Driving to London, am i unnecessarily anxious ?

moon man said:
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
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Depends. I love driving in London. People are alert and observant. Five hours is a long time, though. I would take a 1 hour break just before you get to London.
 
I drive from Godalming to South Kensington every day, we leave at 6am latest, takes an hour. The drive home however can take two hours, more if there's a significant road closure. I don't mind it tbh, I used to get frustrated with the awful road craft but since I got control of my hot headedness and just chill out I find it much more relaxing.

@moon man it's not that bad to be honest, I lived in Streatham Hill for 12 years, moved out about 4 years ago. Just take it slow, chill out and don't let anyone get to you. You'll be fine :)


Protip: most of London's drivers don't know how bus lanes work, and if you're travelling after 10am and before 4pm, you can drive in most of the bus lanes. You need to know how to read the signs though, get it wrong and they'll fine you. Knowing this saves a ton of time and traffic.
 
Already been said but adding for clarity, there are a lot of new 20mph speed limits around. Not sure that all are updated on sat navs yet so just be careful about looking for speed limit signs rather than trusting what the sat nav says.

Other than that the middle stretch could well be slower than expected so I'd leave extra time for that.
 
bloodiedathame said:
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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Lived in streatham as a kid and was born in Norbury. Traffic wasn't an issue then. Different times
 
Without Sat Nav driving around London was awful… not so bad now.

Just be a little more conscious of your lanes (checking both sat nav AND the road markings / signage to verify) and you’ll be OK.

Agree that you need to be a little more assertive in London but I never found it to be unsafe. If anything, everyone else is also more alert.
 
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You'll be fine. As mentioned have a break somewhere and don't worry about the aggressive drivers being idiots.

I rarely drive to London but when I need to I follow this approach:

I over-exaggerate my intentions to change lanes or whatever manoeuvre I need to do and then just muscle in. Afterwards I over exaggerate my thank you too.

I use humour to combat stressful situations and this cheers me up :)

On the M25 I focus on staying as left as I can without getting filtered off the motorway while sticking to the variable speed limit as people fly past me on the outside.
 
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Just having a vegan sausage roll
 
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