I can’t tell you how pleased I was to find an article in the Telegraph about UK travelers and driving on the right, which of course for them is the “wrong” side of the road.
Just goes to show that reversing years of motor vehicle operating training will pretty much cause your brain to explode.
One of the most difficult mental drills that I’ve ever tried was driving on the left, in Japan, in a stick-shift (manual) car.
Remember, this means that the steering wheel and driver’s side are the opposite of what I’m used to, the turn signal and windshield wiper controls are swapped on the steering column (you can always tell a brand-new “opposite side driver” because when they come up to a turn, their wipers start going) and the stick-shift in a Japanese car is operated with the left hand. I also have to shift gears with the “letter H shift pattern” in almost a mirror sequence to what I’m used to, steering a wheel that’s on the opposite side of the dashboard, remembering to look to the left for the rear-view mirror, all while trying not to hit anything.
The act of making a turn across an intersection is terrifying, and yes, I’ve had a cranial burp mid-intersection and turned, out of long habit, directly into oncoming traffic because I drove into the lane that I was used to, on the “correct” side of the road.
Hey, I only did that with my boss in the front seat one time. Much unprintable yelling by both driver and passenger. It really makes one appreciate roundabouts, where drivers can circulate ad infinitum until they get their act together.
One of the keys to success in opposite-side driving, for me at least, is continuous chatter. While driving in Japan (and during a short family trip to Ireland) either my husband or I would repeat the mantra, “Left, left, left. Stay to the left, left, left.” Chant even louder when approaching an intersection, since the primal driving brain seems to take over at the worst possible time.
Sainted Husband, who drove more than I did in Japan, found himself getting really screwed up when we stopped in Hawaii on vacation on our move back to the States; he’d worked so hard to retrain himself to be a Japanese driver, he could barely handle getting our rental car around Oahu. I did a lot of chanting.
The Travel Insider ran into many of the same issues in driving on the other side of the road, as did blogger Photo Matt.
The short Telegraph piece points to a British Airways/Avis Rental Cars joint Web site that offers handy driving guides for countries around the world. The info on driving in the USA was interesting to read as a US person; pretty straightforward, but good to be reminded that for visitors, not everything is self-evident (“It is not uncommon for you to have to pay for fuel (‘gas’) before you actually fill the fuel tank. If you fill the tank with less fuel than you originally thought, this will be refunded to you at the kiosk.”)
Yep, and we think a “boot” is a sort of shoe, not the trunk of a car.
On the other hand, while reading about driving in the UK, I was interested to learn that “It is also quite common to encounter horseriders on rural roads. These should be treated as a potential hazard, so expect the unexpected. Horses can be easily scared by noise and may panic around fast moving vehicles.” Erm, OK. For visitors to the US, the same cautions apply to the horse-drawn buggies that you’ll find in our Amish communities.
As residents in Japan, we had formal driving lessons to help re-train our brain. I cannot imagine as a traveler just showing up to an “opposite side” country, renting a car and trying to figure it out on the spot.
Save your poor brain cells and take the train or bus, or at least spend one heck of a lot of time driving around the rental car company parking lot before you venture out onto roads.
And bring that person to chant in the front seat….”left, left, left” or “right, right, right” as the situation requires.
Technorati tags: travel, driving on the left, driving on the right
Driving on the left is correct for right-handed people the great majority, here is why:
When changing gear in a UK car with the steering wheel on the right , this is of course correct in the UK etc for driving on the left——–your left hand changes gear and your right hand stays on the steering wheel, (this is safer for right handed people.)
The reverse is the case in countries where one must drive on the right.– in other words if you live in the USA you hold the steering wheel with your left hand and change gear with your right hand because of course the steering wheel is on the left in the USA——–this is dangerous if you are right handed.
Bicycles: Bike riders are in real danger in countries where driving on the right is mandatory again assuming you are right handed—-Try mounting a bike in the USA and you will find yourself in the stream of traffic when getting on the bike—- try it yourself———: Mounting a bike in the UK is done from the sidewalk by right handed people who find it easier to put their right leg over the bike. , Much safer and this must have saved many lives.
Reversing up a steep drive: My drive in the UK is very steep———-when I reverse out I hold the steering wheel with my right hand and look over my left shoulder to the rear window. In a USA car you must hold the steering wheel with your left hand and look over your right shoulder to look out of the rear window.. So you must reverse with your left hand on the steering wheel.. Or stick your head out of the window if you want to use your right hand on the steering wheel. —Dangerous for the 82% right handed majority.
Right handed people who are also “right eyed” have the traffic coming toward them on their right in left hand driving areas , which is the way “right eyed” people are able to react better. When overtaking on a right hand driving USA road the right eyed/handed driver looks in the mirror with the left eye and also views the oncoming traffic with the left eye. A change of gear is sometimes needed to overtake so he/she is driving left handed while changing gear with the right hand and looking in the mirror and oncoming traffic with the left eye. Of course the gear change should in theory be completed before pulling out but this in practice is not always the case. The prevalence of automatic gear change in the USA may not be just luxury after all but necessity
Perhaps a billion cyclists in right hand driving areas around the world are all risking their lives mounting their bike in traffic. Also In right hand driving areas a greater number of people reverse with their heads out of the window and hundreds of millions of right handed drivers hold the steering wheel at speed with their left hand. There are over 6 billion people in the world today and billions of people using road transport. Driving on the left is safer and provably safer for right handed drivers; however I concede that because over 60% of the world drives on the right there is no prospect of a global change to driving on the left.
Mounting a horse, for further illustration of the problems caused by driving on the right just try mounting a horse from the right hand side (If you are right handed)
There is significant evidence that in the days of the Roman Empire everyone drove on the left. (That’s one in the eye for Hollywood!). This was partly because one mounts a horse from its left (we all do) and it was sensible not to be doing this whilst out ‘in the traffic’.
Also, carters needed their right arms free to wave swords at would-be attackers. Therefore they sat on the right hand end of the driver’s bench. When carts passed each other the drivers needed to be sure that they actually missed each other so they passed “driver to driver”. I.e. they drove on the left.
Evidence from Roman gold mines indicates that they drove on the left. The ruts left by the loaded carts leaving the mine are on the left side of the road whilst lighter empty carts entered on their left side.
Everyone in Europe changed to driving on the right when Napoleon started mucking around because he was LEFT handed and driving on the RIGHT is better for LEFT HANDED people .
Incidentally, French main line trains pass on the left too. This is because their railways were mainly built by British engineers. I don’t think that they’ve ever forgiven us for this
Chris, I think your comment is as long as the post itself, which is odd since most of it seems like the confessions of an uncoordinated person. Most people I know are perfectly able to mount a bicycle from either side and last time I mounted a horse it was from the right and I thought nothing of it. Steering with your right hand is no harder than steering with your left; in an automatic car most people alternate hands during a trip. Why would looking over one shoulder be any different than looking over the other when backing up?
It’s a moot argument anyway. Right lane driving rules the world, so cars with steering wheels on the right will always have a limited market. If it weren’t for Japan, many manufacturers probably would have abandoned that market by now.