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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

How hard is it to drive on the other side of the road?

70 replies

halfdaybae · 24/05/2022 07:57

Was tempted to title the thread tread orgasm, but ......

How hard is it to drive on other side of the road? Tempted to hire a car for a few day as to save taxi and bus and get a bit further afield but don't know how difficult it is when using the other side of the road.

OP posts:

LindaEllen · 24/05/2022 08:25

It's easier if you're hiring a car with the driver on the other side. I always find it challenging if I take my car abroad and have to drive it on the other side.

Honestly it feels really, really odd for a short time, but you get used to it quickly.

BringBackCoffeeCreams · 24/05/2022 08:25

Other side of the road is easy, other side of the car is a bit more difficult but still relatively easy. When we moved abroad we took our British car and driving was fine, we were just extremely nervous, but the actual driving was fine. The difficulty came when we changed our car over for a left hand drive. There was the occasional trying to change gears with the door handle, but the hardest thing was placement of the car on the road. Adjusting to having the bulk of the car on the right rather than the left took some time. Nothing serious but we did hit the kerb quite a few times.

AlisonDonut · 24/05/2022 08:27

We moved to France last year, driving in our old automatic was fine, driving the back roads in our new left hand drive manual is still hair-raising at times on the quiet and sometimes quite narrow roads. Main roads are fine until you have to overtake as it can be difficult to judge the space needed on the right hand side.

BlancmanegeBunny · 24/05/2022 08:28

I've happily driven our car in France but I struggled trying to drive a hire car in Spain, the gear change right-handed threw me! My husband manages fine.

BruceAndNosh · 24/05/2022 08:29

I drive an automatic at home , but I'm fine with a UK manual.
No problem using an automatic in the States.

But I hate driving a hired manual in Europe as it means changing gear with left hand. Plus there doesn't seem to be a Universal reverse position for manual cars.

ThinWomansBrain · 24/05/2022 08:30

I think it depends on how your brain works! - I'm ampidextrous at some things (I used to write left handed and school insisted I change).
I don't find it any problem at all with a car that is designed to be driven on the right, but I think i'd have problems driving a left hand drive car on the right.
By comparison, a friend finds it really hard the gears being on the "wrong" side.

KnottyKnitting · 24/05/2022 08:31

I have real problems with left and right but find driving on the other side of the road fine as the steering wheel is also on the other side. I think about sitting closest to the white line down the middle of the road and being careful to look the opposite way to what I am used to when approaching a roundabout.

LadyCatStark · 24/05/2022 08:31

It’s easier for me but I think maybe it’s because I’m left handed.

babymuffinxo · 24/05/2022 08:38

I was really worried about doing it, but managed in both left hand drive car in France and a right hand drive car in Italy. I think the first time you set off is a bit nerve wracking but once you’ve had a go it’s fine. Confused me when I got home and had to drive on the left again!

Kendodd · 24/05/2022 08:43

Fine. And no harder for women than it is for men.
I actually find it easier in busy traffic, you just follow the other cars, its empty roads I get confused on.

Norgie · 24/05/2022 08:50

I find it easy on either side of the road, whether it's a right or left hand drive vehicle.
I often drive my UK car home in mainland Europe, and sometimes return in my left drive European car, which I drive in the UK for a couple of months.

diamondpony80 · 24/05/2022 08:50

I’ve been driving 25 years and consider myself to be pretty good. I couldn’t comfortably drive on the other side of the road though without some practice. I’d be dangerous on a busy roundabout. DH is good at it though.

notimagain · 24/05/2022 08:50

Relatively easy enough to if you are driving a "native car"...as others have said in that case the driver needs to be near the white line.

OTOH one thing to be v careful of (as somebody says upthread) is exiting a side road or perhaps a petrol station onto a quiet single carriageway road with brain perhaps not quite in gear and settling down on the side of the road you are used to...Know of a couple of nasties (one in the UK, one here in Europe) that may have been caused by that.

Octomore · 24/05/2022 08:53

It's fine. Roundabouts require concentration, if you're in a right hand drive vehicle (I.e. a UK one), you need to be extra aware of where your visibility blind spots are at junctions. But otherwise ok.

ErrolTheDragon · 24/05/2022 08:58

At least in the US we didn't come across many 'traffic circles' - and typically no one else seemed to know what to do with them at all anyway.

SierraSapphire · 24/05/2022 08:58

I always thought it was a business opportunity to open somewhere you could practice in the UK, there was nothing when I looked. As a lone parent I didn't feel comfortable being the only adult in a car abroad for the first time so I never attempted it.

Snoken · 24/05/2022 08:59

I drive on both sides as I split my time between the UK and the EU, and I don't generally have a problem, especially if there is a lot of other traffic to follow. Roundabouts I haven't had much problem with. I have made mistakes when coming back to the UK a couple of times, but it is always when I have to turn off a main road into a different one where the road I am turning into is split into two, one where people enter, and one where people exit. That always confuses me if I am used to driving on the right side of the road.

Fifthtimelucky · 24/05/2022 09:00

I was worried about it the first time I did it, in France, but actually it was fine. First time was in our own car, so obviously visibility wasn't brilliant and it was useful to have a passenger.

Since then I have driven in other European countries (manual hire car) and the US (automatic hire car). On each occasion it took me longer to get used to the controls on the car than it did to get used to driving on the right.

shrodingersvaccine · 24/05/2022 09:12

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ.

OneTC · 24/05/2022 09:14

Surprisingly easy.

With the occasional tinge of panic as you approach a roundabout

Giggorata · 24/05/2022 09:18

I find driving with the controls in the wrong place far more difficult, too. Changing gear in particular is very weird.
Driving my own car is preferable and most native drivers give a wide berth and are fairly forgiving.
Roundabouts can be challenging, especially when I am driving a long way and have a brain fart, so it helps to have a piece of paper taped to the dashboard with an anti-clockwise arrow round a circle, and a few other diagrams for things like junctions.
Best of all is having a companion to remind you, and also to watch out when you're overtaking on motorways.

Philandbill · 24/05/2022 09:31

It's fine. Much easier now with a satnav so you're not simultaneously driving and trying to find your way. I've done it both in my own car (right hand drive,) and in hired cars. If you're used to driving an automatic here I'd suggest hiring the same abroad as that would be one more thing to think about if you had to manage gears you weren't used to. Only places I've felt really nervous were a mountain road in Greece were the edges of the tarmac weren't well defined and there were a lot of pot holes, and also driving in Paris, never again, I'd far rather drive through central London than even the outskirts of Paris. There's a reason why so many cars in Paris have minor bumps and scrapes on them when you take time to look!

PipeScatter · 24/05/2022 09:32

I find it depends on where you are.

In America? Piece of piss - hardly any roundabouts and all the cars are automatic. The only thing you have to think about is placement in the road.

In Europe? Do'able but requires much more concentration. Road placement still, but remembering to change gear with your right hand rather than your left (as less cars are auto) and more roundabouts.

I was very nervous the first few times I did it in Europe but will now happily hire a car without hesitation.

The only thing I inevitably do is stall as with trying to everything I occasionally forget I'm not in an automatic like I am at home!

If you're a confident driver at home, you'll be fine abroad.

PS - I drive better abroad than my DH, so although he will do some driving, he admits I'm better so leaves me to it (I'm also not a very good passenger when he's driving abroad, so it suits us both!)

WiseUpJanetWeiss · 24/05/2022 09:52

In an automatic, I find it very easy. In a manual, not so much.

If a LHD was a complete mirror image to a RHD I'd be OK, but something about reversing how you use the road and mirrors, using the wrong hand for the gear lever, but the gearbox and pedals being the in the same format as a RHD blows my mind.

RincewindsHat · 24/05/2022 10:06

It's fine for me. I've driven hire cars in several countries (definitely prefer automatic as I did keep hitting the door trying to change gears with the wrong hand in a manual car) and have also driven my own car in Europe and find it pretty natural despite being on the edge of the road in the drivers's seat rather than the centre. I do wear a hair bobble on my right wrist for the first few days as a reminder that I need to be on the right side of the road in case I get it wrong, but I am generally a very alert driver as I find left and right difficult anyway so it feels no different to me than driving in the UK in all honesty. Everyone is different though! The things I find most difficult are for example in France and Germany where drivers coming from the right sometimes have priority and will just drive out in front of you when in the UK of course they wouldn't. Seems beyond idiotic to me to drive out in front of oncoming traffic, and in most places this is not the case any more, but it does happen and you do need to be aware.

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