"Londoners drive abreast, packed nose to tail and side to side, and they have gradually evolved a complicated code of their own, as different from the Highway Code as contract bridge conventions are from the simple rules of auction.
"The selection of traffic lane, the right of way, all seems to be governed by bids, leads and responses. It is only by this queer but on the whole practical code that London traffic avoids bogging down completely in one solid mass."
This was the situation as Autocar found it in 1952, and not dissimilar to that which we find today in the capital.
What is notably different, however, is that whereas London traffic is today strictly controlled, under constant surveillance and threat of fines and punishment, in the 1950s the authorities "tolerated and even approved unofficially" of the mass bending of certain rules.
Back then, lanes were rarely demarcated and vehicles were all far narrower, such that a bus, a truck and a car might breathe three-wide on a road where today two cars would feel squeezed. Traffic lights were quite rare. And flashing indicators weren't yet in use: instead drivers would drop 'trafficator' arms, if fitted, or else perform hand signals.
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Autocar explained: "The left lane will be used by very slow vehicles, anything that will be stopping shortly and, above all, anything that is planning to turn off to the left. The outside lane traffic includes those who wish to turn off to the right in due course.
"The operation of working one's way over into the correct lane is carried out well in advance, in the clearer stretches between intersections and major obstacles, and is done by tending or veering a little that way while waiting for a gap, or for a kind soul to hang back a little and let one into the desired stream. It is a delicate compromise between forcing and coaxing one's way in but it is better to coax.
"Thrusters arbitrarily force to and fro according to which lane seems to have a temporary advantage. Generally this is regarded as selfish. As far as possible, one should stick loyally to one's lane, says public opinion, and share its fortunes but leave the rebuke or active resisting of offenders to others."
All British drivers were expected to know the hand signals for right and left turns, but Londoners knew a few unofficial ones too. "A hand stretched out and palm to the rear in a restraining gesture" meant to hold back for a pedestrian crossing out of view in front; another relayed that a driver was stuck just beyond the lights; a nod of the head ushered a waiting driver out of a side road.
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