I would consider myself a good driver on the right side of the road but I am wondering if visiting Ireland and renting a car is for me.
Also how do you feel about driving manual transmission when not used to churning gears with the usual hand?
For me, the hard part isn’t driving on the “wrong” side of the road. You pick that up pretty quickly. You need to think a bit more when turning, but it’s not so hard. For me the harder part is driving from the “wrong” side of the car. I may have almost mounted a curb or two because I forgot where I was in the lane.
In my experience, turns at lights are the hard part, remembering what lane you are supposed to end up in.
I change between the two fairly often and the two most dangerous things are -
Looking the wrong way when approaching a roundabout
Going to change gear with the wrong hand and punching the door
Generally it’s only difficult if you drive a RHD car on LHD roads or vice versa
Going to change gear with the wrong hand and punching the door
When I was planning a trip to the UK I swapped the gearshift location on my racing wheel setup and drove around a bunch in Forza Horizon 3 so that I’d be ready.
Didn’t end up renting a car, so all my work was for naught.
Going to change gear with the wrong hand and punching the door
Coming from Australia to Europe. So many times.
I’m from the states and live in Ireland. I never had a problem with switching back and forth as I visit the states and Germany frequently.
The one danger is if youre in a parking lot or similar and pull out onto the road when there are no other cars after not driving for a while, you might be on the wrong side for a second.
The trick to remember isn’t left or right its that the driver is always in the middle of the road.
If youre holding the steering wheel and are on the outside of the road, youre going the wrong way. Keep the center line right next to you and you’ll be grand as the Irish say.
I found myself saying out loud “Right turn to the left lane” when initially getting used to driving in the UK.
You get used to it after a few scares. Hell I was just a pedestrian in Japan and damn near got run over looking the wrong way out of habit. Only once!
I almost walked into traffic in England once, a friend had to pull me back. Scary stuff.
I find it’s harder as a pedestrian than a driver… You’re mostly aligning yourself as a driver and looking for pedestrians/cars coming but they can come from either side regardless of what side you’re driving on… For pedestrians though the side you look at first is switched so there’s a very real chance you just step out into traffic
