Driving on the "wrong" side of the road?

[Abbey]

Hey guys,

So as a lot of you probably know, we here in merry old England like to drive on the left hand side of the road. I recently visited America (Florida) with my mum and we rented a car, and driving on the right-hand side of the road really freaked her out. Before she freaked out I was really looking forward to trying it out for myself, but her episode of pulling over at the side of the road and having a mini-breakdown didn't exactly make me enthusiastic for it. So I never did.

However recently I've been thinking about visiting one of my friends in Europe (Netherlands, to be more precise) but I know they drive on the right. I'd rather go by car through France and Belgium because I don't deal so well with planes, and if I meet people from teh interwebz it's always with my car as my safety net. It's not a first time "this is the first person I'd ever meet from the internet" - I've met a good portion of friends from online who live in the UK, and one who lives in Florida - I know the risks, I know what precautions to take, so that's why it kinda eliminates going by plane and having him pick me up.

Anyway, slight derail from the topic at hand there - does anyone have any experience of going from driving on one side of the road to visiting another country which drives on the "wrong" side? How did you deal with it?

Also, if you happen to be from Europe and know your road rules, how do you deal with things like overtaking?

One thing I noticed in America was that, because we were on the opposite side of the road, we had absolutely no idea which lanes to use to drive more slowly, or which lanes to use to overtake. In the UK if you have a motorway/highway with 2 or more lanes on each side of the road, you drive in the left hand lane and use the inside lanes to overtake. We didn't know if you'd still use the left hand lanes and overtake in the right, or it was literally reversed and you use the right hand lane to drive slow and left hand lane to overtake.

If that paragraph makes ABSOLUTELY no sense, feel free to ignore it. It's a really convoluted way of trying to explain it.. but I got nothing else xD

[Morrigainz]

I haven't done any driving in Europe but after a week in London we sure learned to LOOK the correct way!

As for passing/overtaking, it's literally the opposite. Drive right, pass left. (Or to confuse you more, the same - drive outside, pass inside.)

[Abbey]

Oh man yeah, looking.. that confused us so much in Florida, we'd be looking to the right and thinking.. "Why is everyone.. oh.. oh."

Good to know about the overtaking.. we pretty much just followed cars and hoped what they were doing was right xD but I think we pretty much stuck to the right and treated it as the exact reversal.

[msuroo]

We rented a car for a week in Grand Cayman (where they drive on the left), and I adjusted pretty quickly. The thing that I had to be careful about, when making a right hand turn - I would look over my right shoulder to make a car wasn't coming up behind me. Which doesn't make any sense - because traffic in that lane is coming from directly in front of you - instincts die hard I guess. All told though, the experience was no big deal.

[Blueberries]

It's definitely tough to adjust to driving on the opposite side of the road when you've spent your entire life doing it one way. The good news is that you'll (usually) adjust pretty quickly. I'm sorry your mom had such a tough time. It's hard to undo years of automatic reflexes! When I've gone somewhere and had to drive on the left side, it's taken a few days usually to really get used to the switch, and for those first few days it was really a full-concentration exercise. No music, no talking, etc. After a few days, I'm usually okay.

[Abbey]

Yeah I think my mum's main problem was that she'd only ever driven on the left hand side of the road.. for all 30~ years of her driving experience.

I honestly think it wouldn't be so bad for me, having only been driving for 6 years, but you never know. I like to know as much as I can about something I'm going to try and do before doing it

[JediJem]

Like the others have said; you adjust pretty quickly as long as you take it easy at first and perhaps not throw yourself straight onto the busiest motorways or into the biggest cities.

Strictly speaking I passed my test in Europe (Sweden), but that was only a week before moving to the UK (where I've now lived for 19 years) so I've never really driven on the right except for on holiday a couple of years ago. The things I noticed in particular were

1) That 'looking over your shoulder' thing mentioned by msuroo, and

2). (Assuming you're driving a manual rather than automatic) Every time I wanted to shift gears I would smash my left hand into the door before realising that no, the gearbox is on the other side...again: reflexes!

[Abbey]

Hmm, well I was planning on taking my own car across by ferry/eurostar so the gearbox wouldn't be an issue, and I guess going by ferry would mean avoiding towns right away whereas eurostar is from London directly to another town/city haha. I can imagine the gearbox thing would be a pain though D;

[tigersheart]

yup...I lived in England for 3 years when I was in the service maaaaany years ago. I was pretty nervous at first, but to be honest it is not that hard to switch.

The key is to make sure you get a car that is normal for that country...in other words, if you go to america, or Holland, or any other place with different side driving, drive a car with the steering wheel on the side it is suppose to be for that country...it really helps with keeping you in the correct lane.

Doing that you can always keep an easy reminder to yourself....the steering wheel must always be on the side of the car that is near the center of the road....if you find yourself driving, and the shoulder of the road is on the side of your steering wheel.....MOVE BACK OVER!!!!

[Lachy]

I'm from Australia (left hand driving, as it should be), and when I visited my sister in Las Vegas I did quite a bit of driving. I did a few laps of some quiet blocks to get used to it first, then on to the freeway and into the strip. Try to think about this, the middle of the lane is always at your outside shoulder. And if there's some one in front of you, line your head up with theirs, so you don't start drifting over in the lane. It'll feel uncanny at first, but you'll quickly adjust. Just don't panic, and take it easy.

[Abbey]

You guys are making this all sound infinitely less stressful xD I've gotta say I've been putting off this trip - no matter how badly I want to meet this friend - mostly because of the driving part of it. Thanks for all the replies ^.^

[Benjsec]

Overtaking is always towards the centre of the road.

Driver should be in the middle of the road.

The right car for the country will help A LOT.

Roundabouts will be very confusing. Really, going the wrong way around a roundabout is all kinds of crazy. Thankfully most countries don't have as many as we do!

[Abbey]

Hmm, so maybe taking my own car would be a bad idea? I think that's two or three who have now said get a car which is normal for that country.

Haha, unfortunately I've google mapped my route to the dude's house.. there's a couple of roundabouts, so that could be a thing. Oh dear xD

[Benjsec]

I'm not saying they're impossible, just prepare to be confused by roundabouts and make sure you pay attention!

The same for taking your own car, it's certainly not impossible as proved by thousands of people every day. But expect to find it harder and more confusing than if you have a 'local' car. If you're not a confident driver then have a good think about it - if you are then be prepared for the confusion of it, going against what you've always known.

[maegs]

I'm from Canada, and have driven in Australia and New Zealand. I actually found it a bit easier when there were other cars around, since that gave me a reference point going around corners, etc and kept me on the correct side of the road. Out in the country when there's no cars around it was easier to turn a corner and end up on the wrong side because of habit.

I drove on roundabouts for the first time there. I know it's the wrong way to do it, but for the first few (which were very close to where we picked the car up) I just stayed in the outside lane the whole way around until I got used to driving on the wrong and dealing with roundabouts at the same time.

I'd also say get a car that's 'normal' for where you're going, it'll make things a bit easier imho since you'll be sitting to the inside of the road, whereas in your own car you might be more tempted to drive on the wrong side since it'll put you in the 'correct' place relative to the road.

Gearshift should be in the same order as your car, same with the pedals. It's just a bit weird getting used to the gears being further/closer to you than normal.

Drive on the right, overtake on the left - towards the centre of the road.

One of the things that I found most helpful was just keeping calm, taking things slowly, and really focusing for the first while on what I was doing. After doing it for a while it was a lot easier, especially with other cars around to orient myself relative to.

[Abbey]

That all sounds really great I think I'll probably spend a good few hours just following other people but based on everything that's been said here I should be okay. Hopefully.

[andygates]

Oh, I got so confused by roundabouts! We had a thing for a few years where we'd take the Eurostar and a sleeper to the Alps, then "train" for a week or two (="hang out, ride, beer, hike, wii"). I used to ride up from the station and yeah, every time, massive hilarious adjustment. I don't think I've ridden round a French roundabout the correct way in my life.

(luckily it's all quiet!)