I’m headed for London in a couple of weeks, visiting a law-school friend. She has very kindly offered the use of her family weekend cottage as well, but she recommends hiring a car as many of the local attractions are otherwise unreachable.
I have never driven a right-hand-driver car. I lived in Japan twice, and found even looking the correct way before crossing the street something of a challenge at first.
Am I insane?
p.s. I will not be hiring a stick-shift. I never learned in this country and I’m certainly not going all the way to England for that particular experience.
Well, some guy I know of has an R34 Nissan Skyline (right hand drive) and he seems to survive driving in the left hand drive society that is America Town.
I went to Barbados and rented a right-handed car for a week. Because Barbados is a former British colony, the cars drive on the left side of the road as they do in Britain. It did feel odd, but no major thing. Only once did I mess up, by turning left and then driving along in the right lane. I quickly saw oncoming cars up ahead, and switched to the left lane.
It’s not too hard. When I visited the US, I drove my mum’s car a bit. My biggest problem was not driving the car itself (although I did turn on the windscreen wipers when I meant to turn on the indicator on more than one occasion), but the thing I found hardest was remembering to drive on the right side of the road. So long as you concentrate, you get used to it. Just be very careful at intersections, it’ll be the right hand turns that are the “tricky” ones, requiring a gap in traffic in both directions. That one nearly got me every time…
We lived in Japan twice, and I found driving a car right-handed car surprisingly easy to get used to. Then, I’m left-handed, so maybe that helped. Like robinc308 said, just pay attention when making turns.
Here is someones tips on driving on the wrong side of the road. I find the hardest thing to get used to is actually entering a roadway from a driveway or parking lot, it’s easy to just turn on to the wrong side of the road as you aren’t in the traffic flow.
Exactly how does that Magic Roundabout work? How do you choose between turning left and keeping to the outside, and entering the middle and turning right? And how do you make your way through the middle–successive stops?
I’d hate to come on that one unawares…
(Roundabouts, here called ‘traffic circles’, are uncommon in Canada. I think I’ve seen three in my life. There used to be one on Old Highway 16 on the way south out of Ottawa, near the Experimental Farm, but that was years ago and I’ve no idea whether it’s still there. And I saw two while on holiday in Nova Scotia…)
Traffic circles seem to be prevalent on Hilton Head Island, SC (I’ve see 4 but there are likely more), which is where my girlfriend lives. I fear and hate them and try to avoid them at all costs they just confuse the life out of me. I’m a careful driver, but I’ve almost gotten in three recks on those things because I simply can’t figure them out.
Standard policy as far as I worked on when driving round “the magic roundabout” was to point the car at the exit you wanted, squirt the throttle and hope there ain’t no godamn truck coming your way, a more hazadous drive to work I can’t imagine. Imagine the local radio traffic reports in the area. “The Magic Roundabout is all backed up again, as some foreign bugger screwed it up again”. Only joking in this case foreign counts as anyone living outside of Swindon,UK (and half of the locals can’t do it either).
Merrin
I’m from Massachussetts, the rotary (roundabout) capital of the US, and I consider myself to be something of an expert at negotiating a rotary. But that Magic Roundabout is absolutely blowing my mind. Two directions of traffic, and those little mini circles on the side…I have no idea what’s going on there, but I know it would scare the crap out of me if I had to drive through it.
I rented a car when I was in the UK a couple of years ago. I only had one problem at that was figuring out that I had right of way in the first round-about. It’s not hard to remember to drive on the other side as the steering wheel is on the other side so you kind of remember. It was kind of intersting to shift with the left hand though.
I rented a RHD car in South Africa - took about 10 minutes to get used to. You keep messing up the indicator/wiper reversal though. But that’s not a big deal.
Just remember to tell yourself at each intersection: “Where am I going? What lane?”. Especially on empty roads.
Oh, I knew Dopers would come through - thanks to you all. Good to know that others have done it and survived. (My friend had insisted that it was OK, but then admitted that she actually left most of the driving to her native-born husband…)
Am actually not that concerned about circles because I learned to drive in DC, the only U.S. city that has lots of them. Yes, they’re a bit nerve-wracking, but I got used to them pretty quickly.
It sounds like the best strategy will be to hire a car once I’m well out of London. I’ve done the same here in New York - taken the train to White Plains and got a rental there, rather than deal with city traffic.
Having been through the experience in the other direction (having recently visited the US and driven from Vegas to SFO via LA), I think Coldie has sumarised it best here - it is only at intersections (since you are used to turning tight to the right and wide to the left and it is now the other way around) and on empty roads (where there are no visual clues from other vehicles to help you) that there is a problem…
As for roundabouts - I would hate to have to deal with French roundabouts, where those cars already in the circle have to give way to traffic entering!! That scares me!!!
On the other hand - something you may well struggle with coming “across the pond” is the width of the roads. US roads are very wide indeed compared with UK roads (apart from the motorways) and this problem is highlighted in the countrside where a road that is already only just wide enough for two cars has huge hedges planted an inch from each side of the tarmac - resulting in a view of the road (and traffic) ahead that is restricted to just a few dozen yards… which leaves nowhere to run to when that truck appearsin the middle of the road ahead…
I have found driving on the right to be quite easy (moved over to the US about 6 weeks ago from the UK). I think it helps that many of the roads around here are seperated by a median of some sort. We are going back to the UK for our honeymoon though, so it should be interesting to see how easily I slip back into driving on the left.
I managed to drive with a stick over here too, it took a little getting used to, changing gear with my right hand, but I managed just fine.
I think that unless a road is really quiet, it is not difficult to figure out what side of the road to turn onto. One thing I wonder is if you will try to turn when the traffic light is red. It occurred to me that this may be something which people assume is done everywhere (it is so useful, I wish it was done on the UK - left turn on red)
As a Brit who has spent some time in DC, let me say, you j-j-j-just ain’t seen nothing yet! Piccadilly Circus vs Dupont Circle? Hah!
Anyway, by far the best things you can do are:
a) DO NOT get a left-hand drive car – the fact that you are on the “wrong” side of the car will serve as a constant reminder to be on the “wrong” side of the road .
b) DO get a “native” to drive out with you asap – this will be invaluable – the two driving “experiences” (US vs UK) are different in many subtle ways, for instance you will have to learn to use your indicators (turn signals) before you make your manoeuvres You will also be surprised that the driving lanes are only wide enough to get one car in – meanwhile the locals may be convinced that this is an eight-lane highway.
c) DON’T even consider manual if you have never driven manually before.
d) DO let me know where and when you will be on the roads, so I can stay in that day.
You will also be surprised that the driving lanes are only wide enough to get one car in – meanwhile the locals may be convinced that this is an eight-lane highway.