Judging the Wind

When you learn to sail, they teach you a whole bunch of ways to judge the wind: you can look at flags, low clouds, smoke, wind indicators on other boats, the waves, judge the different feelings on your cheeks, all sorts of things...and then, as you go along, you just sort of develop an awareness (at least when you're on/by the water) of where the wind is coming from. It stumps being and/or for all of these things, and becomes a sort of back-of-your mind awareness based on all of them.

I think I use something similar when I'm cycling to judge the general traffic condition, which is why I'm finding it so hard here. There are just the obvious differences - other side of the road, different signs, etc. - from what I'm used to. But there's also a lot of information you don't get: people don't really signal or act in any predictable ways. And then there's the conflicting information you get from people just not obeying the laws, driving on the wrong side, swerving out into your lane, parking in the bike line, and jumping out in the middle of the street. 

So over all, the back of your mind just ends up very confused and if you listen to it you get a start as you look up and there's a car hurtling towards you in your lane. Which makes biking a mental workout as well as a physical one.