Driving on the Left

I read with considerable amusement the glib article on driving in England May 3. While I realize that free-lance writers are often known to bend the truth, I sorely doubt that writer Bob O’Sullivan ever drove in England at all. He mentions glancing at his speedometer and being “horrified” at its reading of 80, and then, of course, realizing that it was in kilometers. If his car was a right-hand drive, then it was a British car, and the United Kingdom, just as the U.S.A., calibrates its speedometers and measures its distances in miles. The rest of Europe, as far as I know, calibrates and measures in kilometers.

And taking four hours from Gatwick Airport to central London, even in heavy traffic, is impossible. Last year we drove from Luton 25 miles west of London, through the heart of London and all the way east to Dover in fewer than four hours.

So I have to guess that, for a free-lance writer, inventing a cute fantasy about driving in the U.K. is a piece of cake.

WHITLEY H. HARRIS

Ojai Valley