recent trip to London, England, introduced me to an entirely new spiritual challenge.
Driving on the wrong side of EVERYTHING!
Okay, before my British friends start throwing crumpets at me, I understand that technically I was the one driving on the unfamiliar side. But after spending my entire life driving in the United States, suddenly switching sides of the road felt like somebody had taken my brain, shaken it like a snow globe, and handed it back with the instructions written in British English.
Welcome to the first installment of my Make Peace With Life™ London Adventures, where I'll be sharing some of the incredible places, unusual experiences, history, energy, and occasional questionable decisions from my recent trip across the pond.
And we're starting with what might have been my greatest challenge.
Surviving British traffic without accidentally becoming a permanent London attraction.
First Challenge: The Steering Wheel Is on the Wrong Side!
When I picked up my rental car, I immediately encountered my first problem.
The steering wheel was on the right side of the car.
Now, logically, I knew this was going to happen. I'd read about it. I'd prepared myself mentally. I even understood the concept.
But knowing something and actually experiencing it are two very different things.
It reminded me of those people who say they're perfectly comfortable with heights until they're standing on the edge of a cliff looking down.
Suddenly, confidence becomes a very negotiable concept.
One thing that actually helped was that sitting on the right side of the car kept me, the driver, positioned toward the center of the road, just as I'm accustomed to in America.
That little bit of familiarity was comforting.
The problem was that everything else seemed determined to test my spiritual development.
My sense of where the vehicle belonged in the lane needed some serious recalibration. The mirrors were in unfamiliar positions, the controls required a little extra thought, and my brain kept insisting that something was terribly wrong.
And if you've ever tried to change a lifelong habit, you know how stubborn the human mind can be.
My brain had approximately forty years of driving experience, and it wasn't particularly interested in taking instructions from the British.
Passing Cars: My Brain Needed a Software Update
Driving on the highway, or motorway as the British call it, introduced another adventure.
In the United States, we're accustomed to passing slower vehicles on the left.
In England, where traffic keeps left, the normal passing lane is on the right.
Simple enough, right?
Not when your subconscious has spent decades telling you the exact opposite.
Every time I needed to pass another vehicle, there was a brief conversation between my logical brain and my American driving instincts.
Logical Brain: "Move right to pass."
American Brain: "Absolutely not! That's where the slow people belong!"
Logical Brain: "We're in England."
American Brain: "I DON'T CARE WHERE WE ARE!"
Eventually, the two sides of my brain developed a working relationship, although I suspect they still aren't speaking socially.
And then came the roundabouts.
England loves roundabouts.
I mean, really loves them.
I started wondering whether the British government receives some kind of financial incentive every time somebody installs another traffic circle.
Instead of approaching from the direction my American brain expected, I had to remember that traffic circulates clockwise and that vehicles already in the roundabout generally have priority.
It became a wonderful exercise in concentration, awareness, and occasionally wondering whether I was about to spend the rest of my vacation driving in circles.
Twenty Miles Per Hour? My Bicycle Has Ambitions!
Another adjustment was the speed limit.
In many parts of central London, the posted speed limit is just 20 miles per hour.
That's right. Twenty.
Not everywhere in London, of course, but on many city streets.
For an American accustomed to wider roads and higher speed limits, that takes some getting used to.
At first, I thought my rental car might have accidentally slipped into some kind of senior citizen parade mode.
But after navigating London's narrow streets, buses, pedestrians, cyclists, taxis, delivery vehicles, and the occasional person apparently attempting to cross the road using nothing but positive thinking, I began to understand the reasoning.
Twenty miles per hour can feel plenty fast when your surroundings resemble a moving obstacle course.
And speaking of obstacles...
The Cyclists! The Cyclists! They're Everywhere!
London has a very active cycling culture, which I genuinely appreciate.
I enjoy riding my bike myself.
But riding a bicycle and driving a car surrounded by bicycles are two completely different spiritual experiences.
In London, cyclists can appear beside you, in front of you, behind you, or seemingly materialize out of another dimension.
There are dedicated cycle lanes, cyclists sharing road space, bicycle traffic signals, and plenty of situations where you need to be particularly alert when turning.
Compared with many places I've driven in the United States, London required me to pay much closer attention to the relationship between cars and bicycles.
And because I was already driving on the opposite side of the road, my brain was working overtime.
At one point, I started feeling like I needed a co-pilot, an air traffic controller, and perhaps a metaphysical traffic guardian assigned specifically to my rental car.
My third eye was wide open, and frankly, my other two eyes were getting exhausted.
But it also gave me a greater appreciation for how people share limited road space in a busy historic city.
London wasn't designed around modern automobiles. Its streets developed over centuries, long before anyone imagined millions of people trying to squeeze cars, buses, taxis, delivery vans, bicycles, and tourists into the same space.
And trust me, those streets haven't magically expanded to accommodate everybody.
Why Do the British Drive on the Left Anyway?
Naturally, I became curious about why England insists on doing things differently.
It turns out there's a fascinating historical explanation.
One commonly cited theory traces left-side travel back to the days when people traveled by horseback.
Because most people were right-handed, keeping to the left may have allowed riders to keep their sword hand closer to approaching travelers.
Nothing says "Welcome to England" quite like arranging traffic patterns around the possibility of somebody challenging you to a sword fight.
Britain eventually formalized left-side road travel through laws and regulations, including the Highway Act of 1835, which established the rule more broadly for roads in Great Britain.
Meanwhile, many countries in continental Europe adopted right-side travel, influenced by different transportation practices and historical developments, including the Napoleonic era.
And here's something interesting: Britain isn't actually one of only a handful of places that drives on the left. Roughly a third of the world's countries and territories follow left-side traffic, including Australia, Japan, India, and New Zealand.
So maybe the British aren't strange.
Maybe Americans are simply members of a different traffic tribe.
Either way, I was grateful nobody expected me to carry a sword while navigating the roundabouts.
The Great Rental Car Door Confusion
Now, here's something I wasn't fully prepared for.
How many times I walked to the wrong side of the car to get in!
You would think that after driving around London for a while, my brain would remember that the driver's seat was on the right.
Nope.
Apparently, decades of habit are stronger than logic.
I'd walk confidently toward the car, reach for the door, and suddenly realize I was standing on the passenger side.
Again.
Sometimes I'd even open the door before realizing my mistake.
I began wondering whether the rental car was secretly moving its steering wheel when I wasn't looking.
And the funniest part was that this happened repeatedly.
It didn't matter how many times I reminded myself.
My feet apparently had their own GPS system, and that GPS was permanently programmed for America.
It was a great reminder of just how deeply our everyday habits become embedded in us.
We do so many things automatically that we rarely question them.
Until we travel somewhere that forces us to reconsider almost everything.
My Greatest London Discovery: You Don't Really Need a Car!
After experiencing the joys of London driving, I came to one very important conclusion.
If you're spending your time exploring London itself, you probably don't need a rental car.
In fact, having a car can make things considerably more complicated.
Between traffic, parking, restricted roads, congestion charges, possible emissions-related charges, and the general challenge of navigating a busy historic city, driving can become more of a burden than a convenience.
I quickly discovered that walking and using London's public transportation system were often easier, faster, and far less stressful.
The London Underground, affectionately known as the Tube, is an incredible way to move around the city.
You can travel between neighborhoods, historic landmarks, markets, museums, and countless attractions without worrying about parking or whether your brain is about to send you down the wrong side of the street.
And London is a wonderful walking city.
Some of my favorite experiences came simply from exploring on foot, discovering interesting streets, historic buildings, unusual shops, and places I might have missed completely if I'd been concentrating on traffic.
Walking also allows you to experience the city's energy in a completely different way.
You hear conversations.
You notice architecture.
You discover little pubs tucked away on side streets.
You feel the atmosphere of neighborhoods that have been evolving for centuries.
And best of all, you don't have to worry about which side of the vehicle contains the steering wheel.
For trips outside London, however, a car can be extremely useful.
Visiting places like Stonehenge, Salisbury, Dover Castle, and other destinations beyond the city can be a wonderful opportunity to explore the English countryside on your own schedule.
That's where I found having a rental car made much more sense.
My travel recommendation: Use public transportation and your own two feet in London, and consider a rental car when exploring destinations outside the city.
Your nerves, wallet, and spiritual energy reserves may thank you.
The Metaphysical Lesson: Sometimes You Have to Change Sides
Of course, I couldn't experience all this without finding a metaphysical lesson hiding somewhere among the traffic circles and bicycle lanes.
And the lesson was surprisingly simple.
Just because you've always done something one way doesn't mean it's the only way—or even the best way.
Think about it.
We develop habits throughout our lives.
We take the same routes, follow the same routines, approach problems the same way, and often resist anything that challenges our familiar perspective.
Then something comes along and flips our world around.
Suddenly, we're forced to see things differently.
Driving in England was a wonderful reminder that sometimes personal growth begins when we're pushed outside our comfort zones.
At first, everything feels uncomfortable.
Our minds resist.
Our instincts complain.
Our internal GPS screams, "RECALCULATING!"
But eventually, we adapt.
We discover that we are capable of more than we realized.
And perhaps most importantly, we learn that our familiar way of doing things isn't necessarily the only correct way.
Sometimes you have to change your perspective.
Sometimes you have to slow down.
Sometimes you have to share the road with people traveling differently than you.
And sometimes you have to admit that walking is a whole lot easier than driving.
London, You Challenged Me—and I Loved It!
Despite the challenges, I wouldn't trade the experience.
Driving in England became one of those memorable travel adventures that gave me something to laugh about, something to learn from, and something to appreciate.
It forced me to be present.
I couldn't drive on autopilot.
I had to concentrate, adapt, and stay aware of everything happening around me.
And isn't that something we could all use a little more of in everyday life?
Too often, we move through our routines without really noticing what we're doing.
Travel has a wonderful way of waking us up.
It reminds us that the world is bigger than our familiar surroundings and that there's tremendous value in experiencing life from a different perspective.
Even if that perspective happens to be from the right side of a rental car.
This is only the beginning of my Make Peace With Life™ London Adventures.
In future posts, I'll be sharing more of my experiences exploring London's incredible history, haunted locations, famous landmarks, unusual attractions, and the remarkable energy I encountered throughout the trip.
But for now, I'll leave you with one final thought.
Sometimes life asks us to change direction.
Sometimes it asks us to slow down.
And sometimes it puts the steering wheel on the other side of the car just to see whether we're paying attention.
Whatever the challenge, keep exploring, keep laughing, and remember that there's more than one way to get where you're going.
That's how you Make Peace With Life™.
And if you ever see me walking toward the passenger side of a British rental car, don't worry.
I'm not confused.
I'm just giving my American brain one more opportunity for spiritual growth.
