I try not to drive or take taxis around London. The Underground works better than its detractors claim and the city, with its green spaces and layers of history, rewards the walker. But the main reason I avoid London’s roads is that they can drive you mad.

It is not the other motorists. London’s drivers are, with some exceptions, pretty courteous. You can count on someone letting you into a busy lane. That civility is all the more remarkable given that those drivers are mostly going nowhere.