Thoughts on driving on the left side of the road

"E90M3" (e90m3) 05/15/2018 at 11:55 • Filed to: None

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Some of you may know !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! This was my first time driving on the left side of the road. During my short trip my friend and I put 720 miles on the Audi A3, so I feel like I got enough miles in to talk about what driving on the opposite side of the road and driving in another country was like.

Lane Position

This was one of the first things I noticed about sitting on the right side of the car, three feet to the right of where I normally sit. At home, I rarely think about where my car is on the road, I just put it in the middle of the lane. Now that I wasn’t where I normally sit, I had to concentrate on it. The first day was stressful, but after a while, I got used to it.

Mirrors

After 13 years of looking up and to the right, it was hard to break that habit and look left and up. If I’m honest, I used the right side mirror as rear view for the first couple of days. I tired to remember to use the other mirrors, but having to constantly think about having to look up and left was too much to remember at first. By the end of the trip I had gotten used to where the mirrors were and was able to use them all, but the first couple days were a struggle.

Shifting

While it was strange to shift with my left hand, this was never really an issue for me. If anything it was the unfamiliarity with the Audi as opposed to the position of the gear stick. I have to admit, I stalled it once because I tired to start in third because I didn’t all the way over and up. I also only grabbed the door handle twice when I wanted to change gears.

Roundabouts

We’ve got some of these in the US and I’ve driven in Germany and France, so these aren’t new. What was new was trying to figure out what lane I needed to be in to make the correct turn. I either didn’t understand the signing or it was poorly signed. Road paint wears away over time and there were some roundabouts where I couldn’t read what was painted on the ground. If anything, that was more frustrating than difficult. I’m sure with some more practice I’d be better at them.

Stop Signs

I think I saw three of them in all of the UK. I was amazed when I came across one, I took a picture.

Speeding

I understood how the speed limits worked, what I did not understand was how the locals treated them. I would in the center lane doing 70 mph while passing a VW Up! doing 50 MPH in the left lane, while a Maserati would come up in the right lane doing 120 MPH. No idea. I didn’t really know where the speed cameras would be, and what the rules on them where, so I just did the speed limit. I wish I had read up on the laws on speed cameras before I went over, I guess next time.

Undertaking

I don’t think I saw anyone undertake, well, apart from myself. You’ve got cameras for speed, not undertaking, and I’ve seen one police car on the road, I’m undertaking. I will say it was refreshing to see people get over as soon as they were done overtaking.

Parking

There seemed to be very few laws on parking because I would see cars basically parked in the street facing the wrong way on the road. It was almost as if your car fits there, you can park there. Cool.

While we’re talking about parking, I will say parking the car in a normal space was by far the hardest part about driving. It’s hard to get a feel for where the car is in relation to where you’re sitting. I struggled with this the entire time. I normally found a pull through in the back of the lot.

Going the wrong way

I went the wrong was one time, and that was at the round about at the castle when I wanted to get a picture of the Audi in front of the coach house. Other than, I was good. It was strange to have to think about which way I needed to turn and what lane I needed to turn into. In the US, I don’t think about it, I just do it.

In conclusion

It wasn’t too difficult to drive on the other side of the road. It was a little strange and a little stressful at first. I also found I had to think about driving as opposed to getting into the car and just doing it. I don’t think about where my car is in the lane, I put it in the middle. Oh, I need to check my mirrors? I know where they all are. This was sort of like learning to drive again, but you know how to drive, it’s breaking all the habits that come with sitting on the left side of the car.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:01

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Thank you for the account. I wouldn’t mind trying that sometime, but I’d probably prefer a trip to Australia.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:09

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Re: multi-lane roundabouts. No one has any idea which lane is correct on some of them. They aren’t always logically laid out and they certainly aren’t well marked...

Spanfeller is a twat > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:11

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I always thought that it’d be a good policy to have us drive with the driver to the edge of the road (RHD in a country with drivers on thw right) so that in case of a head on collision it’s less likely that the driver is injured. I don’t know if it makes any sense but since no one does it I guess my safety plan has a huge fault

djmt1 > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:11

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I have lived my entire life in the UK and have seen the grand total of one stop sign. So yeah, they are that rare.

E90M3 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/15/2018 at 12:14

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Good to know it wasn’t just me. Some of them were really confusing.

E90M3 > Spanfeller is a twat 05/15/2018 at 12:15

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Possibly, I think there are other factors to think about when it comes to safety, like visibility.

E90M3 > djmt1 05/15/2018 at 12:15

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I think the two I saw were in Scotland, don’t think I saw one in England.

E90M3 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 05/15/2018 at 12:16

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I would like to go there as well, I just had a reason to go to the UK.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Spanfeller is a twat 05/15/2018 at 12:21

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It’s visibility. Watch one of DeMuro’s Skyline videos. He mentions it more than one.

Cé hé sin > djmt1 05/15/2018 at 12:22

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Eh?? We use them everywhere. What do you use instead? Yield signs?

djmt1 > Cé hé sin 05/15/2018 at 12:26

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Heavily eroded give way lines...

if you’re lucky.

Cé hé sin > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:26

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I’m a bit surprised by your surprise about parking. Basically, you can park anywhere there aren’t single (business hours) or double yellow lines (at any time) subject to not causing an obstruction, being on a bend, near a pedestrian crossing or other fairly obvious restrictions.

Ash78, voting early and often > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:30

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Very nice!

Several years ago, Jalop encouraged people to write on any topic — I chose driving in the UK. I’ve rented cars on three different trips and totally get everything you’re saying. This was before Oppo and Kinja and authorship, so it was quite a privilege to be on the FP:

https://jalopnik.com/5653943/the-obnoxious-yanks-guide-to-uk-motoring

E90M3 > Cé hé sin 05/15/2018 at 12:32

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In the States, it’s usually marked as a place to park, otherwise you can’t park there. I guess that’s why I was so surprised.

E90M3 > Ash78, voting early and often 05/15/2018 at 12:32

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That’s pretty cool.

Cé hé sin > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 12:37

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Ah, the “everything is banned unless specifically allowed” principle!

Actually, you do find marked parking spaces in towns. Elsewhere, not so much.

E90M3 > Cé hé sin 05/15/2018 at 12:40

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That and we have a lot more land, so it’s easy enough to make a parking lot.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Spanfeller is a twat 05/15/2018 at 12:42

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Mostly visibility. Imagine making a left turn, exactly the kind of situation where a head-on collision becomes more probable. You might have a slightly better chance at survival but you’re more likely to have the accident in the first place.

On top of that, past the early stage of the turn you’d be in more danger because you’re set up perfectly to be t-boned in the drivers door.

Another problem is it would mean busses would be letting their passengers out in the middle of the road.

Based on all that, and the relative rarity of head-on crashes, it causes far more issues than it alleviates. Also consider that most of them are going to be in parking lots, at low speeds that probably won’t hurt you, and the rest will most likely be on rural highways at high speeds...moving the drivers seat isn’t going to be enough to save you.

facw > Cé hé sin 05/15/2018 at 12:49

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I always found the UK to be very permissive with its parking rules. For example having street parking even when it means a two way road won’t have room for cars to pass each other. Definitely seemed like street parking was favored over all other uses.

Svend > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 13:03

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RE: Stop Signs. Most roads are marked in this style below.

It’s a yield/give way sign painted on the road often in place of a large red sign that can often get obscured by cars parked nearby. Yield is the two broken white lines sometimes but not always accompanied by a triangle which is ‘warning, give way ahead’.

You may find many times a solid thick white line at the end of a road or junction, this is a mandatory stop.

RE: Undertaking. Undertaking is illegal in the U.K. unless the traffic is slow and the lane to the right of you is going slower than the lane of traffic you are in, usually when the traffic is doing no more than 25mph.

RE: Parking. The vast majority of the time there is no legal requirement to park in the direction of travel for that side of the road. Pulling out across oncoming traffic requires a little more spacial awareness of traffic in both directions but is no different to driving a LHD car in the U.K. or a RHD in America parking as you would normally in the direction of travel.

thejustache > E90M3 05/15/2018 at 13:11

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Sounds pretty close to my experience in a rental Open Corsa 5spd in Ireland last year. I was fairly nervous for the first hour or so, but caught on pretty quick. The first couple roundabouts I had to think, but it got natural after that. I stalled once, and drove in the wrong lane once (thankfully on a narrow dirt road with very slow moving traffic so I had time to figure out my mistake right away). After a week it felt natural enough that I was left foot braking and pushing it a little bit in the curves. Getting back in my own car felt pretty weird at the end. All in all, it was a great experience and I’d highly recommend driving over taking a bus!

pip bip - choose Corrour > E90M3 05/16/2018 at 06:54

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i agree with most of what you say there, if you’re use to LHD then driving a RHD car is hard at first, i found it hard driving a LHD car the first time

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 05/31/2018 at 11:14

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or in the first season of the new Top Gear, rory reid mentioned it was pants-shittingly scary to try and pass on single lane roads when you cant just peak into the oncoming lane while driving a classic mustang

Nauraushaun > E90M3 06/03/2018 at 06:51

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What’s strange to you about stop signs? And what is undertaking?

E90M3 > Nauraushaun 06/04/2018 at 07:43

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Stop signs aren’t weird, it was the almost complete lack of stop signs that surprised me. Undertaking is when the person in the passing lane doesn’t understand that they need to move over so you can pass them, so you use the other lane to pass them; it’s very common in the US.

Nauraushaun > E90M3 06/04/2018 at 07:50

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Haha, oh.

Australia has quite a few stop signs. Maybe not as many as America, I’ve never been.

We do have less highways making undertaking less of a thing. But it certainly happens. Some days you’re on 3 lanes in a 100 zone stuck behind 3 people doing 90.

Then the limit drops to 80 and they drop to 70. Very strange behaviour

E90M3 > Nauraushaun 06/04/2018 at 08:42

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A UK oppo did agree with me on the lack of stop signs.

Not sure if they’re more prevalent in the US or Australia, likewise, never been. Basically most places where we’d use a stop sign, they had a give way sign.

No one but me was undertaking.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > E90M3 06/25/2018 at 15:33

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I think in the US it is pretty much uncommon to do any overtaking lol. Driving in LA, I rarely if ever use the left lane since it is generally the slowest. I spend a lot of time passing Prius’ cruising in the left lane going 70-75 clogging up the whole damn road. I think they are content saying “I’m exceeding the speed limit, so fuck off anyone that wants to pass me”. Although techincally it’s also legal in California to undertake on the Freeway so they aren’t necessarily wrong. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > djmt1 06/25/2018 at 15:38

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What the hell is a give way line? I am driving in the UK next week so I guess I should read up on it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Svend 06/25/2018 at 15:46

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Huh this is different. Glad I looked on Oppo to see this before heading out on my trip to the UK. Driving elsewhere in Europe that I have been to (Norway and Italy) was very comparable to being in the US, other than people followed the rules of the road a lot more in Europe. All of the signage was about the same, although with more pictures than words. Seems wild to me to use paint instead of stop/yield signs. 

Svend > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/25/2018 at 15:58

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Many places use both. Many signs as self explanatory (well to us that live here I guess), but worth taking a looking at the British, Highway Code on what signs mean and their colours. Some are information, some advisory and some warnings. 

djmt1 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/25/2018 at 16:06

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I f you see this at a junction you must wait until the road is clear before proceeding. T he difference between give way marking/signs and stop signs is that you don’t have to stop if you see that there is no immediate vehicles crossing the junction.

This is what happens when you don’t give way:

Svend > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/25/2018 at 16:45

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In regards to stop/yield signs, these signs have to be a certain distance from the junction and with cars being allowed to park close to the junction, there could be signs obscured by high sided vehicles. So painting some of the information on the roads not only makes sense but in several ways may be more visible to road users. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > djmt1 06/25/2018 at 19:19

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Makes sense when there is the red triangle sign, I am used to that. Give way is equivalent to yield, which is easy. But the road paint that may or may not be there sounds sketchy. Makes me want to just yield at every intersection but that sounds dangerous too.