Other Side Of the Road Question?

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Is it weird driving in countries that drive on the left side of the road when your used to driving on the right side of the road? Were you afraid before you did? How'd you get over the fear of it?

 

 

I know this is rambling, But I'm curious.

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Can someone answer? Please.

[Wes]

Robb and Elissa are on a trip right now. They don't have time to answer stuff that isn't super important.

[Hhappy]

driving on the other side took me 5 minutes to get used to.. that's it.. and well every morning when leaving a hotel/parking i had to remind myself that in the UK they drive on a different side compared to the mainland..

driving of the train from France to the UK was a no brainer and it took 5 minutes max to get used to it (in my own car)

 

I can image though that taking a plane and then renting a car with a driver seat on the opposite side might be a bit more challenging.. especially in case of stick shift..

But then again.. when renting.. who needs stick shift??

 

But this is all my own personal experience

[Rollercoaster Rider]

I wonder if they can answer now?

[SharkTums]

Robb has spent a lot of time in the UK and has never had a problem with it.

 

It freaks me out to the point that I've never tried it! I may at some point though, just for fun!

[cfc]

I was navigating while my brother was driving in UK back in 2004. I think he only slipped up twice in Scotland.

 

The oncoming traffic will wise you up pretty quickly.

[larrygator]

When walking, I was confused which way to look first when crossing the street.

[robbalvey]

It's only a big deal if you're not confident in your own driving. I've probably covered about 10,000 miles in my 10+ years of driving around the UK (which is a LOT when you think of how small England is), and never once had a problem. I also had been driving manual transmission all my life and felt very confident about my driving.

 

If you're not used to driving much, I'm not sure it's something I would recommend.

[andybarnes84]

I'm guessing you're thinking of driving over here and not Japan, now that would be scary.

 

For me, driving on the wrong side of the road doesn't take long to get used to in the States because the roads are so logically laid out. Here in the U.K. things can be tighter and more tricky to navigate, you are often giving way to traffic at crossroads instead of having your own signal so you have to think more about that. If you can practise going round a roundabout in your head too that'll help a lot as you'll encounter many of them here, I thought they didn't exist in your fine nation until I drove through Clearwater! An auto is a no brainer unless you've driven manual/stick shift all your life.

 

I've yet to take my car across to mainland Europe, for some reason I think it would be the most difficult as you're driving on the wrong side of the road (or the correct side for most of you) yet the steering wheel is kerbside, that could fool me if tired.

 

Generally I'd say don't worry about driving here but try to stick out of the big cities during the week, unlike the states we built our cities with only horse and cart in mind and now we are paying the price, this country couldn't make it harder to own a car and just drive normally through major cities like you can over there.

 

All the best with your future wrong side driving!