andamu

Belatedly the rule to which the Wells post alluded.

Rule #5: Navigating inside towns will be hell – on foot is frequently easier.

Generally street names are really well-marked inside cities: white signs with big black letters, frequently mounted on the sides of buildings.
The exception is of course the intersection where you are unsure where to go, especially when you are feeling pressured by the volume of traffic consisting of competent drivers who know where they are going and want to get there as soon as possible.

The physical aspects of the streets also contribute to the problem. Remember, towns were built and roads laid out many centuries before the motor car and the population explosion brought large traffic volumes roaring through town, so they are very narrow. Also, towns grew organically so the streets are crooked and winding: no organized grid layout here.

In an attempt to reconcile the narrowness of the streets with the volume of traffic, many roads are one way. This is the other gotcha of navigation, because just when you think you know where you are going, with all the signs boldly visible, you run into a one way in the other direction.
Naturally, since you are used to the grid layout, you try to navigate around it, but now you keep running into crooked streets, odd-angled intersections and other one ways that prevent you from getting where you want to go. After 20 minutes of this, you finally break out of the maze – and land back right where you started: at the first one way that caused all the trouble.

Most big towns have Park & Rides prominently marked among the main roads leading into town: USE THEM!
The buses are regular, the experience is inexpensive, and despite the fact that buses move slower than a car, they will get there much faster than you can because they know where they are going and they frequently have special lanes and privileges.
If asked, the bus driver will tell you exactly where to get off and, more importantly, where to stand to catch the return bus. On top of that you will not have to search forever to find a tiny parking spot into which you squeeze the car with (seemingly) scarcely an inch to spare, and then pay an exorbitant parking fee for the honor.

Be forewarned: All bets are off if you need to venture into residential areas.
Except for modern developments, the houses are packed row upon row, many of them terraces (what are called townhouses in the U.S.), with no driveways or garages since cars were not even a twinkle in someone’s eye when they were built.
This results in two way streets where it would have been barely comfortable moving past traffic in the opposite direction under the best of circumstances, now lined solidly trunk to hood (or boot to bonnet) by the residents’ vehicles on both sides of the road. Good luck!

A word to the wise: Don’t even consider driving in London.
On the outskirts and the ring roads it is still manageable, if slow-going, so picking up and dropping off a rental vehicle for your extended stays outside London should be fine. But inside the city you will find all the problems mentioned above, to the nth degree, and for the most part parking is non-existent.
Public transport on the other hand is ubiquitous, regular, inexpensive if done right, and will take you from just about anywhere to just about everywhere.
The trick is to buy your first ticket of the day after rush hour, i.e. after 9 a.m. This allows you to get an all-day pass for all public transport – Underground, buses and trains – dirt cheap; we stayed way out in Zone 4 and our daily passes were around £ 2.50 each. You would easily pay double that for your first half-an-hour of parking. If you could find any.