Jonathan Thomas (00:21)
welcome to the Anglotopia podcast, the podcast where we explore British travel history and culture. I'm your host, Jonathan Thomas. And this week we're going to talk about driving in the UK. So if you've ever thought about renting a car in Britain, or maybe you've been too nervous to even consider it, today's episode is for you.

Driving in the UK terrifies a lot of Americans, the left-hand side of the road, roundabouts everywhere, those narrow country lanes, speed cameras that seem to catch everything. It can feel overwhelming before you even pick up the rental car keys, or the hire car keys, as the British would say. But here's the thing, with the right guidance, driving in Britain opens up the country in ways that trains and buses simply can't. You can explore the Yorkshire Dales at your own pace, find the hidden Cotswolds villages, or chase down...

an obscure castle on a whim that's in the middle of literally nowhere. It's one of the best ways to experience the real Britain. And one of our most commented on podcasts ever was the one where I talked about driving in Britain and gave my tips for it. And that's, it's the most commented one because so many people had to tell me how I got everything wrong in that podcast. So now we're going to set the record straight with a former British traffic cop. So to help demystify all of this, I'm today, I'm speaking with Ben Pearson.

a retired traffic officer who spent 19 years with West Yorkshire Police's elite roads policing unit. You might recognize him from the British Channel 5's Police Interceptors, where he appeared in three series. Since his retirement in 2020, Ben has become a bestselling author, successful YouTuber with over 300,000 followers across all his platforms, become a mental health advocate and a TV expert. He's also co-created the Code Zero

mental health app for emergency service workers and runs the 1965 PTSD awareness charity. So today Ben is going to give us the insider's view on driving in Britain and what Americans get wrong and how to handle roundabouts and what happens if you get stopped or caught speeding and plenty of tips to keep you safe on Britain's roads. Plus you'll hear about his remarkable journey from the police to his new chapter in his life. So welcome to the podcast, Ben.

Ben Pearson (02:29)
Thank very much for having me Jonathan. And as I said, if people can't understand me, I do apologize.

Jonathan Thomas (02:35)
Yes, he's from Yorkshire and he's got a very thick Yorkshire accent and our subtitles will do their best to keep up with them.

Ben Pearson (02:41)
Ha

Jonathan Thomas (02:41)
So, let's start at the beginning. How did you end up being a police officer? You grew up in the Bradford area. What drew you to the police force? And specifically, how did you end up in roads policing?

Ben Pearson (02:53)
Yeah. So I grew up in, I'm born in 76. So I grew up obviously at late seventies, early eighties. And for us over here, we were inundated with shows like the A-Team, Chips, TGO, Hooker, all the cheesy American eighties TV. And for us over here in England, we were so far behind on TV series compared to what you had. It drew everyone in on a Saturday night TV, six o'clock in the evening. These shows came on.

And it just spread like wildfire for us. And it were ever since I saw Frank Punsherello on that Kawasaki coming off that slip road onto the, I think it's a freeway you call it. And that baseline kicks in. It just sent me on the path that I thought I've got to be a police officer. It's something I wanted to do. And I think I'm not right sure. I've been speaking to some American police officers before and there's a little bit of a disbrecon, disbrecon, dis

Discrep- discrepancy, sorry for my English, even though I'm English, on what we do. So people think a traffic officer just is one of these, like a bit of a meter maid or things like that. We specialize in high speed pursuit. So we're more like the highway patrol. We specialize in high speed, high speed pursuits, fatal collisions, and then getting the criminals off the road. So we deal with two in one burglaries where the-

House is stolen for the car keys and the cars are stolen. So we have task squads for things like that. our expertise role is all based on advanced driving, high speed driving and taking the criminals off the road. Just so your colleagues and out there and your friends don't think I'd win those little special buggies that you see inside a road and just slap tickets on a window. It's a very good job to have over here. It's a very fast job and it's a very dangerous job.

And ever since I've run it, I've just loved it from day one, helping members of the public, dealing with violent and dangerous criminals and having some of the fastest pursuits we've had in West Yorkshire. yeah. And I came out in 2020 after being diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. I just dealt with too many dead children and I just wanted a change of life. So yeah, I've moved on and all the better for it.

Jonathan Thomas (05:13)
I will say growing up when we would get sick from and had to stay home from school, number one thing you could look forward to was reruns of chips that would be on in the morning on repeat. I love that show. But my wife and I did a year in California a few years ago for her work and I got pulled over by a California Highway Patrol man and I was like, I was so excited to be pulled over by him even though I was getting a speeding ticket. But I was like, like it, I have your autograph.

Ben Pearson (05:25)
Yes.

Jonathan Thomas (05:43)
Love chips growing up.

Ben Pearson (05:43)
Well,

saying that, I went to Florida 10 years ago and obviously I'm an expert in British traffic law and I know nothing about American law. And then I was sat in an area in Davenport, massive lanes, a school bus came the other way, indicated and stopped. And I drove past at five miles an hour and people were swearing at me, shouting at me. I had no idea what going on.

And then two seconds later, I've got a phone before and I'll show you. I got pulled over by a cop. And then as we do in England, we'll go into this as we do in England, we get out of the car being very English. Hello. I'm a bit stupid. I'm from England. And I got out like, hello. Uh, and I got shouted at, stay in your car. Show me your hands. And I was, I were a bit like, this has gone a bit wrong very quickly. His hands were on hip. Um, and it got his roller deck sound.

gave me a ticket, he asked for some ID. The only ID I had on me the time was my police badge. I showed him it and he was literally like, yo man, high five. And still give him the ticket though at the end of the day. still do it. It's still my fault, but dealing with American police is completely different to dealing with British police. And I felt me and myself as a cop, I felt very intimidated, not negatively, not badly, as in they're there to do a job.

He did his job with such professionalism and it was me that was in the wrong. I took it on the chin ⁓ and it was just a pleasure to meet a brother from a different law enforcement agency. But yes, we all get it wrong. So this is not going to be something where I can stand on a pedestal and tell you, you won't get it wrong. We all get it wrong. So yeah, I'm ready to educate some American drivers, but I need some American drivers to educate me as well.

Jonathan Thomas (07:37)
So let's take it back to what it's like being a UK traffic officer. said that there's a lot of high speed pursuits. And so what was it like day to day? What did a typical shift involve? And how long was a typical shift, for example?

Ben Pearson (07:54)
Yeah, so a typical shift for us is 10 hours. It's either an early shift, so we start at seven in the morning. It starts at two in the afternoon for a late shift or nine at night for a night shift. We come in, we've got various bits of intel and this comes from all agencies such as the border unit, MI5, counter-terrorism units. It comes from ⁓ specialist criminal squads, national crime agency.

all on stolen vehicles will have the AMPR register over there. So I think you've got AMPR over there for scanning the number plates if it's stolen. And then we get given a high powered car and we get told to go out there and catch the bad guys. So in the mornings we're predominantly dealing with collisions and sometimes robberies, stroke, vehicle theft. In the afternoon it was a mixture of 50-50 and at night it was just criminals car chases.

burglaries and we drove BMW 330s, 335s, sometimes Vectra VXRs. So we've got a different, obviously, limit to our cars to what you've got. know a lot of your cars are five litre, 6 litre, 7 litre. We've got obviously the BMWs, but all our cars obviously 160 miles an hour plus. And we're on UK roads, are completely different to your road layers. The thin.

They're bendy, they're not catered out for big freeways, how you have sort of pursuits are extremely fast, extremely quick city centre pursuits. And it's very dangerous and we have a lot of people, and I don't mean police officers, we have a lot of people, young lads dying pursuits because they just can't drive the cars. They get given a Golf R, a BMW, 135, 335, something like that. They'll hit a corner at 140 miles an hour.

hit a tree and then they're just dead. that were a lot of what we dealt with. But the place I worked is a place called Bradford. It's quite funny because last year it was voted the UK Pride of Britain. was the, you know, one of the best places in the UK to go. It wasn't. But the year before it was voted the most dangerous place in Europe to live. So from year one to year two.

It's done quite bad that we've got a lot of organized crime groups, a lot of drugs, lot of firearms offenses, and it's quite a bad place to patrol. And yeah, the amount of jobs you have with people, we call it over your life, it's very cheap because no matter what happens, you get involved in a collision, get people getting knocked over and killed. The driver always flees the scene. It's very rare that the driver in Bradford will stay at the scene.

So this is one of the things I'm gonna talk to you about driving is if you get hit, you need to phone the police because nine times out of 10, if you're in Bradford, the other car will just make off at speed. And the majority of the time is because they don't have insurance, they don't have driving licenses, the cars are on fake number plates, they're obtained by means of fraud. So yeah, it's one of those places where it kept us on our toes all the time.

Jonathan Thomas (11:10)
Well, not to make everybody in Bradford angry, but maybe avoid Bradford on your American excursions in Britain. I second this. York is beautiful. York is fantastic. So, speaking of Americans, now let's get into some practical stuff for our listeners. What are some of most common mistakes you've seen American tourists make when they've been driving in...

Ben Pearson (11:18)
York go to York. Yeah.

Yeah, so a lot of things that we've come across in the past is a lot of people either don't carry the driving license or don't carry any ID with them. So one of the main things is UK police law works two ways. One, you get arrested or two, you get summons to court. If you can't get a ticket issued at the time, they need to summons you to court. So they need a driving license or need some form of ID. And I know myself when I've been to America.

I always have a carrying my passport round, carrying my driving license round. We've always had it where Americans come and think it's a little bit more relaxed and don't carry the driving documents around with them. So one of the things is always make sure you've got your driving documents. And if you're hiring a car, you hire your documents. Second of is speed limits. Speed limits in the UK can be very, very confusing, depending on what vehicle you're driving. And just to go into this, I'll explain this.

30 in a 30 zone, 40 in a 40 zone, 50 in a 50 zone. Then we've got a thing called a national speed limit. So it's a circle, a black circle with a white line going through it on a diagonal basis. That basically means national speed limit, which is 70 miles an hour. Unless, and this is where it comes into a gray area, depending on the vehicle you're driving and depending on the road layout. So without boring you on the motorways, the dual carriageways,

70 miles an hour. But if it goes down to a single lane carriageway, it's 60 miles an hour. And again, this is where it tricks people out. And this is not just Americans, the amount of English people that will catch on the motorway driving at 60 because they see its natural speed limit or will catch on single carriageway roads going 70 miles an hour because they think it's natural speed limit. And it's quite confusing. The biggest issue is you would get a car derived van. So you want to hire some sort of van.

while you're over here, the speed limits change again. So it's 10 mile an hour reduced. So it can be 50 mile an hour national speed limit. Don't ask me why it's just how it's been created. It's a strange law. So if you think about just say, for instance, a Volkswagen Golf, I don't know what you call them over there, whether it is a golf or something else. So Volkswagen Golf, if it's a five seat car, it's 70 miles an hour. Make it into a van.

Jonathan Thomas (13:51)
They're golfs, yeah.

Ben Pearson (13:59)
So like a golf-shaped van, exactly the same vehicle, but you've taken seats out and you've made it so you can put a pallet in the back, 50 miles an hour. It just makes no sense. Then you can drive a Transit, so a Transit van, Ford Transit van, big one, 70 mile an hour. It just makes no sense of why it works like that. So they're the biggest issues. And the last one, roundabouts. I do not understand why you find it so hard.

to deal with a roundabout in the UK, but it's extremely funny to watch. And it's very easy to understand because I've been in Florida driving and I've come to a multi-lane junction and I've got a right, a straight ahead or turn right. Sorry, left straight ahead turn right. It's exactly the same for the motorway or sorry, for the roundabouts. If you're coming onto a roundabout, it's left for the left on lane.

straight on for the middle and right for the right hand side. It is that simple. And then you've always got to give way to traffic coming from your right. And I know this sounds strange because you're on the wrong side of the road, you're on the wrong side of the car, but whenever you come to a roundabout, just always look towards your right hand side. That's all you need to do. And the amount of people we have stopping in the middle of the roundabout, they're in the left hand lane trying to go right and pull over and trying to look for traffic coming from the left hand side.

It is just so confusing for them. But it's not an excuse. I've been there myself. I've been to a junction in the States where the lights have shown green and people still turning right on a red light. And I just don't understand how you do that. But it's treated as a give way. And that's why we do it. So it's technically the same. But we don't have a square bit of road like you do. Our roads are built around our towns and cities because they came first. Where a lot of your roads are built around

infrastructure because a lot of time the roads came first and the houses came second. So I do look at your roads and wish we had that. Unfortunately we're British and we do things kind of the wrong way around. But it's just due to the history we've got we go back thousands and thousands of years for roads, access points, thoroughfares, bridleways and the terminology is without boring you.

Jonathan Thomas (15:59)
Right.

He

Ben Pearson (16:22)
If a person can walk it and a horse can walk it, they've got more rights first. So you go back to a thousand years ago when we didn't have roads and it was just a dirt path. If a horse can go on there and a person can go on there, they've got more rights. So it's called a bridle way, things like that. So you've got to look at how things are patrolled, how things are policed and whether we can put a road around it. If we can put a road around it, we will do. If not, it'll be an access point and you can go through and we can't follow in a car.

Jonathan Thomas (16:51)
Yeah. So roundabouts. ⁓ So Indiana, where I live, believe it or not, is the roundabout capital of America. ⁓ Yes. Our planners and our government in Indiana, for some reason, they must have been either an Anglophile or whatever. They must have been to Europe and saw roundabouts and thought we need to have more roundabouts in Indiana. And so there's tons of roundabouts around me now.

Ben Pearson (16:59)
Really?

Yes.

Jonathan Thomas (17:20)
Some of them have been there for 15, 20 years and people still don't understand how to use them and they've been there for 20 years or actually they'll literally avoid that intersection because they hate the roundabout. And so my brain breaks because we are doing roundabouts the opposite way that you do the roundabouts. I'm like, it's, I've done so many roundabouts in the UK, but now it's like, which way am I going?

Ben Pearson (17:45)
So

just up the road from me we've got, I don't know what size your roundabouts are but we have really big ones and we have what's called mini ones where the white paint is painted on the floor like when you've got your give way lines or your stop lines. It's painted in a circle five foot wide and it's a small set of roads coming onto it, just a mini roundabout. But the amount of times you go up to mini roundabout and it's a standoff. You've got all these cars come to the junction, they all look to the right but no one dare go.

and you're looking at everybody and everyone's like, why are you going? They've got the right of way, but then they'll look to the right, they've got the right of way, they'll look to the right there and it's gone around in a full circle. And then they're looking at you, you're looking at them, they're looking at him, they're looking at her, she's looking at us and they're looking at, and again, you can have four lanes, five lanes, six lanes, going at this minute roundabout and it'll be a stalemate. No one will make that first decision. So it's not just America, it's in England as well. And I don't think,

We're in 2026. I joined the police in 2001 and it's not got any better. Driving standards have gone very downhill in the UK. So I can't see it getting any better. So just be aware when you do come to the UK, you're going to have a lot of roundabout standoffs. So just buy your time, relax and enjoy it.

Jonathan Thomas (19:03)
Well, you, ⁓ so I've also been to Ireland a few times and they've got roundabouts as well. And I remember I was doing roundabouts with my boss who I worked for at the time. And he actually complimented me on my roundabout navigation. I was like, thanks, that's nice. And he goes, but your signaling is still all wrong. I like.

Okay, so please explain the signaling when you're in a roundabout because it's very important to signal where you're going because and you also need to interpret the signals of what the other people are doing so you know who to give way to.

Ben Pearson (19:34)
Yes.

Yes. So again, traffic coming from your right always has right of way. If they are not indicating right when they get to the roundabout, you always presume they're going straight on. So they're going to come in front of you. If they are indicating to your right, you will believe they're going to, sorry, coming to the left, they are going to indicate they are going to go down that road. The only way and easiest way to describe this to yourself is if you're looking at such a thing like a ball.

Draw line straight through it. Anything from the left-hand side that goes left has to indicate left. Anything that goes straight on doesn't have to indicate at all. And anything that wants to go right has got to indicate right. This is the law. No one uses it. This is England. You've got to presume whatever car indicates is a 96-year-old woman called Ilda who is blind, deaf, has a walking stick, and she doesn't know where she's going because

On the legality side, if someone does indicate, it doesn't stand for anything in the court of law. It's an advisory motion. It's me saying to you, hi, John, I think I'm going to go down here, but I might go in front as well. And until I do that move, you've got to stay still. And the amount of times you'll go to a collision, they had the indicator on. Doesn't mean anything. All it means is that I could be going down there. So

What you've got to do is we say to people when I teach people advanced driving skills or when I were doing it myself and I were on the motorcycle unit you come to a junction and all it is is you just take your time and relax and as long as we always say on a driving course ask the question the question will never be wrong. So if you come to a roundabout and you said I'm gonna ask the question to ask if I can go right so just indicate right no one then

will fall out with you. No one will shout at you. I'm going to ask a question, call left. And if you're not right, sure, don't indicate and go straight on. But asking the question is just common decency over people in the UK. Asking the question, I'm going to turn right. But always be ready for a wrong answer coming. You can always ask the question, but don't expect the right answer to be given back. Does that make sense?

Jonathan Thomas (21:51)
Yeah, it does. So let's talk about driving on the left because beyond just stay on the left side of the road, what tricks or habits can Americans use to keep themselves on the correct side of the road? I know when I first started driving in the UK, the biggest problem I had was the opposite spatial reasoning being on the opposite side of the car. And so I have scratched the rental cars on many hedges and curbs because even though I've been driving since

Ben Pearson (22:10)
Yes.

Jonathan Thomas (22:20)
for 25 years, it's still, I'm used to driving on the left-hand side of the car, so spatially, I understand how big the car is on the other side of me. So the biggest hurdle for me is understanding the opposite. then, so that's why, and I've gotten so many fees from the rental car companies for damage to the tires and stuff for scraping things.

Ben Pearson (22:44)
So again, in the UK, I've been to Spain, France, Germany, Italy, I've driven all over Europe and we are the only ones that drive on the side of the road. So when I go on holiday to Spain, I've got to get a rental car and I'm on the wrong side of the car as are you when you come over to England. When I've been to Florida, I'm going to California in May, I'll be getting a higher car there as well.

So it's not just you, it's because your body and your mind have been built in ever since you got behind that wheel of a car to understand the width of the car, the dimensions of the road and where you want to go. And it's the exact same thing with us coming to you or you coming to us. It doesn't make a difference where you are with you or with with the Americans. You've got a lot bigger cars. You've got a lot bigger roads. And I find it easier to drive an American car in America than I do.

European car in Europe because again the roads are kitted out for the cars that they use. Spatial awareness is a massive massive thing in the UK. We've got roads around us that are kitted out for one and a half cars. So you're going down one way a car comes other way and you think two cars cannot get through this gap. This is the biggest issue and then when you're on the wrong side trying to drive your vehicle awareness is just completely gone. The biggest

advice I will give to anybody wanting to drive. If you can't do it or you think your vehicle can't do it, just hold back. There's nothing wrong with going a little bit slower. There's nothing wrong with putting your brakes on a little bit further, further back and letting what we will cross as the action roll out in front of you. We have so many people that come to the UK, get a car and just go for it and believe, well, I can do it in the States, so I can do it here.

and you can't the roads are completely different. The run you later, the Amherst, Canberra's are all completely different. The tarmac grip is completely different. Even the tires are as good as what they are in certain other places. So where you think you can get round at 60 miles an hour, the car might only want you to go around at 40 miles an hour. So don't think because I can do it in states, I can do it over in the UK. It's completely not only different. Not only that, we have massive different weather climates. So we have micro climates as well.

I don't know if you've heard of these. we'll have, because we're where we are in Yorkshire Dales area, massive undulations, peaks and troughs of mountains, hills, lakes, everything. You might have sun up here, then frost down here. And people literally think it's a sunny day. I can drive this way, drive through a microclimate, hit some water, hit some ice, frost or anything like that. You can be in the car. Safety is the paramount issue.

And I know you're to talk about police or getting stopped in a bit, but the police and emergency services only want to know that people have been safe. So if you're safe, the insurance companies know, if you're safe, the police know, and if you're safe, members of the public know. If I were following someone at 40 miles an hour in a 50 mile an hour limit and something happened and I got out on the American, first thing I'd want to do is shake their hands and go, hey, how are you doing? And I can understand you're driving and it might be a bit scary.

you'd never get shouted at. You'd never get shouted at for taking your time and being safe. And all it is, is about looking out for the side of the curb. You drive towards the white line in the curb area so you don't clip your wheels. And then other thing as well is when you turn into corners, never cut the corner. Always go past the white line and then pull in because a lot of people, because you're on the wrong side of the car, can't judge corners as well. So they clip the corner to give way corner.

And that's where collisions are taking place as well. So take your time, go slowly and you will enjoy driving in the UK.

Jonathan Thomas (26:40)
There reminds me of one time my wife gave driving a go and we were on a narrow country lane and, uh, you know, I said it was only one and a half cars. Uh, another car was approaching and she froze and freaked out and immediately pulled to the, to the right and cut the guy off. And the guy was like, what are you doing? Like, no, how do you go pull to the left? She got to pull to the left. He let it pass that polar over to the right and cut them off.

Ben Pearson (27:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. But just take your time. There's no pressure. There's no... And one of the main things we used to have in the place when you were teaching someone in fancy driving, you were teaching them to blue light, is the pressure they put on themselves. I need to do this. I need to move a vehicle out of the way. I need to get... You don't. You don't. You can just literally step back, relax and take it easy. And if you're unsure...

Jonathan Thomas (27:11)
Yeah.

Ben Pearson (27:35)
Indicate and pull to the side of the road and wait. No one's going to fall out with you. No one's going to beep at you. No one's going to be angry with you. Just take your time and be safe.

Jonathan Thomas (27:45)
To me, the biggest compliment you can get from another British driver is when you've successfully done one of those narrow country roads and you get the single finger wave.

Ben Pearson (27:53)
Yeah, or if it's a little, yeah, we have that all the time. But just literally 200 meters outside our house, it goes into a dip and then the road goes so thin and on a turn and trucks come down, vans come down, motorcycles, and there's just enough room for one in a bit cars. And they're always waiting, log jam, and it will stay like that for hours if people don't move. But all you do is you wait your turn.

Jonathan Thomas (27:55)
Yeah.

Ben Pearson (28:21)
People start to move around each other. Everyone goes a gentlemanly wave and they all drive off. yeah, steady wave and just wave. And that's all I suggest.

Jonathan Thomas (28:30)
So speed cameras, they seem to be everywhere in Britain. How do they work and what should American drivers know about them? Because I've actually, lucky. I've driven in Britain quite a few times and I've never gotten a speeding ticket in the mail for speeding. So I've gotten penalties for dropping off somebody at Heathrow and ⁓ not paying my congestion charge, but I've not got caught for speeding because I generally don't speed when I'm in Britain. how, what, what?

What is it about speed cameras?

Ben Pearson (29:01)
So the idea with speed cameras in the UK is I think it's the majority of people that are killed per 100,000. I think we have 1600 fatals per year. And for a small island, that's a lot. Each fatal costs over a million pound. That's a lot of money out of the public purse to pay for these. If it's a serious collision, it's over 500,000 pound. And if it's a minor collision, it's about 40,000, 50,000 pound.

That's just on the economy and emergency services, NHS and other things like that. That's not leading into compensation or criminal injuries compensation board or anything like that. That's just for the collision itself. And we can't afford it. And as I said, in Bradford life's cheap for driving, so stay out of Bradford. But the amount of resources that goes into keeping people safe on the road, people like me, yourself, your family.

Everyone wants to go from A to B and get home safe. If you've never done anything wrong, if you've never been a criminal, you've never become a name to the police like me in the States or you over here, you're going to be fine. But the speed cameras are there to catch the bad people. Now, there's a thing with the speed cameras is we allow normally, they say 10 % plus two or 10 % plus three on the speed.

So if you go in 77 down the motorway, that's 10%. And plus three or plus two, 78, 79, you won't get a ticket. So if you go in, obviously 10 % in a 30 mile an hour limit, so 33 plus two, so anything under 36, you won't get a, so if you remember the 10 % plus two limit, that's a gap you could drive. The only reason they enforce that, or sorry, don't enforce that, and that's there, is because all speedometers on a car,

in UK regulations have to have a 10 % leeway on them. So if your car's saying it's doing 30, it might be doing 27 or it might be doing 33. It's that 10 % leeway on a speedo. Now, people take this as, can drive at 77. No, you can't. The idea being is the speed cameras don't go off. That's the difference. It doesn't mean a traffic cop won't stop you, a police officer won't stop you, or you won't get punished somewhere else.

Jonathan Thomas (31:05)
interesting.

Ben Pearson (31:22)
In the UK, the speed limit is the maximum you should go at any time. It's not a target. It's the maximum. So if it's 70 mile, now you go 70. It's that simple. However, if you're on a road and you go down the hill and you see a speed camera and you're going 74, it wouldn't activate because you've got the 10 % leeway. Does that make sense? And you can always, especially being an American, coming over, driving through London, or let's go to Surrey. I don't know where I'm going. I'm following this sat nav.

You can't be expected to look at the speedo all the time. So in a 50 mile an hour limit and you go in 54, don't panic. Well, it does not give you carte blanche, a green light to speed everywhere you go. And they're only there, obviously, to cut down the fatals that we have on the road and the impact it causes then mental health trauma on the families that have lost people. Last but not least, because you are a visitor to the UK.

What we do is if you were in the, if you're in a UK, you're a UK citizen, I'll be given a ticket or I'll be summoned to court because that's what they do. So if I were caught, it's 25 mile an hour over the speed limit. So if I were caught, say 95 on a motorway plus I'd be summoned to court. Anything lower than 25 miles an hour over the speed limit, I'd be dealt with a buy an endorseable fixed penalty ticket. That's points and my license and a fine.

Because you're a visitor, you won't have a license. You'll have the American license. So what we do then is we'd issue you a ghost driving license and points can be updated on that. So you'd have your American license. You don't have to record it when it comes back, you come back to the States. But in England, you'd have Jonathan Thomas, six points, speeding, no insurance. So if you've got to 12 points on that license for each time you come,

you'd be disqualified, you'd only have 12 points, you'd be disqualified. So then if you're coming over as an American and you've got 12 points in your license because you've gone through a lot of speed cameras and you're not bothered and blah, blah, blah, blah, we stop you and you're driving while disqualified, you're arrested. And then your insurance is void on your hire car. That's another six points and a 300 pound fine. So the car's seized and then you've got a charge to get the car out of the depot and you'll be put forward to the next available car.

So the next available court for you, if you're an American citizen and you've been arrested, they wouldn't bail you. You'd be put in front of the next day's court. So chances are you probably would be remanded. So if you get locked up Thursday night, Friday morning, you're being caught. If you got locked up Friday night, unfortunately, Saturday and Sunday, you're in prison, best food. And then you'll be put in front of a judge on Monday morning. And the reason being is you could just literally skip town. Now.

Jonathan Thomas (34:14)
Yeah.

Ben Pearson (34:14)
If you skip town, let's be honest, I wouldn't have bothered. It wouldn't bother me. But if you drove into somebody and someone were injured and someone's insurance was void or your insurance was void, it would want to be a court case. It'd be like, right, we need to put you in front of a judge here. That's very rare for that to happen because we know people, if you're there with your wife and kids in the car, you're not Billy Joe's shitbag. And that's what I call criminals. Sorry for that. You're not them. Now, if you were a criminal, you would

be arrested if you're not, you'd probably just send the summons out and then you'd ride up back that I wouldn't be attending because I'm back in America. But then if a summons was sent and you didn't go, next time you landed in the UK, there'd be a ghost license and there'd be a warrant. So as soon as you got off the plane, they'd be, hey up lad, put your hands out, put some bracelets on, take in to Nick.

Jonathan Thomas (35:07)
So this has been the most enlightening conversation I've almost ever had with somebody. I had no idea that this ghost license was the thing, that you would essentially create a record that would follow you. And so that, I'm suddenly very nervous, like, I've never been pulled over, so I, but.

Ben Pearson (35:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Let me just break this as well. we have now I can't remember this. I'm not going to make it up. I can't remember exactly. But in the UK, we have EU driving laws and EU driving hours. So for heavy goods drivers, so you're only allowed so many hours and then a break. So you might be four and a half hours driving, 30 minute break, four and a half hours driving, 30 minute break. If you drive past your driver's hours or your Romanian truck driver,

coming to the UK, you've not got a ghost license, we stop you for an endorseable offence, we can lock your vehicle outside at road and make you pay a fine there and then before we unlock your vehicle. So in theory, I don't know if it's for you because law could have changed by now, but I'm making you aware of this. You could hire a car, a UK car, you could be driving on the road, you go through a set of red traffic lights, it's seen by a traffic cop.

We get behind you, put the lights on, pull alongside you. Hi, how are you doing? I'm Jonathan Thomas. going back to Illinois tomorrow. I'm sorry about this. Right. Well, what we'll do then, because we can't issue you a ticket and we can't summon you because you're going to be aware. We can't lock you up because you'll miss your flight. What we can do is we can lock your vehicle outside at road and say, right, it's 300 pound. It's not like, give me 300 pound. It goes in my pocket. It's all probably on

tickets and forms and you get it submitted to you and I think you could either pay online so you could pay over the phone and it's done there and then and then your vehicle gets unclipped and you can go and we have it a lot with truck drivers because a lot of truck drivers come from across from Europe their license doesn't matter in the UK they could have a ghost license they're just not bothered it could have loads of points it could be shown it is qualified

There could be loads of things, but it's easier for us then to lock the truck up because that's their wage. They might be transporting 44 tonnes of car parts that need to get from the Netherlands to the UK within 10 hours. So if we lock your truck up, we know that you need your truck. So they'll pay the fine. ⁓ trucks unlocked and they can go on the way. So that is another punishment they do do, but that's not for normal members of the public.

Jonathan Thomas (37:55)
So there are two things. So first, back when I was 19 years old and I had a lead foot. Thank you. Oh, that was 23 years ago, unfortunately. I was 19 years old and I was up in Michigan, which is the state north of Indiana. And the road laws are pretty much the same, but I got nicked for speeding. And so I got pulled over and my...

Ben Pearson (38:02)
Well that's sweet when you're not sweet.

Jonathan Thomas (38:22)
wife was with me, she was my fiance then, but that was so long ago. And the cop was like, I'm gonna need $20 from you before I can let you go. And he's like, it's bail. I'm like, I'm like, what, what are you talking about? And my wife thought like the cop was literally trying to take a bribe from us. Well, it turns out when you get issued a speeding ticket and you're from out of state, they, they make the assumption that you're not gonna basically, you're basically not gonna pay the fine.

And so I had to either give them my license or $20 and they would hold my license or the $20 until I paid the speeding ticket. So thankfully I had $20 on me. So we gave them the $20. I'm like, I'm never going to see that $20 again. so then fast forward a few months, I paid the speeding ticket. And then a few months later, I got a check for $20 from the circuit court or wherever I was speeding. I was like, wow, I applaud them for.

for keeping track of that $20 the whole way.

Ben Pearson (39:20)
just make the Americans aware that there'd be nothing ever in the UK ever where the police will take money from you at the roadside. It will never happen. So if any police ever said to you or anyone said you need to pay me cash or you need you never pay anybody, anyone. Now that's different. If you are issued a ticket at the side of the road and they'll explain to you, this is the ticket, you'd ring the automated service and you're paying them. You're not paying the police.

Jonathan Thomas (39:29)
That's good to know.

in the place.

Ben Pearson (39:48)
So that's completely not only different to what we're saying. So it's not a bit of a back-hander saying, can you take this money? You've got to pay on the document once you've issued the document. That's completely different. But yeah, never pay anybody any money at all.

Jonathan Thomas (40:04)
So back to speed cameras. ⁓ My biggest bugbear when I drove Land's and Adreano Grotes a few years ago was the average speed cameras. Does the 10 % rule still apply on average speed cameras or do you have to stick to the average speed limit?

Ben Pearson (40:16)
Yeah.

Well, so in regards to average speed cameras, again, there's a 10 % rule and that's there because EU directory states that the MOT and the speedos can be 10 % out. If they went off, what you can do is take your own speedo out of the car. It's a riot faf, you've got to send it off. It's got to be analysed and then sent back. That's something no one would ever do. No one would ever do. But I, in 19 years of policing, I've never met anybody that's been prosecuted.

for a 10 % roll in average speed cameras. Again, it's over two set distances and it will say, if you're driving, just say for instance, between camera one and camera two, you've got to be there, it's got to be seven minutes driving from camera one. That will average out 56 miles an hour. If you do it in a short amount of time than that, it obviously shows you're over 56 miles an hour and it'll flash you. But the speed limit will be 50. So it's giving you a good bit of to and fro.

Because we know that sometimes in average speed camera you might go 46, you might go 53. So it averages out over that time. But yeah, always believe you've got a 10 % leeway. However, as I said, that doesn't give you the right to be able to just drive through saying Ben said, I can do this. It's still breaking the law. 55 miles an hour in a 50 zone is illegal. So you drive at 50 or below, or you drive at 70 or below.

But people, I have so many friends that when I go traveling with them, they'll get in car, they'll get on motorway and they'll set the speed cruise control to 77, 78. And I'm like, what are you doing? Well, you don't get flashed at this speed. It's in the 10%. I'm like, you're still speeding. And they're like, well, do you not speed? And I'm like, I'm not saying if I speed or not. You're just telling me that you're just speeding. So it's OK to break the law, but not break the law a lot.

So is that equivalent to me walking in the bank with a gun and saying, can I have your money? But I only stole $10. I didn't steal $100,000. But you're still watching the bank with a gun. I still ask for some money. Still breaking the law, but it's not $10 in as bad as $100,000, is it? You've got to understand that the water stand for it. And different areas, so we don't have states, obviously we have counties.

different areas. So West Yorkshire is one, North Yorkshire is the other. If a West Yorkshire traffic cop went into North Yorkshire and they got caught speeding, they get prosecuted. There's no leniency. So it's not like, you're a boy in blue, we'll let you off. No, there's no leniency. And then if they found out, if I'm on my motorbike and they found out we're a police officer, they'd go to the far end to make sure I got the ticket. There's no leniency.

So just because there is a 10 % gap doesn't mean you can exploit this 10 % rule and people in the UK think you can. And that's why we say as well, speed limit is now 70 miles an hour, maximum speed limit in the UK is 70 mile an hour. And people, and to be fair, it is right. People say, yeah, but this was brought in in the 60s. Surely now cars can stop faster. They've got better brakes, better tires, the roads better. Yes, they can.

We don't need to be driving at 60, we can drive at 80. We could set the speed limits at 85, 90. But we know that if we've set the speed limits at 70, people still drive 80. If we set the speed limits at 80, people drive at 90. So they'll always drive higher than what they are. And the impact from a 70 mile an hour smash to an 80 mile an hour smash is just fatal. So the impact from a 60 mile an hour crash to a 70 mile is very, very serious.

If a child gets knocked over at 30, they've got something like a 74 % chance of living. If a child gets knocked over at 40, they've got like a 70 % chance of dying. If a child gets knocked over at 50, it's a 100 % chance of dying. So that 10 % leeway might be nothing to you, but when I've got to go to a dead body in the road, it's a difference between life and death. So the speed limit's there for a reason.

and obey them, especially in Wales. Wales have dropped down to 20 in most parts and Wales are very, very on it for speed limits and they do not like people coming and taking the make out of their speed limits. So when it says 20, drive at 20.

Jonathan Thomas (44:53)
Good to know. So let's say you let your foot slip and you're speeding and you get pulled over by the police. ⁓ As an American, what can you expect when you get pulled over? How is it different than when you get pulled over here?

Ben Pearson (45:09)
get out and just say you're blind deaf and you can't speak i'm blind and i can't see shit man ⁓ one of the best one of the one of the best things ever did i stopped a gentleman and i want to say from belarus and he knew he knew a bit of the law but he found out one of the hardest translated languages was his dialect and he put on this card my name is just let me make this name up

Jonathan Thomas (45:14)
Thank

Ben Pearson (45:39)
I'm from so-and-so. speak dialect of this. I am deaf, mute and need this translator. And in the car, we've normally got a phone and we can ring up the translator. Couldn't get a translator. So we were just sitting in the car going... Could speak English fine. But we were like, what do we do with him? What do we do with him? We can't speak to him. He's a deaf mute. So he doesn't understand. Doesn't understand sign. We had to let him go. And I'm like, that's ingenious. And it were only when we stopped him a month later, he went, here are lads, how we doing?

When you British police are lovely. We are lovely. We don't carry guns. Well, firearms carry guns. This is what I'll go into in a minute. The normal officer carries a baton and spray and the taser. So we don't carry firearms unless you're a firearms cop. We are nice people. We would be like, hey, John Ladd, how we doing? Do you know why you've been stopped?

That is not a declaration. You are not being cautioned or you're not issued the Miranda rights. I'm just saying, do you know why you've been stopped? You might say, I didn't have my seatbelt on. And we'll say, no, no, you lost the wheel four miles back. No, it's not do with your seatbelt, but you've lost the wheel on your car. Or you're dragging a dead dog under your car. So we just said, do you know why you've been stopped? We are nice people. All we want to do is we'll pull the line, make sure you are safe going from A to B. If you get stopped,

Just be nice, kind and polite. And that's it. We don't want any asshole. We just want to go on our way. However, and I'm sorry for my language. If you fuck us about, we'll make it really, I don't know who's listening. So if there's any kids listening, I apologize, cut it out. If you mess us about, we won't stand for it. So we have a lot of people do this thing now when we've seen it. We have it in the UK. We know you have it there. We have auditors.

We have people that believe they're sovereign citizens. We have people that believe they don't have to speak. They believe people that believe they're not driving a motor vehicle on the road. It's not a conveyance. It's not a road that they're driving on. They don't have to give the details to the police. It's all rubbish. In the UK, the police have the right to stop any motor vehicle on the road. It's that simple. We don't have to find out what you've done. We have the right to pull you over and say, how are you doing? Give me some details, please. And you don't have to commit any offence.

and you've got to give me your details. If you refuse to give me your details, you can be arrested. However, we won't arrest you because we're nice people. If you've committed a moving road traffic offence, such as you've not indicated something as you've not indicated, you've beat your horn at the wrong time, this is nothing to do with speeding, driving through red light. These are the smallest offences. You committed a moving road traffic offence and we stop you and we ask.

for your name and your address and you say you don't give it, you just be locked up. Right, we're arresting you now because we can't prove who you are for the summons we've said. So people will say I'm not driving a motor vehicle while a motor vehicle is a mechanical vehicle, which is a car driven on a road for the purpose of being a car. So whatever you're driving on the road in the UK, whether it's a car, motorcycle, a truck, a van, you need to have a driving license, you need to have insurance and the vehicle needs to be taxed. If you haven't got any of them.

you can be arrested. I've only been stopped twice in my life and I'm 50 years old this year. First one, I went down a wrong way before I was in the police. I was 19. I went down the wrong way, down a one way road and I burst into tears when I got stopped and I just give the details and I took the fine. And second one was my colleagues didn't know my car. It was three in the morning. I'd finished work. I was on my way home and I got stopped for a routine check and soon as I took me.

They'll let go. This doesn't include the stop in Florida. Obviously, of course, this is UK. All they want to do is just make sure people are legal. So if you say, hello, I'm visiting from the US. It's a very interesting place for us. We love the Americans. So we'd want to speak to you. We want to hear the accent. We want to know where you're from, what's life. First thing we'll probably say is, did you go to prom? Is that a real thing? Because we never had this. So we love it. We're obsessed with Americans. We want that life.

but we don't have it with British. So yeah, just be nice. Have your driving documents on you and that's it. There's a thing in the UK and it's called the caution, which is you don't have to say anything. It may harm your defense if you don't mention when questioned something you'll later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. If you're told to caution, doesn't mean you're in trouble. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. It's just that some officers will caution before speaking to you and other officers walk.

And all it means is they can be have a union service and they need to do things 100 % by the book or they want to record everything that's been said and it can be given evidence. Doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. It just means that they're doing it. Is that like your Miranda rights? Is that what you call it over there? And it's basically anything you say can be given evidence. Doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. So we have a lot of police officers that sit something back at the car. So I'd say you just sit him back, John, and you'd where you from.

Jonathan Thomas (50:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ben Pearson (50:57)
I'm from Soin. What are you doing? I'm on holiday. Where are going? So and so. Can I just have your details? Can I have a vehicle and person check, please? Come back. No trace. Nothing. Right. Here's your driving license. Have a great day. Please drive safely and enjoy your time in the UK. And that's what I do. Someone might get you in the car and do the caution. You don't have to say anything. So then, John, where you going? I'm going here. I'm going there. I'm doing this. Right. Brilliantly. Please have a good time in the UK and drive safe and give your license back.

doesn't mean you're in trouble for anything. It's just how they've done things. And again, don't ever panic. Do not ever panic. Last but not least, the UK has firearms officers. I know your majority of your officers are all armed. We're different out here. We have firearms officers. Now those firearms officers have to authority to draw the weapons or have to have what's called self-draw. So they've got to be in some sort of situation.

You will never ever, ever, ever be pulled over by a firearms officer and guns will be shown at you, pointed at you or put on the hand on the hip or anything, unless there's intel that you've got a firearm in the car and that will never happen because you're in a higher car. So they are only there to get the bad criminals off the road. You can be stopped by a firearms cop. They will have the gun on the side. But the last thing they would ever think about is you've got a gun in the car. So it will never be walking towards the side of the car with a hand on the gun.

shouting, show me your hands, show me your hands, stay in vehicle. They'll be exactly like me. Hey John, how you doing? You all right? Nice to see you. Where you from? Where you going? What you doing? Enjoy your journey and drive safely in the UK. And that's it. So never be afraid and just be nice to people. There's nothing wrong with being nice. It's just a part of life. Be nice to people. People will look after you back.

Jonathan Thomas (52:47)
So you mentioned earlier getting out of the car. Do you get out of the car when you're pulled over?

Ben Pearson (52:52)
Yep, I get out of the car, loads of people, you can stay in the car, it's not a problem at all. If you feel safe in the car, stay in the car. If you want to get out, get out, but don't stand in the road, move to the other side of the car and just say hello. And everyone's like, hi, you all right? No one, the UK police do not have this thing where stay in your car, don't approach the police, keep your arms where I can see them, don't. However, if you go out of the car and you had a jacket on, you had your hand down, you were going like that, we'd be like, what's he doing?

We're like, wait, what's he doing? We're a bit, the gun control in the UK is completely different to America. The only people that really have guns in the UK are criminals. And when I say criminals, I mean, organized crime nominals, major, major players. They don't want to show their gun to the police. They don't want to be seen pulling a gun on the police. And if they did, they know they go down for life imprisonment.

It's a very, very nasty thing to do in the UK. So if a criminal has got a gun in the car, nine times out of 10, they will make off in a pursuit. They wouldn't stop, they wouldn't draw a gun, they will make off in a pursuit. So we know that every time we stop someone, the chances of us being having a firearms drawn on us or being shot are very, very, very slim, probably 1%. So it doesn't even matter as you get out and you're nice and kind, big handshake, how are you doing? You all right? And we're just nice people.

Jonathan Thomas (54:19)
So let's talk about road signs because this is probably the after roundabouts is probably the most difficult thing for Americans to grasp when they're driving the UK because road signs don't necessarily mean what you assume they mean. So what's the best way for people to learn the different kinds of road signs?

Ben Pearson (54:35)
Yeah, so making it simple, anything that's surrounded by a red border is enforceable. It's basically saying you must do this. Anything that's blue is probably a warning. This is the easiest way to do it. It's a warning mark. It's saying be aware of this. So I know in the States you have stop signs. So and you have give way signs as well. So we have give way signs. I believe ours. I think ours are upside down to yours.

But we have giveaway signs, we have stop signs. Everything's got a red border. So you will see signs, saws, no overtaking. You'll see cars side by side. You can really understand what it means when you see it because it'll be on a thin country road. You'll have no view. Road will be up and down and it'll sign two cars and it'll just be a circle. Whenever you've seen something, just be aware. It'll say road bend to the right, crossroads, T junction coming ahead.

it's you must be aware there's a T-junction coming ahead because you're going to hit a brick wall. Be aware this is happening because you will see this happening. So bridge. So we have a lot of bridges, lot of train tracks. Be aware of what it says on the sign. Anything else is a warning sign. we'll have just say, for instance, mandatory traffic carros. Keep left, keep right. ⁓ Ahead only. Mini roundabout or roundabout approaching.

They're your easiest sort of signs. The other signs that you need to be aware of are motorway, stroke, roads and A roads. Sounds really complicated, it's not. So motorway road, all signs are blue. So big blue banners on the side of the motorway and that basically means it's a motorway rule. So if I said to you national speed limit on a motorway is.

Jonathan Thomas (56:24)
70.

Ben Pearson (56:26)
is 70.

Yeah, if the sign were green and it said A6124, it's an A road, which basically means it's a smaller road. It's a smaller road. So if I said to you national speed limit on an A road is...

Jonathan Thomas (56:42)
Is it a dual carriageway or a single carriageway?

Ben Pearson (56:45)
Well, this is what I'm gonna ask you now.

Jonathan Thomas (56:47)
Dual carriageway, it'd be 60, right?

Ben Pearson (56:50)
It'd be 60 unless stated of a way. So if it's got a central reservation, it's 70. If it's not, it's 60. So you start looking like, if it's a B road, sorry, an A road and it's in green, you're thinking like, well, it can just be a 60 mile limit. It will show you. It's very easy. So you've got a big road, which we call freeway. And you're the ones, I don't know what you'd probably call something small in a freeway, but it's not

Jonathan Thomas (57:19)
Highway.

Ben Pearson (57:20)
A highway. So it's a highway road in theory. Then the rest of what you call B roads. B roads are your little, you know, roads that go from town to town over top. Yeah, over tops. Very easy to understand. I have driven a lot of places around the world and I still think the UK has the easiest signs to read. It's not hard work to read the signs. It's reading the information.

Jonathan Thomas (57:29)
are fit.

Ben Pearson (57:48)
And that's what a lot of people. So we might have signs that look like boobies. I don't know if you've seen them. Like a woman lying down with boobies and it's just an uneven road. But what sign do you give for an uneven road? Edge of a... It could look like edge of a wall with waves on it. And it's like basically saying that you're coming to edge of a road where it's going to fall into what? It's not hard work, but it's people thinking, hang on a minute.

there's something happening and the biggest issue with people is and I've said this years and years and years, a lot of people are just stupid and a lot of people will just follow a sat nav where it tells them to go they'll end up in a field down bottom of a field through a set of trees where they can't get to and half into a river and you go why did you get down here? Well sat nav took me down. I put in leads to York and it took me down this

At no point did you realise when you're driving through somebody's field and into a set of woods, did you think I'm not on the right road? Well, no, I followed the sat-nav. That's the biggest issue. It's people not thinking for themselves. We live in a world now where the cars have got so much technology, where your cars have got built-in sat-navs. I don't know if you've ever been in a Volvo, but the Volvo sat-nav to a VW sat-nav is completely and utterly different. It gives different information, different road layouts.

and some are updated as much as other ones are updated. So use your common sense. If it looks like you're not meant to go down there, you're not meant to go down there, and there's always other routes, look at Google Maps, look at the road signs, look at Google Maps, and you will be okay driving. Follow the Sat Nav around England on back roads and it will take you through a village that's got one little thin road that's not wide enough for a motorcycle.

250 year old houses on either side, undulating roads, going over a river and you won't be able to turn around anyway. Then first thing is you'll say, sorry, I got stuck. Sat nav took me down there. And we're like, not bothered. We are not bothered. Switch yourself on.

Jonathan Thomas (59:55)
So what about parking? British car parks, high street parking, all those yellow lines. What do Americans need to understand? Is a parking penalty different than a penalty you get while driving?

Ben Pearson (1:00:07)
Yeah, so a parking penalty. We don't have red curbs like you do or red boxes. That's only normally in London city center and that's actually in the city. ⁓ So anywhere else you find single yellow lines basically means you can stop and unload at certain times. So if you're delivering to a shop, you can unload and you can leave your vehicle there while you're unloading, coming backwards and forwards. Double yellow lines is no no.

You just don't park anywhere on WL lines. Now there's a lot of people in the UK that are disabled and part of their disabled blue disabled badges. You can park on WL lines. But we'll have people then that are elderly that will literally you've been to a roundabout yourself. They will park in the middle of the roundabout because their badge says I can park on WL lines. You can't park anywhere that is going to cause a danger to members of the public. So if you use that view.

wherever you're going to be and you look at zebra crossings. I don't know what you call them over there, we have a zebra crossings, pelican crossings. Anything with the yellow amber light that flashes and it's got, have you seen the cover of the Beatles where they're across the road and it's black and white zebras? Anything like that. you block, if you park blocking the view to them, if you park on a junction blocking the view coming out of the junction, you can't block or park where it's going to cause a danger to members of public. So in theory,

Park anywhere you want, as long as it doesn't cause a danger and there's not double yellow or single yellow lines there. Signs are clearly displayed everywhere saying, parking access or between eight and six, Monday to Friday, everywhere will have a sign. The biggest issue we have in the UK is with private property and people will put signs out, no parking. We've had this for years now, no parking or no this, no that, and they will own the land.

and what they will put is a ridiculous charge on that vehicle to get it released and we can't do anything about it. There's a place in, I don't know if you've ever, well, a place called Haworth at the moment and it's where the Bronte sisters live. It's just, it's all over the news at the moment because the new film of the night has just come out and a lot of it's filmed around Haworth and it's a place. But there's a car park on the top of Haworth and this is the sticking point. It's owned.

by a judge is the car park. So you know how well he is. It's owned by a judge. His son runs it. It's been on the worst car park in the UK for years because you can Google this. And the idea being is he's even tried to put a ticket on a police car. We've gone to a job there and we've gone out with a car and he's come over and said, right, and I like what you're doing. And he's like, I'm missing your ticket. You're no. You touch my car, you get locked up. And when I lock you up, I'm going to throw you to the floor first. I'm going to cuff you.

don't touch my car and what happened was a lot of charity women went into the car park they got a ticket on the car park put it on the car for three hours and they went to do a charity walk for cancer and they came back when she put the ticket on the car she shut the door the ticket flipped upside down so they couldn't see the car parking thing it put off a compound wheel straight away within 10-15 minutes

and he charged them, they'd raised something like £450 on this charity walk and I think he charged them £400 for them to undo the... that's the morals of it all. They're the ones you need to be aware of, the privately owned car parks. If you step out of their guidance, they won't think twice about putting a wheel clamp on you or issuing a fine and unfortunately there's nothing the police or council can do. It's their own land, they'll have a sign up. Sign can be this big...

30 foot high and it'll save your park here you can be shoe-defying they're the ones you need to be aware of and places like York there's a lot in York that you know where there's really bad parking but tourists want to go they're the places that you'll find these Shrewsbury York Howarth there's a what's the other place Cambridge there's always always be aware of these little car parks that say come and park here £10

but make sure you read the small print because they're the ones that will stick some on your car and charge you £400-500. My advice is find a normal car park, NCP car park, sorry, which is run by the council or the government and it might be £12 to park for the day in the centre of York. Pay the £12, I pay it and that's where I'd rather park. It's very easy to do. You don't get prosecuted.

And if you go over on your time, you can extend it anyway, so it's fine. But don't park in these little privately owned car parks. They're the ones that will give you a, take your money and especially your American. They will see you a mile off and they'll put loads of other charges on that you can't do all about.

Jonathan Thomas (1:05:13)
So, is there anything else about British driving culture that might surprise Americans? Things that British drivers do that Americans might find strange or vice versa?

Ben Pearson (1:05:23)
The biggest thing that I've been saying to Americans is there's a drug and drink drive law. So I don't know what it's like over there, but you cannot have a certain drugs inside your body. So we have a drug wipe and you can fail the drug wipe because of certain medications. You need to be aware of this. You need to check your medication and go on to the government website and it'll tell you what it traces for.

The majority of time it might trace for amphet and cocaine. It's its main things. It might check for heroin, cocaine or whatever it is. But you lick it, goes around your mouth. It takes eight minutes to do and it comes back positive. People have failed it due to medication they've been on. Instantly you're arrested. And back to what I'm saying, if you can't bail you, they'll hold you for the next available court. The drink drive law in the UK is 35 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath.

So people will say to you, it's all right, you can have two pints. It's a myth. You cannot have two pints. So it falls on what's the level of droplets that are in your breath. So if I took a swig of whiskey now, spat it out and I blew, I'd blow over. And I've got no alcohol in my system. So it's what's on your breath at the time. So someone will say, it's fine, you can have two pints and drive. Do not have any alcohol at all and drive a car.

Don't go to the pub on a night. Don't have a meal and a beer and drive because it works completely different on different people's body. And I've locked up some of the biggest men I know that say they can have 10 pints and they've had a small glass of wine with a meal they've blown over. I've dealt with ladies that have had so many beers and they've not blown over. The drink drive law in the UK is you will be breathalysed at the side of the road and if it blows over a certain amount, which is 35 micrograms, you can be arrested.

For those over 40 micrograms, you will be arrested straight away. Get to the cells, you go onto the intoxicizer, over a certain amount, it's an instant charge. Instant disqualification. So just do not do it. That's the biggest bugbear. And UK police hate drink drivers and drug drivers. So if you're of coming to the UK and smoking a little bit of cannabis and driving Canex there, get caught, you will be screwed over. Think about your medication you're going to be taking as well.

There's lot of people that have been taking different sorts of medication and it can be picked up on. So just do your research beforehand. Mobile phone law as well. Do not touch your phone whilst you're in the car. It is an offence just to hold your phone in your hand. If your phone goes off and you pick it up and you press the button, switch it off, points in your license straight away, big fine. Back to the fact that I tell you, if you can't find you, we can arrest you for next available caught, do not touch your phone.

If you want to use your phone as a sat nav, you can do, but it needs to be in a cradle. You cannot touch it. You cannot start scrolling through your phone to find out where you are on roads and putting a postcode in. The only time you can use your phone in the UK whilst driving is either to phone 999 for an accident or something's happening there and then in front of you. Or you go to McDonald's, you put your car in neutral, you put your handbrake on, you are allowed to beep, pay for a meal.

and then put it back down and then set off. That's it. And you will be caught by this people. This have you look, have you heard of cycling Mikey? He just arrived around London with a GoPro on and just catches everyone, shows no plate, catches loads of famous people. Look and just sends it straight to police and everyone is prosecuted. So the police don't have to see you. A member of the public can just film you that side. And that's it. Done and dusted.

Jonathan Thomas (1:08:58)
Mm-mm.

Ben Pearson (1:09:18)
points on your license, do not touch your phone for anything. Pull your car to the side of road, turn it off, the keys, ignition, put the handbrake on, put it in neutral, then touch your phone. But don't do anything with your phone in the UK. It's a massive, massive no-no. Apart from that, no, drink, drive, mobile phone, and come and have loads and loads of fun. You'll enjoy it. Go to places you've never seen, go to all the castles, go to Scotland, just go to York, just...

do so much. We are a small island, but we're a big island for seeing stuff. You can drive to the top of the bottom in five hours, which isn't a lot for a lot of Americans to do. Where if you're English, you're like, I'm not doing that. Why would I do that? I'm just going to drive an hour then stay in a hotel and drive another hour and stay in another hotel. We don't like driving long distances. So there's so much to see and do.

And if you can get up to NC 500, top part of Scotland and go around NC 500, do it. It's a beautiful place to see. It's a beautiful place to be and welcome to anyone that wants to come over.

Jonathan Thomas (1:10:23)
Well on that note, let's wrap it up with one final question. So what have you been up to since you left the police force and this is your chance to plug whatever it is you're doing?

Ben Pearson (1:10:34)
So since I've left I'm I do work on YouTube now, so I work alongside all the British police forces in the UK Home Office filming all the new vehicles equipment tech Days of action which you can see on my YouTube channel, which hopefully you might attach if that's okay I'm Again a two-time. I've got three books two-time best-selling author and I've got a clothing brand

Jonathan Thomas (1:10:53)
Absolutely.

Ben Pearson (1:11:00)
which again sells around the world. All my books are available on Amazon if you want to buy them over there. And then we do a lot of charity work for emergency service mental health, police ambulance and fire service. We raise a lot of money per year and we donate it all. We don't make one penny for ourselves. We donate all for emergency service mental health treatment and therapy. And we just want to give back. So if you can look at my social medias, I'll be very grateful. Hopefully you'll attach them.

If you want to follow in anything we do, such as Code Zero, the Emergency Service Mental Health App, if you've got anybody, and I mean anybody in a blue light service, it's not just for the UK, it's for anyone around the world. It gives them the availability to talk, come on at 3 in the morning, they might just finish the shift, type on. There could be someone there that's wanting to talk to them and they can issue all their feelings, thoughts, everything. It's very good for holistic relaxation.

mindfulness, everything like that. And yeah, I have just signed, I can't tell you much more, but I've just signed another TV contract. So hopefully I'll be back on the UK TV channels soon. But if it does get put on TV, I've been told it will be coming over there. So I want to do more in the States. I want to come over more. I've said this to you for years, it's my dream to live over there.

If I could have, and don't judge me on this, I know it's sound weird. I always thought like I was born in the wrong place or I should have been because I just, I don't know if it sounds stupid. It's just, I use so many Americanisms that I just don't realize I do. I've done it since I was a child. Like I said to her, I'll ask, go to refrigerator and she'll take me. All right, let's get elevator. And she said, mean lift? I was going to the cinema tonight. said, do you mean the pictures?

Jonathan Thomas (1:12:31)
That's how I feel.

Ben Pearson (1:12:51)
And I say to her, Livhud, and she's like, what are you talking I don't know where it comes from. I just do not know where it comes from. But my kids do it as well. So my daughter's 12 and my son's nine and he'll say, pass oregano. And I'm like, you mean oregano? Yeah, but you say oregano. Do I? And he'll pass the basil. I'm like, what you want about basil? You mean basil? But this is, but you told her to say basil. And I'm like, I just think sometimes, you made so in a...

In May we're going to California, we're staying in just above Pasadena for a week then we're going down to Huntington Beach for a week and it's from the 50th and if anyone wants to stay low in the emergency services contact me direct and we'll be around California. So yeah that's me and just be nice to each other, just basically smile it might be someone's last chance and you might be the last person they ever interact with so just smile.

Jonathan Thomas (1:13:45)
Well, like you were saying before our chat, you end up on Route 66, hit me up. I'll show you around.

Ben Pearson (1:13:51)
I'll turn up one day with like 40 bikers. Alright lad. Get a kettle on.

Jonathan Thomas (1:13:54)
I love

it. love it. I'll, I'll, I'll tell you the story of the time the hell's angels came and took a hot tub from my house. It's really funny. ⁓ so on that note, what an incredible conversation this has been from high speed pursuits to helping Americans navigate roundabouts and most importantly, Ben's powerful message about mental health and finding purpose after crisis. Thank you for joining us on the Anglotopia podcast. Ben, we will link to Ben's website, his YouTube channel books and all of that in the show notes.

If you're thinking about driving in the UK, you've just gotten the masterclass from someone who's seen it all from behind the wheel of an Interceptor. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, comment, or rate. It really helps others discover the podcast. And if you love what we do at Anglotopia, please consider joining the Friends of Anglotopia Club, where you'll get early access to new episodes and connect with fellow Angle-philes in our private online community. Plus you'll find exclusive travel guides and tips that you won't get anywhere else.

Whether you're gearing up for your first British road trip or contemplating those country lanes or just fascinated by the world of British policing, remember that the open road is just one of the best ways to discover the real Britain. Join us next time as we continue our journey through the people, places, and stories that make British culture so endlessly captivating. Until then, drive safe, keep left. Thank you so much, Ben.

Ben Pearson (1:15:11)
Thank you so much and enjoy.