Driving on the left side in "over there".

Davey Jones

Davey Jones

Well-known Member
Location
Florida
Arriving at Shannon airport,in Ireland.several years I totally forgot about the controls in my rented car.There are several big signs leading out of the airport that reminds you to "stay on the left side of the road" It was easy to remind myself of that.
My biggest problem is that I was giving a car with manual shift,several times I open the car door thinking that's where the shift stick was but no I was suppose to use my left hand to shift the gears,took a few days to get that hang of that since Im right handed.
Why can't the whole world drive on one side of the road,preferably the RIGHT side.
 

But is the right side, the right side?!
I have always driven a manual......but our roads are not very like yours; junctions, bends, not much room etc.
i am left-handed though...
 
I'm with Davey. As far as I know, drivers in MOST countries drive on the right side of the road.

The only "lefties" are in Great Britain, Japan and Oz (?) (Have I left out anyone ?)
 

An Uncle of mine used to have a rental car waiting for him at LA and he and his wife would load the luggage, jump in and drive off on the 'wrong' right side of the road with no problems at all. The switch came natural to him, never had an accident in the States and they spent a couple of months every year there for around a decade.

I was in the US and Canada for 8 weeks on a bus tour and STILL looked the wrong way before I crossed a road!
I'd have been death on wheels if I'd tried to drive over there. Sorry but it's just wrong!
 
NZ, And South Africa still drive on the left.
My husband never had any problems in France, I have driven in France and US... You can get used to it!
 
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I was in the US and Canada for 8 weeks on a bus tour and STILL looked th
anim_64.gif
e wrong way before I crossed a road!

I believe you're suppose to look BOTH ways before crossing any road,thats what Im teaching the 7 year old now.
 
From Australia, I will concede that we drive on the wrong side of the road.

That opinion is based on extensive research done in shopping centres, walking down city footpaths (pavements? sidewalks?). Here in Oz, we drive on the left, always have and yet, when I approach someone walking towards me, their most usual (innate?) avoidance move is to the right. So, maybe the Yanks are right (for once) .....
:wink:
 
Don't give in that easily! We started on the left to release our sword hand; and, at the time, left-handed people were considered 'sinister' or even witches.... My children say I still am.
So the rest of the world is out of step, or pacifist.
 
We here in the USA drive on the right and we sit in the left seat so our right hand is free to
hold a coffee cup, smoke a cigarette, play with my girlfriends' knee, or grab our gun to fight off a carjacker.

You sinister folks are on your own....we outnumber you.
 
Davey Jones said:
I was in the US and Canada for 8 weeks on a bus tour and STILL looked th
anim_64.gif
e wrong way before I crossed a road!

I believe you're suppose to look BOTH ways before crossing any road,thats what Im teaching the 7 year old now.
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So that's where I'm gettin' it wrong.

It's just normal here, and drummed into us from toddlers to look Right, Left, then Right again... I was doing it in the wrong order over there.


Dbeyat, I noticed that pedestrian passing thing starting to go wrong in the 60s. It was when so many Europeans were immigrating here and it was all their fault! They wouldn't keep to the left and messed up the flow.
 
When hubby and I were driving in the US and Canada we had to be careful when cornering. The navigator had to say 'take a big LH turn' or 'take a small RH turn' to avoid facing the oncoming traffic. Otherwise the only problem was confusing the blinkers with the window wipers. The central rear vision mirror was not in the 'right' place but the side mirrors were. It was a good idea not to drive too fast.
 
Falcon said:
We here in the USA drive on the right and we sit in the left seat so our right hand is free to
hold a coffee cup, smoke a cigarette, play with my girlfriends' knee, or grab our gun to fight off a carjacker.

You sinister folks are on your own....we outnumber you.
Click to expand...

I figure we have more control of the car as our right arm is always the strongest, if you are right handed
 
Jillaroo said:
I figure we have more control of the car as our right arm is always the strongest, if you are right handed
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Actually, something I teach in my Taijiquan classes ... your "off" hand (if you're a righty it's your left hand) is often stronger, due to the constant usage of the dominant hand and its attendant fatigue. It's just less coordinated.

I proved it to my students by outfitting one of my heavy bags with a pressure sensor designed specifically to record the force of a blow, then had the students hit the bag with first their left then their right hands. The results were that 75% of the righties in the class actually hit harder with their left hands - surprising but true. The same held for the lefties as well.
 
Well you learn something new every day Phil, but for me i know if i have to have good control of my car it's my right one that is strongest or should i say have more trust in
 

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