"If you're looking at somewhere like Brandon (you mentioned that in another post), I wouldn't think that driving would be too much of a frightener, and you could catch the train to Cambridge, Peterborough or Norwich if there wasn't work locally in your field."
My husband and his first wife lived in Brandon and it does seem like a "quieter" place to drive. His ex said that she would drive in town when they lived there......she said if she could do it, so could I and she was surprised with my trip #2 that I still didn't try
Although she said it took her a few months of living there before she got up the guts to drive. She would drive from Brandon to Lakenheath for the commissary, etc.
Although, I do know I would rather drive in the UK than Paris any day........talk about crazy, and dangerous. Mike and I were in Paris on New Year's Eve and Day and down by the Arc de Triomphe in the evening----oh my gosh----people driving there were nuts!! Apparently this was supposed to to be a roundabout around the Arc but there were few to no signs, no lines, no nothing -- just chaos. Pedestrians were running through traffic, people on bicycles weaving through traffic, and cars, and there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to when drivers entered the roundabout and they all drove as fast as they could. It was entertaining to sit on the bench and watch it all happen, and there were surprisingly few traffic mishaps.
Speaking of trains, etc., I am impressed with the public transportation in the UK, as well as France. I live on the west coast of the states and people, particularly where I live, look at you funny if you actually take a bus. In Seattle, the closest metropolitan area to where I live, there is no subway system but it is more commonplace to take the Seattle Metro (bus). I live in a rural area 3 hours away from there and there is public transit but it isn't very common for folks to ride it even though it is quite cheap -- 50 cents per ride and one can transfer all over 3 counties for free. It is far more common for people to find the biggest SUV gas guzzler they can find, use it to commute to work, and then wonder why they spend so much money on fuel. I must admit that I own a Ford Explorer so I guess I'm the pot calling the kettle black
I did ride the bus a lot last summer and my co-workers thought it was strange.......which is pretty much the common attitude about public transportation.
There is also taxi service here but it is very expensive and the most who use it are those who are to drunk to drive -- which is good since it is far better than choosing to drive themselves. It's unfortunate that it is so expensive though, maybe more would use their services if not. In all, as probably many on this board know, public transportation in the states are not very accomodating to their customers and routes are usually limited, depending on where one lives. IMO, even Seattle's public transportation isn't that great for being the largest city in the state.
Well, me driving will need to be placed on the agenda for trip #3!!
Heather