First time using the Insta360 X4 on the London Edinburgh London route was lots of fun
have you ever visited the country where you have to ride on the opposite side of the road to which you are accustomed to then you may have experienced just how difficult this can be we recently visited the United Kingdom from Canada to ride from London to Edinburgh to unofficially follow the provisional London Edinburgh London 2025 route and experience what it is like to ride in the United Kingdom and while we encountered many challenges we would like to first discuss our experience of riding on the wrong side of the road we use public transport to travel from Heathrow to Riddle which is one of the official starting points of the London Edinburgh London and from the University College in Riddle we set off riding north to Edinburgh riding on the side of the road to which we were not accustomed to so we have to stack the bikes together it’s a bike bicycle strip while riding on the opposite side of the road may seem like a simple thing to do it can be extremely challenging for many reasons which I will discuss here the first reason is that once you become accustomed to riding or driving on a particular side of the road it becomes instinctive once you have done that for long enough you stop thinking about which side of the road you have to either ride or drive on it’s as instinctive as deciding which hand to use to hold your toothbrush to brush your teeth very few people actually have to make that decision although I have met a few that have to rather than thinking about whether you are driving on the correct side of the road you as a driver of a vehicle or a cyclist concern yourself with navigating all the obstacles you may encounter on the road be that either road furniture other road users unexpected detours and of course following all the road ordinances in fact while we were riding through Scotland in May this year we came across an article published by the BBC regarding an increase in the number of road accidents caused by tourists riding on the wrong side of the road this article reported that there were at least 34 accidents caused by tourists driving on the wrong side of the road in 2023 an increase from 24 accidents caused from the same reason in 2022 they noted in the article that the majority of the visitors to Scotland where driving on the left side of the road is mandatory were from the United States and Europe where motorists drive on the right side of the road one of the reasons that was given for this alarming trend was that on some of the rural roads in Scotland there were few clues for motorists to remember to stay left and therefore motorists would instinctively start to drive on the side of the road to which they were most accustomed by this I presume they meant that there were few if any road signs or road markings to indicate on which side of the road the motorist should drive this is not to suggest that signs saying stay left were constantly required but just even regulatory or warning signs facing and posted on the side of travel would definitely be a good visual reminder of which side of the road to stay on without these subtle clues they felt that motorists probably would forget on which side of the road to drive and of course stray onto the wrong side of the road in addition they suggested that fatigue may play a role and that as motorists became mentally fatigued they would forget on which side of the road to drive three interventions that were suggested to reduce the risk of driving on the wrong side of the road included educating drivers of the importance of staying left when collecting their vehicles from the rental companies encouraging drivers to wear a wristband that would be a visual reminder to stay left when driving in the United Kingdom and thirdly asking passengers in the vehicle to remind the driver to stay left at all times they hoped that these three interventions may help to reduce the likelihood of drivers driving on the wrong side of the road and thereby reduce the risk of accidents in future years i will admit that during our unofficial reconnaissance of the Aliel route I on a few occasions found myself riding on the wrong side of the road one of these situations was particularly perilous i had been riding on a narrow quiet rud road without any road markings and came to an intersection where I had to turn left this was a very busy intersection and I concerned myself with how I would navigate this traffic intersection safely i was so focused on the traffic that I forgot that to turn left I just had to join the traffic immediately to my left and did not have to cross the intersection however as I had forgotten on which side of the road I was actually supposed to ride this probably made worse by jet lag and distracted by the heavy traffic focused on navigating this busy intersection rather than remembering to immediately turn left as soon as I encountered a low in the traffic volume I launched myself across the intersection and turned left onto the opposite side of the road directly into oncoming traffic once I had successfully reached the opposite side of the road and looked at the approaching traffic I wondered for an instant what they were doing on my side of the road it did not immediately register with me that I was on the wrong side of the road it was only once Jermaine shouted at me to get onto the left side of the road that I realized my mistake i quickly diverted to the left side of the road fortunately the traffic volume was low and the approaching traffic was far away enough for me to correct my mistake things could have been much worse had I not been made aware of my mistake early this was not the only time that I strayed onto the wrong side of the road once in a residential zone there were cars parked in the wrong direction on both sides of the road the car on the left side of the road faced me while the car on the right side of the road faced away from me my instinct was to ride on the side of the road with the car facing away from me it was only a loud auditory reminder from Germaine that once again reminded me to stay left there were a few other occasions when I made the mistake of riding on the wrong side of the road but I will not inundate you with the details of those errors i think these two examples will suffice the main reasons I feel that I made these errors of riding on the wrong side of the road were the following when distracted by road traffic challenges I defaulted to the side that I was most accustomed to riding on a lack of cues to remind me of the correct side of the road on which to stay would add to my default to the incorrect side confusing visual cues would often make riding on the correct side of the road a challenge fatigue in this situation compounded by jet lag was also a factor in riding on the wrong side of the road this fatigue does not incorporate the mental fatigue that is associated with severe sleep deprivation and the physical exhaustion that you may encounter when riding a grand rande of 1,200 km or longer so with these extra challenges I can imagine that this would cause a much greater risk of straying onto the wrong side of the road during a grand rande i found that the risk of riding on the wrong side of the road was highest during the first three days of our reconnaissance and reduced with each day thereafter the longer we were on the road and the more we became accustomed to riding on the left side of the road the less frequently I strayed onto the right some suggestions to help you to stay left while on a bicycle include the following arrive in the United Kingdom early to allow you to overcome the jet lag and accustom yourself to the local time zones as soon as you arrive in the United Kingdom practice riding on the left side of the road to become accustomed to riding on the left side of the road and negotiate traffic intersections where you will be required to stay left use visual clues such as either a marker or a light on your handlebars or brake hoods or on your wrist to remind you to stay left ask your riding companions to correct you if you do stray onto the right side of the road do not rely on visual cues as they may be absent on quiet roads or misleading in some of the residential areas be aware that as fatigue sets in that remembering to stay on the left side of the road may become more difficult so try to rest well at controls to combat fatigue let me know what your experiences are of riding on the opposite side of the road to which you are accustomed to and what precautions you have taken to avoid straying onto the wrong side of the road please like and subscribe and until the next time we meet please ride safely and on the correct side of the road