Having never driven in a country where the car is on the left-hand side of the road I was just curious as to how long it took for people to become accustomed to this. Would anyone care to share their experiences and/or advice?
Vann
Having never driven in a country where the car is on the left-hand side of the road I was just curious as to how long it took for people to become accustomed to this. Would anyone care to share their experiences and/or advice?
Vann
I'm from the UK, where we drive on the left, and have necessarily for all my driving life driven on the right in other European countries. It's always going to feel odd at first, and even when you're just about used to it, you can get caught out and go back to your old driving habits when you're tired or startled or distracted, so don't relax too soon. Think about it before you get to the country, planning how to travel through different types of junction correctly. There are some clips of TV programmes where there is footage of riding along with the traffic police (e.g. https://www.google.co.uk/#q=youtube+motorway+patrol+nz), so you can get a driver's eye view of the road. Times you need to take particular care: when you have stopped for a break and pull out again, when you pull out of a filling station, at junctions or roundabouts (make sure you're heading for the LEFT side of the road you turn into), and if an emergency vehicle is trying to get through on a multi-lane road, that you pull over to the LEFT to clear their way.
An easier thought to remember (and relatively simple). Each time you hop in the car so that you don't end up driving on the wrong side of the road do this; the steering wheel of the side where you sit ALWAYS goes to the middle of the road. It's that simple. No matter if you're in America or Japan, the position where you sit in the car (behind the steering wheel) you will end up on the right side of the road as long as you think where the steering wheel should be. At any time you are confused, just think "I should be sitting closer to the middle of the road".
I had the most trouble with turning on the wipers when preparing to make a turn
Other trouble areas would be turning out of side roads (as JandM said) and navigating areas without lines like the petrol station parking lot. Really it starts to feel normal quickly (within an hour I'd say) but you have to be careful that doesn't make you over confident. It felt a bit like first driving as a teenager! You might focus so much on keeping left that you forget basic things. Take your time driving around a quiet area at a quiet time of day to get a feel for it if you are uneasy.
Keep calm, don't be too nervous, and don't be too cocky either
I did a bit of a mental head slap when I read JandM's advice about pulling off to the left for emergency vehicles. I knew after reading that that I would have had an issue, had I encountered the situation without this advice - my instinct would have been to pull off to the right.
Vann
I seem to remember my dad's cars in the UK in 1970s all had wipers etc on the left and indicators on the right (this was because these cars were built to be right hand drive and for safety the indicators were positioned on the opposite side to the gear change - you used a different hand). When cars became mainly import and from left-hand drive countries of origin, the manufacturers presumably couldn't be bothered to change to true right hand drive configuration, so when I learned to drive in the late 1980s all cars seemed to have indicators on the left and wipers on the right.
When I came to New Zealand and we bought a Toyota Rav 4 and the indicators were on the right, so I switched on the windscreen wipers when turning for a few weeks. All is fine now though, we quickly adapt.
For most cars here, it wouldn't matter (with regards safety) if the indicators were on the left though as most cars seem to be automatic change.
I've seen tourists do it! - you can imagine how popular they are with the police officers riding on blue lights and sirens when they stop dead in the motorway fast lane.