For the 1st one, I’d like any Americans who have visited England as tourists to play along: Try to recall a car or bus ride that you took when you visited England. Picture the scene as you’re driving, perhaps looking at landmarks or the countryside. If you were not the driver, picture the inside of the vehicle from where you were sitting.
Now, what side of the road were you on in your recollection? And what side of the car did the driver sit on?
Maybe it’s just me, but I always picture myself riding on the right side of the road or highway, and the driver on the front left. This knowing full well that they drive on the left side, and the driver sits on the front right side of the car. Same thing happens when I think of trips I took to India.
By the way, I know that many other countries could replace the US and England in my scenario, but I chose a common one, and didn’t want to give away the point by being too precise.
Yes, that’s how I remember being a passenger in a car in England. Possibly my mind was normalizing the input in real time in order to avoid panic or simply to retain the information at all.
The first time I drove in England in tiny Mini-Minor I was on the right side and the car on the left and that’s how I picture. I’ve been many times on public buses and taxis in Barbados and I always picture it the way it was, with cars on the left and the wheel on the right.
The only specific car experiences I remember from Ireland were, one, going down a country lane so narrow that once we realized it didn’t go anywhere, we had to make a 17-point-turn to get back out (and where there hence wasn’t any such thing as a “side of the road”), and two, when Mom pulled out of a parking spot and accidentally started driving on the wrong side until we saw an oncoming car (and hence where me remembering us driving on the right was the correct memory).
But here’s another one for you. Fellow Americans, you all know what a penny looks like, right? So, without actually taking one out to check, answer me this: Which way is Abe’s profile facing on it?
I used to live near a tall block of apartments in front of which there was a palm tree. Someone had tossed a lit cigarette out their apartment window, and now the treetop was smoldering, looking like it would go up in flames at any minute. I joined a group of people who were standing at the base of the tree, staring skyward and taking in the spectacle. Firefighters arrived, they quickly put an end to the show and the crowd dispersed. So, here’s the thing: A few days later, I told someone about the towering palm tree, the plume of smoke, the crowd, etc. When I’d finished, he grinned and said he knew exactly which apartments and tree I’d described, and he asked if I hadn’t exaggerated some of the details. The next time I passed the spot, I saw that the tree was much smaller than I’d described it. I had to laugh and cringe at the same time because, as much as I love embellishing good stories for comic effect, I thought I’d told this one accurately. I guess the perspective from the base of the tree made a big impression on me.
My recollection is–I was sitting in the left-hand seat. And driving.
Which is clearly not the case, as one lowlight of the trip was me driving through a narrow opening in a street on the outskirts of London and slicing into a metal pole on the left of the car, i.e. away from the driver’s side.
So in my case you’d think I’d REALLY remember the reality. But I don’t. Oh well.
Family went to London, then rented a car for a week to drive around England. Everyone else was scared to try right-hand driving, so I got behind the wheel.
Just sitting there before I put the car in gear, I was surprised, and then intrigued, to feel my brain switching into some kind of Mirror Image Mode.
I had no trouble after that, even flying through some of the first roundabouts I’d seen (this was the '80s), all the while thinking “Why aren’t I scared? What the hell happened to my brain? Why isn’t this weird?”
I’ve heard that it’s more difficult to adapt to one of the mismatched countries where the “driver’s side” is the same as the side you’re driving on (i.e., steering wheel on the left and driving on the left, or wheel on the right and driving on the right).
Not the driving picture, but I have a picture of me, my dad a parked Austin Mini (red), a tree and not much else. I see the picture exactly the wrong way, left to right. My memory stores the mirror image.