By Sunny
London traffic does not care what occasion you are driving to. Whether it is a Valentine's weekend, an anniversary night out or a birthday surprise, the same few habits are the difference between arriving calm and arriving rattled. If you are hiring a car in London for a special day, these four tips will keep the day special.
1. Keep your distance
Stop-start traffic is the default state of London roads at rush hour. The drivers around you will brake late and change lanes without warning, so leave more space than feels necessary. A low speed bump is not dangerous, but it will end a carefully planned evening faster than anything else.
2. Stick to the speed limits
Speed limits in London change street by street, and more of the city is now 20mph than not. A few miles an hour over does not feel like much, but it lengthens your stopping distance exactly in the traffic where pedestrians and cyclists appear from nowhere. It is also the fastest way to add points and a fine to a rental agreement. The limits are signposted clearly: trust them rather than the flow of traffic.
3. Do not take risks
A special day is the worst possible day for an ambitious overtake or a squeezed parking manoeuvre. You are driving an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar streets, probably in the dark, probably slightly rushed. Build in 20 extra minutes instead. The restaurant waits, the surprise keeps, and the car comes back undamaged.
4. Let the sat nav do the routing
Driving somewhere you have never been is exactly what a sat nav is for, and a rental car is where most of us do it. Set the destination before you move off, not at the lights, and let it reroute you around the closure or jam you did not know about. If you are collecting from an airport or station, our car rental in London page covers the pickup points and what each one costs.
The last tip is the simplest: book the car from a company that gives you a clean car, clear insurance and a phone number that gets answered. Everything else about the day is hard enough already.