{"id":4267,"date":"2026-04-02T11:16:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/4267\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:16:29","slug":"im-a-swede-in-the-uk-and-theres-6-things-i-find-odd-about-driving-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/4267\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a Swede in the UK and there’s 6 things I find odd about driving in Britain’"},"content":{"rendered":"

After having lived in the UK for over seven years, reporter Alice Sjoberg has shared six thing she still finds odd about driving in the UK, having first gotten her driving licence in Sweden<\/p>\n

Alice Sjoberg Social News Reporter<\/p>\n

10:55, 02 Apr 2026Updated 11:00, 02 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

Six things I find weird when driving in the UK as a Swede<\/p>\n

As I moved over to the UK from Sweden <\/a>a few months before my 20th birthday, I had already gotten my driving licence in Sweden<\/a> and gotten comfortable behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

However, it took me four years of living in the UK, finishing uni and living in bigger cities, before I took the plunge to get my first car<\/a>, as I needed it for work. While I had gotten used to the different driving<\/a> rules as a pedestrian and as a passenger on different modes of public transport, there were still some big differences<\/a> I had to learn how to cope with as I taught myself how to drive in a new country.<\/p>\n

\"Reporter<\/p>\n

I encountered some big differences when I started driving in the UK(Image: Reporter Alice Sjoberg poses with her car keys)<\/p>\n

And there are still things I find weird about driving here, and here a my list of six things I still haven’t gotten used to, despite having driven here for almost four years, as driving abroad may be trickier than expected.<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Driving on the left side<\/p>\n

One of the most obvious differences is that Brits still insist on driving on the left side of the road, rather like the right side of the road, like 75% of the world does.<\/p>\n

As it’s a big difference to driving on the right side, mainly having to keep reminding yourself to do the opposite of what you’d normally do, such as using your left hand to change gear rather than your right hand, and driving clockwise in a roundabout rather than anticlockwise.<\/p>\n

Now, four years later, I still have moments where I find it odd to drive on the left side, especially when I have my parents visiting having them in the car with me. But I have accepted that UK don’t drive on the right side.<\/p>\n

2. Insurance<\/p>\n

Next up was something I hadn’t considered until the moment I was buying my car – just how different car insurance<\/a> works here. Not only was it a lot more expensive here than at home, it also works differently.<\/p>\n

In Sweden, drivers buy insurance for each of their vehicles instead of for the drivers of the vehicle. This means that anyone with a licence could drive your car, meaning that if you have one too many drinks at the pub, you can just ask a friend to drive it home for you.<\/p>\n

This makes a lot more sense to me, as I can wrap my head around all the different factors that is taken into account for car insurance in the UK.<\/p>\n

3. Magic Roundabout\"Magic<\/p>\n

Alice was nervous to drive through the Magic Roundabout in Swindon (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When I first got my car, I was living in Swindon – the home of one of the UK’s infamous Magic Roundabouts. This was constructed in 1972 and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. These five mini roundabouts go in an anti-clockwise direction, whilst the outer circle goes in a clockwise direction.<\/p>\n

I had gone through the roundabout several times while taking the bus, before getting my car, to get to work. But it took me almost a year of owning my car until I braved it and drove through it myself – and I hated every second of it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, most Swindon locals will rave about it, saying it’s really convenient and effective, once you know how it works.<\/p>\n

4. Driving in snow<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Northern Sweden, where I lived for 19 years until I moved to the UK, I’m no stranger to driving in snow. In fact, in order to get your driving licence in Sweden, you have to pass a special driving test where you show your skills of driving in snowy, icy, and wet conditions without losing control of the car.<\/p>\n

But when I got here, I was surprised by the traffic chaos that comes with even a few millimetres of snow. I often found myself unable to leave my home because of the long lines of traffic that was a standstill on my street.<\/p>\n

So, I’ve learned to avoid going anywhere when there’s snow outside – simply because I know I’ll get stuck somewhere in traffic.<\/p>\n

5. Driving 60mph on country roads\"Scenic<\/p>\n

Alice shared she was nervous driving down narrow country roads (stock image)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, one of the things I still can’t wrap my head around is how people are brave enough to get up to 60mph on tiny, winding country roads that barely fits one car.<\/p>\n

I’ll be going up to a comfortable 40, if that, and taking each curve as carefully as I can in order to avoid any risk of a collision.<\/p>\n

6. Red lights in roundabouts<\/p>\n

Lastly, I don’t understand the need of having traffic lights inside of a roundabout. I remember the first time I came across it, and had to hit my breaks after simply not expecting to see the lights as I was driving through the large roundabout. I had never experience something like that in Sweden before.<\/p>\n

In my head, the roundabout is already there to control traffic and let people go where they want to go as easily as possible. The roundabout should work as an alternative to traffic lights, so having both work at the same time just seem redundant to me.<\/p>\n

Have you ever driven in another country? If so, what traffic rules surprised you the most?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After having lived in the UK for over seven years, reporter Alice Sjoberg has shared six thing she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,2519,453,2520,2518,2516,2517],"class_list":["post-4267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-car-insurance","tag-cars","tag-culture-clash","tag-life-in-the-uk","tag-motoring-mishaps","tag-sweden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116334833330462394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}