Driving abroad.

SeaFields

Heading off on holidays in a few weeks and we are talking about renting a car for a few days to see more of our destination.

How hard is it to adapt to driving on the "wrong" side of the road?!
I see tourists here all the time doing 20 miles an hour, completely freaked out by our standard of road. I assume the quality of roads abroad make it a bit easier?


/mods, not sure if this is the right forum so move as appropriate. Thanks.

TwoShedsJackson

Have driven in the USA with almost no problems - you get used to driving on the other side of the road pretty quickly, or we did anyway.

You don't mention what country you're going to, clearly roads will vary in standard between say the USA and Congo (highly recommend reading this thread to anyone interested in motoring expeditions )

Tourists you see here doing 20 mph are more likely to be terrified whilst driving a manual, being used to an automatic, then by the standards of our roads.

Paulw

Standard of road is different from country to country. It might help say where you're going.

I'm heading to the US in two weeks time, and will be driving there. I've been a few times before, so am fairly used to the roads. Just pay attention to what you're doing.

SeaFields

Yeah, should have mentioned that. Heading to France. Want to see some of the D-Day sites so lots of travelling will be involved I believe.

thirtythirty

I almost don't notice driving on the other side because your driving position, all markings, signs, and other road users are operating accordingly so nothing seems out of place.

The only weird thing was when in a manual, I occasionally threw my left hand out to change gear and just mushed it into the door which felt odd. But got used to right hand gear changes pretty quick.

One thing I'll say is I've seen two people experience drifting to the right (kerbside) when they first jumped in. So just watch for that!

firefly08

It helps a lot to have someone else in the car with you to remind you. Times to beware are:

-when you turn a corner from the left lane of a one way street onto a two way street :eek:
-when you drive on your own
-when you're coming out of a petrol station etc.

Those will be the situations when you're most likely to make a mistake.

SeaFields

Cheers lads. Looks like it should be grand so with a bit of concentration.

Cookie_Monster

it's fine, the first time (leaving the airport) just make sure you're actively thinking about it and it should be no prob after the first few junctions / half hour

martinn123

You will have no problem, drove in France loads of time, after 1/2 hour its natural.
They have one crazy rule of road, driving on a minor road, in a straight line, and at a junction with a similar minor road, the car pulling out in front of you, from the left, has right of way.

Also motorways are all Tolled, on entry don't look for a basket to throw in coins, you get a ticket, and pay on Exiting Motorway, charge will be based on the distance you travelled

Enjoy

padma

if you see someone flashing their lights at you, do not immediately think they are rude, just check you are on the right hand side of the road.

ambro25

martinn123 wrote: »

They have one crazy rule of road, driving on a minor road, in a straight line, and at a junction with a similar minor road, the car pulling out in front of you, from the left, has right of way.

I'm not sure if this is completely clear: cars on your right have right of way over you, you have right of way over cars to your left (logical, you are to their right). This is known as the "priorité à droite" and is a decades-old driving principle (law, actually).

Note that it's not limited to minor roads, it applies everywhere which isn't otherwise regulated by a sign or a light (as in: in default of signage, cars on your right have right of way).

SeaFields wrote:

I see tourists here all the time doing 20 miles an hour, completely freaked out by our standard of road driving.

Corrected that for accuracy

As for tips and tricks of driving LHD when used to RHD, as pointed earlier the 'worst' spots that can catch you are street corner junctions (in absence of other cars on the road, natural tendency to overshoot into oncoming lane) and roundabouts (anti-clockwise over there ).

CiniO

martinn123 wrote: »

You will have no problem, drove in France loads of time, after 1/2 hour its natural.
They have one crazy rule of road, driving on a minor road, in a straight line, and at a junction with a similar minor road, the car pulling out in front of you, from the left, has right of way.

It's opposite as you described. Car coming from the right on the junction has the right of way. That's the rule on all junctions of roads of equal importance, including T-junctions

It's actually nothing new. Exactly the same rules apply in Ireland, with only difference, that on T-junctions cars going straight have the right of way.

coylemj

Driving in France is a breeze, they conveniently have clear blue signs at roundabouts with an arrow reminding you which way to go (anti-clockwise). It's surprising how quickly you adapt - driving a local car with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side also helps.

Since it's your first time driving on the right, getting an automatic might reduce the stress levels.

Just be extra cautious when turning left, remember that you need to look both ways because you'll be mentally programmed to only look to the right.

Despite the raft of advice you'll get about giving way to people coming from the right, I suspect most of it comes from people who have not driven in France for some time, I drove in Corsica last year and on the approach to every single town and village I passed through in rural Corsica there was a yellow diamond sign which indicates that priorité à droite did not apply.

Anywhere out in the countryside where priorité à droite might have applied in the past they have stuck a roundabout, do not worry about this rule, it is not an issue to be concerned about.

Take a look here, scroll down to Traffic Rules.....

http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_France

CiniO

coylemj wrote: »

Anywhere out in the countryside where priorité à droite might have applied in the past they have stuck a roundabout, do not worry about this rule, it is not an issue to be concerned about.

You are right that there is no need to be worried about that rule, but anyone driving on the continent should have it in mind, that there are equal importance junctions, very often signed with triangle sign with a cross (but not always), and you really have to yield to driving coming from the right.

Remember as well, that if there is 3 lanes in one direction (f.e. lane 1, lane 2 and lane 3 counting from the right), so if the driver from lane 1 wants to change to lane 2. And driver from lane 3 at the same time wants to change to lane 2, then right of way goes to driver changing lane from the right, which in this case is driver from lane 1.

coylemj

CiniO wrote: »

You are right that there is no need to be worried about that rule, but anyone driving on the continent should have it in mind, that there are equal importance junctions, very often signed with triangle sign with a cross (but not always), and you really have to yield to driving coming from the right.

Remember as well, that if there is 3 lanes in one direction (f.e. lane 1, lane 2 and lane 3 counting from the right), so if the driver from lane 1 wants to change to lane 2. And driver from lane 3 at the same time wants to change to lane 2, then right of way goes to driver changing lane from the right, which in this case is driver from lane 1.

I appreciate you are trying to help the OP but quite frankly there is a situation here where is simply too much advice. If he is driving around the battlefields of Normandy he is not going to come across three-lane motorways, just local roads.

I was almost paranoid going to Corsica last year with all the advice I got, what I found on the ground was completely different from the minefield I thought I was going to..

1. Every town I passed through had a yellow diamond on the approach road so priorité à droite did not apply.

2. Every junction in the countryside where roads of equal priority met was a roundabout, otherwise you didn't notice it and you certainly didn't have to give way to anyone. This meant that unless there was a roundabout or traffic lights, you had the right of way as long as you were driving in a straight line, despite all the warnings about priorité à droite

So almost every piece of 'advice' I got was completely irrelevant.

red menace

Have driven in Canada, takes a few minutes to adjust but fine after that.
Just keep an eye om you lane position and turning right, the first few times you will have an over whelming urge to turn on to the left hand side of the road but after that its OK.
Also concentrate on your first roundabout! have to fight the urge to go anti clockwise

dev100

SeaFields wrote: »

Heading off on holidays in a few weeks and we are talking about renting a car for a few days to see more of our destination.

How hard is it to adapt to driving on the "wrong" side of the road?!
I see tourists here all the time doing 20 miles an hour, completely freaked out by our standard of road. I assume the quality of roads abroad make it a bit easier?

Simple rule of thumb when driving on the WRONG side of the road. You as the driver are always in the middle of the road. If you are driving beside the ditch your in trouble indeed. Its an easy rule. Just be careful pulling into car parks and stuff thats what I found I had to be careful of .And dont hog the left lane either on motorways!!!