BS: driving on the wrong side of the road

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Musket
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 04:51 AM

I have worked in countries using both sides and one country where they use either side.... (Looking at you India!)

Being British, driving on the left is my natural way, but funnily enough, whilst I fairly instantly adapt to driving on the right when I go abroad, it feels more strange (for the first ten mins or so) when I return. The roads leading out of our airports get more than their fair share of bumps, and more often than not caused by British drivers returning according to a traffic police programme on the telly recently. I can understand why.

I used to tell a colleague in Chicago that he may drive on the right side but we drive on the correct side.

I heard the Napoleon reason too, and something to do with drawing swords. Interesting that the Romans marched on the left because Italian DNA leads the buggers to drive in the middle of the road and put their trust in fate....

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 04:33 AM

There is of course the "Magic Roundabout" at Hemel Hempsted, which is well worth avoiding....6 mini-roundabouts around a main central one, with some of the traffic going "the wrong way" for British roundabouts:


Magic Roundabout

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 04:23 AM

An interesting aside regarding "roundabouts" is that carousels or merry-go-rounds tend to go round in the same direction as the road roundabouts in the country they are in - English ones go round clockwise, and in France and Belgium they go anticlockwise. The illustrations in Wikipedia show that the same is true in the US - though there is one Spanish exception in Galicia.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Bert
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 12:58 AM

The driving is not so bad because everyone else is doing the same. The biggest problem is for pedestrians. You tend to look the wrong way first then you step out into the traffic before you look the right way.

If you are in a foreign country ALWAYS look BOTH ways before you put a foot out into the street.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 12:32 AM

My dear husband and I have been to the British isles several times, and we have some suggestions.

1. Don't try to drive in big cities. Fly in, take a train to a smaller city, rent a car there and start driving in more peaceful surroundings.

2. Before you go, get some toy cars. Then go to Google Earth or Google Maps and using pencil and big sheets of newsprint, make copies of the complex urban centers of old cities. Now drive your toy cars on the maps. This is more fun if you do it with friends.

Don't forget to go in and out of parking lots.

This really helps!

Now do the same with freeways and roundabouts. You go around roundabouts clockwise. Your route is a question mark facing backwards.

3. It really helps to remember that the driver always rides in the middle of the road.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 11:31 PM

It is not the switch TO that is the problem, it is the switch BACK.

Everyone used to drive on the left because they used their right hands to either greet the opposing traffic or to defend themselves.

Then Napoleon went mad and thought that he could conquer the world. He switched to driving on the wrong side to throw confusion amongst his conquered nations.

And of course other idiots decided to copy the madman. If you think that driving on the right is the thing to do then you are one of those idiots.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Janie
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 10:50 PM

What Dan said. I'm a leftie who has never driven outside the USA, and a good driver, or so I often have been told by folks ranging from impatient teenagers to old aunties. I don't think handedness is an issue.

Regarding the headlights. Getting seriously night-blind and avoid driving at night as much as possible. Hard for me to see how it would make a difference if driving lanes were reversed from what I have grown up with.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 10:39 PM

Spent a week in Ireland driving on what was, for me, the wrong side of the road, being the right side of the road. The rental company said it was the first time Americans hadn't had any accidents at all - it was our honeymoon and we took turns driving, looking the wrong way at corners, getting honked at but not hit, even the time we (well, I) went the wrong way round the roundabout. It was harrowing but OK for not two days in a row!

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: olddude
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 09:50 PM

No its just how you are taught and how much you drive. You could say driving backwards is best if that's all you do every day. Driving is learned behavior not instinct

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: michaelr
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 08:56 PM

I can say from experience that the switch does not take long to get used to. Yes, you'll be white-knuckling it for an hour or two, especially in roundabouts, but it will seem quite normal in no time.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Airymouse
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 07:03 PM

"When it comes to driverless cars, there seem to be legal roadblocks popping up all over America. The FBI and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have also expressed concerns over the self-driving vehicles. Meanwhile, the UK will allow the cars on roads starting in January. So is the U.S. falling behind the curve?" (From a Yahoo finance article about Ford) I have decided to wait a few years to allow you all to perfect the driverless car, although riding with my wife must be a pretty close simulation.
So I have levophobia. I will work on urban northern England, rather than Sidmouth, and try for early August. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:38 PM

The UK is intending to run a test of driverless cars in one city next year, that's all. It will presumably stop when they kill somebody and that will be the last we hear of them.

Probably your best bets for folk by public transport would be urban northern England (Sheffield, Liverpool, York, Manchester etc) or urban southern Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk, Lothians and Borders). Sidmouth is only feasible for campervan owners, there is no accommodation.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:11 PM

A couple of links for consideration.


Coping with driving fears 

Dextrophobia 

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Rumncoke
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:08 PM

I have only ever driven in England, so I have no experience of driving on the right hand side of the road.

You might try experiencing the delights of Sidmouth folk week - the first week in August, though I think it is spread out over nine days now - and when it finishes on the Friday you can go straight to another festival for the weekend, then you'd probably feel like lying down in a darkened room for a few days to recover. You should be able to use the festival busses and public transport, maybe even get a lift in between festivals.

As for driverless cars - I think that they are just about legal, but practical is another thing altogether.

Subject: RE: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 06:03 PM

For an interesting summary of which countries drive on which side and why: http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/

That's the first I've heard of England allowing driverless cars next year. Have you a source, or did you hear about it in the pub?

Subject: BS: driving on the wrong side of the road
From: Airymouse
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 05:20 PM

This message addresses 3 different topics:
1) I am convinced that the better way to drive is to drive on the left side of the road. I base this on these two assumptions: more people are right handed than are left handed; it is easier for a right-handed driver to handle a right turn than a left turn. If you drive on the left and leave your high beams on you will blind a driver who is making a sharp right turn, but not a driver who is making a sharp left turn; the opposite is true if you drive on the right side of the road.
2) I have driven on the right side of the road, since I got my license and even before, and I am terrified of trying to make the switch, especially as I had a friend in college who was killed in England by a driver who was unsuccessful in making the switch. I would like to wander about Great Britain popping in on sing-arounds and such.
2a) When (say 14 to 17 days) and where would be best if I had to rely on public transportation and taxis
2b) I understand that starting next year England is going to allow Google's driverless cars on the road. Will they be for rent? Is this technology a solution to my problem?