Maybe it's a British Thing Pt. 2

Back when horses were the best form of transport, carrying a sword was not seen as dangerous and eccentric, and most normal people were right handed, people started to chose a side. To drive on.
I can say with no historical fact or reference, and based mostly on the 5th grader who edited wikipedia, that the UK started to drive on the left because they wanted to be friendly and shake right hands, or wanted to be able to draw their swords without any interference when riding past each other. Reasons for driving on the right are even more fraught with inaccuracy and range from Napoleon's left handedness, to reduce fights among marching armies, and just plain to get back at the UK as one last act of defiance. I prefer the Napoleon idea, especially has France later owned a large chunk of the US and Canada, and maybe it just filtered through all of North America. Who knows?! But back to the point. I mean, to the point in the first place.
They drive on the left here, which takes some getting used to. After many hours of walking, driving, riding in cars, crossing the street, and riding the bike, I'm pretty well acclimated to this UK quirk. It's cool. But I know I'm going to be very confused when I go back to driving. Fortunately, at my work it's kind of okay to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Other than the 'other' side of the road, there are some good things about the UK driving system. Firstly, they have almost no stop signs. This is that utopian society that I have long dreamt of, where no one really needs to ever come to a complete stop. They don't need the 'left turn on red after stop' rule because there aren't any stop signs! Brilliant.

Far less brilliant and fraught with danger and uncertainty are roundabouts. Mini roundabouts might as well not even exist- does anyone bother driving around them? And then, the roundabouts get bigger. 4, 5, 11 exits; it's ridiculous! And with almost as many lanes, does anyone actually know what's going on, or is everyone just feeling their way around, hoping to find the right exit without dying. There is so much indicating and yielding and fist shaking, it's just too much. I love the ones that have clearly gotten out of control, so much that they had to put traffic signals at each exit. Just look at this picture of Swindon's 'magic roundabout.' I rest my case.

The UK is also full of narrow, winding roads, lined by a stone wall hidden by a hedge with passing places only one every three miles. These roads would be great fun if there was a guarantee of no oncoming traffic, and no campervans. Sadly, there is oncoming traffic and always at the wrong time. Just widen the roads for God's sake. Less people would die, and there would be far less pee stains on rental car seats.

At home if I see livestock on the road, I make an effort to contact the farmer so that he can save his loose cow from almost imminent death. But here, the public is welcomed onto pastures for an up-close tour of the country. It's like a UK safari. If you stop and dangle some hay out of the window, there will be sheep crawling all over your Land Rover. People should capitalise on this stuff.

Oh, and kudos to everyone here because they all drive manual. (If you're curious, everything in cars here is the same as American cars, just on the other side. The gearbox is the same layout, the pedals in the same order, even the key goes in on the right.) Automatic cars are alien to them and I even talked to an ambulanceman who turned his nose up at automatic ambulances. Seriously, I could do with less things to think about when driving an ambulance and I don't even want to imagine the kind of ride I'd get if our ambulances were manual.

So, UK driving is okay with me. I can't complain too much- they don't have 4-way stops here, cannot proceed through a red light because they're turning, or any of the other weirdness of the US. Who am I to say they're wrong?