Driving on the right - advice sought ?
Discussion
If it's a local car, hired for the purpose, then lock your door.
The first time you need to change gear, you left hand will go out. It will find the door handle, and without asking your brain, will do what it normally does when it finds a door handle.
You brain will then realise that the gear stick is on the right and send your right hand searching.
With the engine screaming for a gear change and no hands on the wheel, it's probably best not to have the door open as well...
Otherwise, it's just like driving on the left, just be aware that your view for overtakes etc is severley restricted, so be very mindful of your road positioning.
The first time you need to change gear, you left hand will go out. It will find the door handle, and without asking your brain, will do what it normally does when it finds a door handle.
You brain will then realise that the gear stick is on the right and send your right hand searching.
With the engine screaming for a gear change and no hands on the wheel, it's probably best not to have the door open as well...
Otherwise, it's just like driving on the left, just be aware that your view for overtakes etc is severley restricted, so be very mindful of your road positioning.
It's pretty easy, but take more care after reversing. Either in a 3 point turn, or manouvering while parking. It's easy to go into autopilot and pull onto the wrong side.
The other potentially dodgy situation is when traffc is very light wnd you pull out of a junction.
Best advice is not to get too worried by it. It's not difficult if you have some basic driving skills.
The other potentially dodgy situation is when traffc is very light wnd you pull out of a junction.
Best advice is not to get too worried by it. It's not difficult if you have some basic driving skills.
The presence of other traffic is the best help in reminding you which side of the road you should be on. The only time I went to the wrong side in the States last year was pulling out onto a long, straight, empty road. Pay extra attention when turning left - it's easy to forget that you're crossing traffic doing that. Good, advanced observation techniques are a great boon, it gives you more time when you're first surprisd by "priorité au droite", for instance.
I agree about the left hand going for the gearstick - annoying for a couple of days. Not so bad in the States, though, because you'd probably be in an automatic.
One other thing - I've just come back from 10 days driving in France: make sure you know the local rules about speed limits, and find out what the major written signs mean. I spent too much time wondering what the feck the speed limit was, because there are many places where it changes implicitly (i.e. no numbers on signs). For example, when you pass a sign with the town's name and a red border, the limit has just gone down to 50kph. The town name with a red diagonal line restores it to 90kph (unles there's a specific 70 there). You don't get many repeaters, either: if you see a numerical sign with the word "Rappel" under it, then you missed a change, because that's a reminder. Plus, the speed limit is different in the dry and the wet (but what's the definition of "wet"?)
I agree about the left hand going for the gearstick - annoying for a couple of days. Not so bad in the States, though, because you'd probably be in an automatic.
One other thing - I've just come back from 10 days driving in France: make sure you know the local rules about speed limits, and find out what the major written signs mean. I spent too much time wondering what the feck the speed limit was, because there are many places where it changes implicitly (i.e. no numbers on signs). For example, when you pass a sign with the town's name and a red border, the limit has just gone down to 50kph. The town name with a red diagonal line restores it to 90kph (unles there's a specific 70 there). You don't get many repeaters, either: if you see a numerical sign with the word "Rappel" under it, then you missed a change, because that's a reminder. Plus, the speed limit is different in the dry and the wet (but what's the definition of "wet"?)
You'll go wrong when you've been driving long enough to get used to it, and pull out of a car park / filling station etc onto an empty road. I've seen people tape a 'keep right' label onto the top of the dashboard just to catch their eye and remind them each time they get in the car.
[quote=LaSarthe&Back]
it gives you more time when you're first surprisd by "priorité au droite"
Is this where they can pull out of side junctions, while you are coming toward them and not give way to you?[/quote]
Yep.
[quote=LaSarthe&Back]
What a stupid rule.
[/quote]
Yep.
Mind you, there are a lot of places where it doesn't apply (in France, at least - I haven't driven anywhere else on the continent). A sort of yellow diamond sign indicates that the main carriageway has priority, and there are plenty of side roads that have explicit stop signs, as well as all the roundabouts that tell you that you do not have priority as you approach.
Major Bloodnok said:
it gives you more time when you're first surprisd by "priorité au droite"
Is this where they can pull out of side junctions, while you are coming toward them and not give way to you?[/quote]
Yep.
[quote=LaSarthe&Back]
What a stupid rule.
[/quote]
Yep.
Mind you, there are a lot of places where it doesn't apply (in France, at least - I haven't driven anywhere else on the continent). A sort of yellow diamond sign indicates that the main carriageway has priority, and there are plenty of side roads that have explicit stop signs, as well as all the roundabouts that tell you that you do not have priority as you approach.
Edited by Major Bloodnok on Saturday 19th August 22:43
Ride as a passenger first. You will be in your normal driving position (RHD), but you won't have to worry about the actual driving. This allows you to pay attention to the look and feel of driving on the right. This worked very well for me converting to driving on the left. I was riding as a passenger in a RHD car, which prepped me very well for driving my LHD car on the left.
[quote=LaSarthe&Back]
>it gives you more time when you're first surprisd by "priorité au droite"
Is this where they can pull out of side junctions, while you are coming toward them and not give way to you?
What a stupid rule.
[/quote]
Not particularly, you just have to learn that they do things differently. Forget "right of way", it isn't a concept they have over there. Priorite a droit can, for example, make it much easier to join a dual cariageway or motorway, as vehicles expect to move over for you. However, it can really mess up roundabouts, although in some countries they have introduced UK-style priority on roundabouts to make them work better.
In Italy - watch out for pedestrians in the road, they expect you to slow down or go round them. And watch out for drivers doing apparently stupid things in front of you: they expect you to look out the front of the car and take avoiding action if necessary. From Tuscany southwards, the rule of the road seems to be "whatever seems reasonable at the time".
At light-controlled junctions, offpeak you may encounter a flashing ameber - this means "proceed with caution".
And learn enough of the appropriate language(s) to understand roadsigns. Some are similar to UK ones - others aren't.
>it gives you more time when you're first surprisd by "priorité au droite"
Is this where they can pull out of side junctions, while you are coming toward them and not give way to you?
What a stupid rule.
[/quote]
Not particularly, you just have to learn that they do things differently. Forget "right of way", it isn't a concept they have over there. Priorite a droit can, for example, make it much easier to join a dual cariageway or motorway, as vehicles expect to move over for you. However, it can really mess up roundabouts, although in some countries they have introduced UK-style priority on roundabouts to make them work better.
In Italy - watch out for pedestrians in the road, they expect you to slow down or go round them. And watch out for drivers doing apparently stupid things in front of you: they expect you to look out the front of the car and take avoiding action if necessary. From Tuscany southwards, the rule of the road seems to be "whatever seems reasonable at the time".
At light-controlled junctions, offpeak you may encounter a flashing ameber - this means "proceed with caution".
And learn enough of the appropriate language(s) to understand roadsigns. Some are similar to UK ones - others aren't.
Not sure what's wrong, I can't get the [quote] thing to work, it works OK in Preview but not when posted.
Edited by saxmund on Sunday 20th August 11:04
Another thing - if you have a passneger, tell him/her that it's entirely OK to let you know if they think you're about to turn onto the wrong side of the road, mention roadsigns they think you've missed, etc. I know this is normally extremely annoying in a passenger, but you can suffer sensory overload when having to cope with driving on the wrong side, strange roadsigns etc, and it can be very useful.
Lived in France for a while, my understanding is that Priorite a droite has been abandoned.
However, some old fart of 80 probably still drives as if the rule still applied, so you are better to give people the benefit of the doubt.
In my experience driving on the other side of the road is fine as long as their is traffic to follow, the problem comes on quiet roads where you suddenly go into autopilot, until you see lights coming towards you ARRRRRRRGGGGHH.
However, some old fart of 80 probably still drives as if the rule still applied, so you are better to give people the benefit of the doubt.
In my experience driving on the other side of the road is fine as long as their is traffic to follow, the problem comes on quiet roads where you suddenly go into autopilot, until you see lights coming towards you ARRRRRRRGGGGHH.
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