Driving to London, am i unnecessarily anxious ?

moon man

moon man

moon man

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St Breward Cornwall
As title i am driving to South Norwood from Cornwall , the last time i got a little intimidated with the whole experience , thinking tomorrow a better option than today due to Crystal palace game ? will i survive this journey , how straightforward is it and when a good time to set off ?
(5 hours apparently) my youngest has bought a house there and its got lots of parking so i can hopefully leave it and switch to public transport once there ,especially as mine isn't ulez friendly
 
Piece of **** with decent sat nav, but if you are a nervy driver not much is going to suddenly cure that.

Are you worried about the whole journey or specifically driving in London? South Norwood is nowhere near central London and looks like it's easy from the M25 down the A232.

I find driving in Cornwall more difficult because of all the tiny country roads. If you can deal with those you can deal with most things.

London on a weekend is generally not too bad, but Sunday will be the quieter day.
 
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I find Cornwall worse, although for different reasons. Narrow roads, few adhering to a speed limit. In London you’ll just get more horns and beeping, just ignore. If you aren’t even going into the ulez zone then it’s easy.
 
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VincentHanna said:
Piece of **** with decent sat nav, but if you are a nervy driver not much is going to suddenly cure that.

Are you worried about the whole journey or specifically driving in London? South Norwood is nowhere near central London and looks like it's easy from the M25 down the A232.

I find driving in Cornwall more difficult because of all the tiny country roads. If you can deal with those you can deal with most things.
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yes more the London bit but i ended up going through Chelsea last time i visited (not this house ) and just wasn't comfortable with it, i know what you mean about the roads here though
 
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I find you have to be more aggressive than you otherwise would be or people won't let you in etc. I also find the speed limited (if you have one) to be a valuable tool, the A13 in to east London changes speed limits about 30 times.
 
Adam said:
I find you have to be more aggressive than you otherwise would be or people won't let you in etc. I also find the speed limited (if you have one) to be a valuable tool, the A13 in to east London changes speed limits about 30 times.
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Yeah that is the one thing that's different with London, you have to be a bit more assertive when pulling out, changing lanes etc as people are more selfish and won't give you an inch.
 
moon man said:
i do tend to avoid confrontation when driving, even pulling over when tailgated, guessing i will get nowhere fast if i don't change that then
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You are overthinking it, with an attitude like that you are setting yourself up to have a miserable time.
 
You just have to remember that that part of London doesn't recognise UK road regulations and only 7% of the locals have a licence, so if you drive like you own an Audi, you will be fine :D

Take your time and try to avoid the busy times (usually when supermarkets open and feeding times in the evening) and area's with things like an Ikea or ASDA..
 
Driving to and in to London, up until the circular roads is easy as pie but beyond that, park up and use public transport. I would never drive in central London ever, waste of time, frustrating, and costly. It's not worth the stress.
 
darkgen said:
Driving to and in to London, up until the circular roads is easy as pie but beyond that, park up and use public transport. I would never drive in central London ever, waste of time, frustrating, and costly. It's not worth the stress.
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yep planning to park up then do that in-between giving some diy help with the new house
 
Getting to South Norwood will be easy, you'll spend 4 to 5 hours on major A roads and motorways, the last bit after the M25 is mostly on the A23, then depending on the exact address a few regular city suburb type streets. You won't have to go anywhere near central London.

The hardest part will be staying awake after 4 hours on the A30 and A303 :p
 
Kenai said:
The hardest part will be staying awake after 4 hours on the A30 and A303 :p
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I actually enjoy that LOL.

Even with driving since 2001 I still find roundabouts which aren't just your regular 1-2 lanes, 3 or 4 exits, super stressful though, everything else is a breeze, but I really struggle with some new designs which to me aren't intuitive at all or not the first time.
 
No, Londoner attitudes mixed with cameras at every corner waiting to fine/tax you for something.
 
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bloodiedathame said:
Norwood is ok. Any further north than that and it's starts to get interesting. North of the river is where it's worst imo.
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A few years back now but I used to pass through that area commuting from Bromley to Croydon - some days at rush hour it was pretty crazy. More than once had what was nominally a 30 minute journey take 3-4 hours :s
 
Rroff said:
A few years back now but I used to pass through that area commuting from Bromley to Croydon - some days at rush hour it was pretty crazy. More than once had what was nominally a 30 minute journey take 3-4 hours :s
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I used to do Purley to Battersea, Shoreditch, Soho daily on the motorbike for years. Through Streatham, Brixton etc. Then the same thing from Guildford which was slightly easier.

In the car though, I did from Guildford to Kentish Town once, swore I'd never do it again. Used to drive to Norbury regularly though which wasn't too bad, and not a million miles from Norwood.
 
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