Driving on the "Other" Side of the Road

How long does it take to begin feeling comfortable?
on the highway , not long...city driving , never...
biggest problem for me was, the damn windshield wiper stalk is reversed with the turn signal stalk...
and the urban areas are loaded with traffic circles, i can still hear my kids and wife yelling at me..

45 yrs of driving muscle memory is hard to undue
 
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on the highway , not long...city driving , never...
Depends upon the city. Clean grids are OK. Sydney was more challenging. London must be the worst. I did not mind the traffic circles. Parking lots can be problematic.
biggest problem for me was, the damn windshield wiper stalk is reversed with the turn signal stalk...
Yes. Amusingly, on the way home from LAX in my own car today I once turned on the windshield wiper instead of the turn signal. My first car, 1971 BMW Bavaria, had the turn signal lever on the right.
 
Driving left:
3400km in Australia in 2022 and probably maybe 3000km in 2018.
4400km in NZ in 2016.
I don’t recommend driving 750km solo towards Hotham from Sydney on your first day, especially if you barely sleeping across Canada and over the Pacific to Sydney.
First roundabout is always the worst.
 
You parked your car at the airport for five weeks?
Lonnie lives about 5 miles from LAX. We leave Liz' mother's 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe there and take a $25 Lyft from there instead of $80+ from home.
Liz was in her 2014 Aspen/Jim Lindsey boots
And I was in my 2010's decade Lange RX100's. We donated both to Afriski at the end of the day. This freed up room for 4 bottles of South African wine in our checked luggage.
Driving left:
New Zealand 1982, 1997, 2010, 2012, 2019. I was with NASJA in 2006 and didn't need a car.
Australia 1997, 2012, 2019, 2023. I'm still wanted in WA for those obnoxious speed cameras.
South Africa 2002, 2024.
I don’t recommend driving 750km solo towards Hotham from Sydney on your first day
I drove up to the Blue Mountains upon arrival in Sydney. The drive back to our hotel at Manly Beach was tough. I was sticking my head out the open window to stay awake.
 
First time in US I drive up the coast highway from LA to San Fran. No problems adjusting.
Then hit San Fran peak hour on a Friday afternoon trying to reach our hotel near Union Square. Wow. Major adjustment issues with trams and cable cars and general madness.

But Milan and Turin with their crazy drivers would be the toughest ‘wrong side of the road’ driving for me.
 
But Milan and Turin with their crazy drivers would be the toughest ‘wrong side of the road’ driving for me.
Rome is "right side" for me but was still nuts. But ski country in Italy is like other places. I like the Italian autostrada for higher speed flow of traffic than the other alpine countries.

If you want to get into the weeds about left vs. right hand traffic, check this out. Patrick may be interested to learn that several non-French Canadian provinces were left hand traffic until the 1920's and Newfoundland until 1947.
 
It usually takes a few days to start feeling comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road. The first time I did it in the UK, I found city driving quite challenging as there is more traffic to contend with and more decisions to make at junctions/roundabouts.
 
The most dangerous part of an "other side of the road" country is being a pedestrian. When crossing the street you instinctively look the wrong way. When driving the car your position in the driver's seat is a constant reminder where you are.
 
The Caribbean Islands are fun! Driving is primarily left-side, but in mostly American cars, the driver's wheel is on the wrong side!

I primarily mess up windshield wipers and turn signals.
 
My first experience driving in a former British Colony was Kenya in 1989. I was 20 years old. As the result of an exchange of favors between development NGOs, for the better part of a week, I ended up as the informal driver for a soon-to-be-retired Canadian development worker. On the first day, we started innocently enough in the genteel southwestern suburbs of Nairobi. This was good, as running through the gears of the manual transmission of his pristine Toyota Landcruiser with my left hand took some getting used to. Over the subsequent days, however, I was duking it out for position at speed with the city's predatory matatu and lorry drivers in the chaotic traffic circles (clockwise!) around central Nairobi and the narrow, rutted alleys of eastern Nairobi's sprawling slums. I concluded my short tenure as chauffer with a foggy, rainy, late-night long haul from Nairobi to his home in Meru province over steep, twisty roads on the shoulders of Mt. Kenya. A baptism by fire for sure. I kinda still can't believe I didn't at least put a ding on some part of that beautiful Landcruiser.

The Caribbean Islands are fun! Driving is primarily left-side, but in mostly American cars, the driver's wheel is on the wrong side!

I primarily mess up windshield wipers and turn signals.
You have an interesting sense of "fun." We've rented cars on Tortola, Nevis, Barbados, and Grenada. Somehow, I think we've only ended up with a left-hand drive car on Nevis. Ten days in Grenada was the most challenging driving I've ever had to endure. Scarier the Kenya, although that might be because I was 54, not 20, and I had my wife and daughter in the car.

The wipers and turn signals are also my biggest challenge at this point.
 
We had two car rentals during last month's trip to UK: 6 days in Scotland in a Nissan Juke with a 6-speed and 4 days in N England where we paid for a Skoda with an automatic and received a BMW 218iM hybrid auto. I was fortunate the Juke is somewhat of an SUV with big tires as roads on Isle of Skye are narrow without shoulders. I dropped wheels off into soft grass at speed when moving to side to allow oncoming traffic room to pass. I knew better than to jerk it back onto road possibly into oncoming traffic that I let pass while slowing down a little before getting back on.

There are also many one lanes roads with very short passing areas that I don't think would work well in my part of California. The only times I got on the wrong side was when pulling out onto an empty road a couple of times and oncoming vehicle made me quickly realize I was on the wrong side and correct. When I lived in N England in 1980 I had a narrow Triumph Spitfire with steering on correct side. Co-workers had a Ford Granada and Chevy van shipped over and not only were they too wide, but to pass required exposing most of their vehicle to see if it was clear.

The BMW was formerly owned by employee at car hire place that bought it from him when they needed more vehicles. I was lucky that he came out to buy something from food truck and was able to connect my phone to vehicle as it was not plug and play. I also had trouble exiting BMW at first stop as I had to read manual to find button that disabled car so it could be locked. The roads I drove crossing N England included many one-lane bridges, but mostly without traffic. Driving in UK is not as much fun as in 1980 with all the red-light and speed cameras, including some that claim to calculate your average speed over a distance.
 
You have an interesting sense of "fun." We've rented cars on Tortola, Nevis, Barbados, and Grenada. Somehow, I think we've only ended up with a left-hand drive car on Nevis. Ten days in Grenada was the most challenging driving I've ever had to endure.

Sometimes, I did get proper cars in the Caribbean to drive on the left side, but not often. The worst islands are the mountainous Leeward/Southern islands - Grenada and Dominica in particular - followed by St. Lucia and St. John. Take it slow and use the horn. Dominica was especially cautious in designated 'Rental Cars' so locals knew to beware - not great from a theft perspective, though. Like when Florida stuck Z on rental car plates, and German tourists were getting robbed/shot at gunpoint.

We had two car rentals during last month's trip to UK: 6 days in Scotland in a Nissan Juke with a 6-speed and 4 days in N England where we paid for a Skoda with an automatic and received a BMW 218iM hybrid auto. I was fortunate the Juke is somewhat of an SUV with big tires as roads on Isle of Skye are narrow without shoulders. I dropped wheels off into soft grass at speed when moving to side to allow oncoming traffic room to pass. I knew better than to jerk it back onto road possibly into oncoming traffic that I let pass while slowing down a little before getting back on.

There are also many one lanes roads with very short passing areas that I don't think would work well in my part of California. The only times I got on the wrong side was when pulling out onto an empty road a couple of times and oncoming vehicle made me quickly realize I was on the wrong side and correct

My worst rental experience was driving in Western Ireland. We rented an SUV since it was cheaper than anything else—why not? They gave us some manual behemoth that did not work well on the nearly one-lane country roads with stonewalls on both sides. We quickly stopped using Google Maps/Waze and switched to dumber Apple/Yahoo Maps that would only take us on main roads where the car fit.
 
That's the way it is in most of the world. I believe North America is an anomaly in that regard.
The number of traffic circles in rural and suburban areas in the east and midwest has been increasing tremendously in the last decade. Bottom line is that in comparison to 4-way stop signs or a major-minor road intersection with stop signs only for the minor road, a single lane traffic circle is less likely to have a severe or fatal accident.

I can think of a dozen intersections within 30 miles of my house in central NC that have traffic circles that weren't there 10-20 years ago. Including a new interchange with I-540 (outer loop for Raleigh) with a county road.

How long does it take to begin feeling comfortable?
Never got comfortable on UK traffic circles. Only rented a car once for a trip to the UK with my husband and friends staying about two hours north of London.

Developed a habit of looking both ways as a pedestrian even on 1-way roads when I was in Singapore with my parents for several months as a young adult long ago.
 
I can think of a dozen intersections within 30 miles of my house in central NC that have traffic circles
Colorado LOVES traffic circles... and also the new Diverging Diamond interstate intersections.

I have 3 traffic circles within about 1/2 mile from my house for example (all built in the past ~15 years or less).
 
I've driven pretty extensively throughout the Front Range and have no recollection of even one.
Wow! They are all over the place on the N side of of the metro. Plus many, many of them in most mtn towns too (not all, but most big resort towns). But not near resorts you'd go to, I guess. For fun look up the absolute maze of them in Avon near I70 and heading to Beaver Creek... In that town they are trying very hard to give the Euro's a "run for their money" on the concept. Often 4-5 of them per exit along I70 along the Vail- Gypsum stretch of I70 for example.
 
They are all over the place on the N side of of the metro.
You mean north of I-70? If yes, that explains it as I'm never up there. I'm so old that I can remember when Broomfield was nothing more than an RTD stop on the way to Boulder!

Same deal with the I-70 resorts -- the only ski areas I've patronized in the past 15 years are Loveland and Cooper (and further west, Sunlight and Powderhorn).
 
New development loves incorporating traffic circles. It's like a New Urbanism requirement.


My favorite use of traffic circles is in The Villages, FL (the USA's largest retirement community). There are no red lights—all traffic circles!! It likely saved developers money since it is just an unincorporated free-for-all. However, elderly drivers typically plow straight through them after hours/sunset/post-happy hour. Add golf cart crossings into the mix, and it's scary.




The original ones (100+ years old) in New England became too crowded to effectively service traffic. For example, there are numerous rotaries around Boston, where traffic becomes gridlocked trying to enter. People used to complain about bridges to Cape Cod (over the canal), but the real culprit was the rotaries before the bridge requiring every driver to come to a stop, causing 30-120 min delays every summer weekend:

The Sagamore Bridge was improved.
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/2006/10/21/sagamore-rotary-no-more-romney/50376192007/

The Bourne Bridge is still a mess but has less traffic:

And will eventually get eliminated:


Boston.com readers voted the top 10 worst rotaries in Greater Boston. From worst to not-as-worst:

No. 1: Route 2, Concord

No. 2: Kosciuszko Circle (Morrissey and Day boulevards and Columbia Road), Dorchester

No. 3: Newton Corner (I-90), Newton

No. 4: Bell Circle (Routes 16, 60, 1A, and Beach Street), Revere

No. 5: Fresh Pond Parkway (Routes 2, 16 and 3 — technically two rotaries), Cambridge

No. 6: Powder House Circle (College Avenue, Broadway, Warner Street, and Powder House Boulevard), Somerville

No. 7: Bourne Circle (Route 28 and Trowbridge Road), Bourne

No. 8: Sullivan Square (I-93/Routes 1, 99, and 38, Alford and Main streets), Charlestown

No. 9: Roosevelt Circle (Interstate 93, Route 28 and S. Border Road), Medford

No. 10: Route 129 Rotary at Route 128, Reading/Wakefield




Maps of these beauties / "Circles of Death."
 
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