Saturday, September 8, 2007

Keep left


Most of the streets here have explicit directions written on the curb. Cities don't spend time and resources on that sort of thing "just to be nice"-- I'm sure there have been many many pedestrian accidents.

Crossing streets in London is completely couterintuitive, and each time I do it I look the wrong way despite the written directions. I end up looking wildly everywhere-- right, left, up in the sky, down to the pavement-- expecting danger from all directions. I think some of this is exacerbated by the nature of the streets here too; there are very few straightforward intersections. Most streets merge, curve, peel off, join again, change from one-way to two-way and back again. It's possible even Londoners get disoriented once in a while. I'd never try to drive a car here.

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