Driving on the wrong side of the road - abroad

colino

You will slip into it very easily and that is a wee bit of a problem! You can drive here so you have become "unconsciously competent". To keep you safe you have to remind yourself at junctions: I find car parks and petrol stations highlight how you are doing instead of thinking.

westwood68

You'll be fine. Being in a foreign land you will concentrate on being on the right side.

Only time it might be an issue is when there is no other traffic around in the middle of no-where.

That and when you return to the UK. I drove in US for 2 weeks then when I returned to the UK, ended up on the wrong side because I wasn't concentrating.

Bennifred

Driving on the opposite (right hand) side of the road is easier in a left hand drive car, in my experience. Rental cars are easy, as they have the driving seat on the correct side for the road, but taking a right hand drive car to the continent makes it more difficult to overtake, pay tolls, etc.

Yolina

Iceweasel wrote: »

Thanks for that clarification Yolina - I hope you didn't think of my post as a criticism of your country. far from it - I am a committed 'Francophile' LOL.

No worries, I've been living in the UK for about 20 years :rotfl:

Yes, there have been roundabouts for yonks - in some areas and big cities - but I was thinking more about regions like Nord Pas de Calais which is where most Brits will experience their first taste of French traffic.

Travelling on the old RN42 for example from Calais to Lille via St Omer, Hazebrouk etc - you find lots of 'new' roundabouts at town by-passes etc. where it's obvious that the local approach is totally different from the UK attitude.

I've been running that route for over 40 years and have seen all the changes as they take place and almost all are for the better.

I'm from the Alps so have very little knowledge of the roads "up north". I have occasionally taken my UK car to France but usually straight down the motorway

My advice was aimed at the OP for a first visit, and it would only need one old-style French driver to enter a roundabout without slowing down, to give an inexperienced Brit one hell of a surprise.

Vive la difference!

Yeah, that could be a bit of a shock.

Basically the main thing to remember when driving in France is that right of way is to traffic from the right unless indicated otherwise, which for the Brits means paying extra attention at junctions

FreddieFrugal

Thanks for responses. I certainly didnt mean to sound arrogant when I said wrong side in title - just being silly.

Most likely place would be driving in Italy and it would be in hire car. Sometime next year when I'm over 25 and its not rediculously expensive.

Iceweasel

IanRi wrote: »

Thanks for responses. I certainly didnt mean to sound arrogant when I said wrong side in title - just being silly.

Most likely place would be driving in Italy and it would be in hire car. Sometime next year when I'm over 25 and its not rediculously expensive.

Hi Ian - I wasn't implyng you were arrogant - just perhaps setting off with an unhelpful approach.

Italy, eh - they drive pretty fast there in my experience.

It's as if they were all in Ferraris - even the little Fiat drivers on the Amalfi coast.

Perhaps they're out to prove that Giancarlo Fisichella is a slowcoach. LOL

Enjoy yourself - foreign travel is meant to be FUN.

Dunroamin

IanRi wrote: »

Thanks for responses. I certainly didnt mean to sound arrogant when I said wrong side in title - just being silly.

Most likely place would be driving in Italy and it would be in hire car. Sometime next year when I'm over 25 and its not rediculously expensive.

In my experience, it's always ridiculously expensive to hire a car in Italy.

FreddieFrugal

Iceweasel wrote: »

Hi Ian - I wasn't implyng you were arrogant - just perhaps setting off with an unhelpful approach.

Italy, eh - they drive pretty fast there in my experience.

It's as if they were all in Ferraris - even the little Fiat drivers on the Amalfi coast.

Perhaps they're out to prove that Giancarlo Fisichella is a slowcoach. LOL

Enjoy yourself - foreign travel is meant to be FUN.

I know. Lorry driver tried to overtake OH's Dad and nearly took him out he went in so close. If he hadnt brakes like mad I wouldn't be typing now! Also tailgating seems to be customary.

NBLondon

IanRi wrote: »

I don't suppose anyone knows of anywhere where you could practice driving on opposite side of road BEFORE you're forced out into traffic in a foreign country having never done it previously.

Central London - Just go up and down Savoy Court a few times.:D

But seriously - as others have said a) having a local hire car with the wheel on the correct side for that country really helps (once you get used to changing gear with the wrong hand) and b) think twice on leaving a petrol station etc. (I once turned left from a T-junction in France onto the left hand side of the road and wondered why the van driver ahead was waving madly at me...).

On the other hand - in some places you can just career down the middle like the locals do...

colino

^^ Reminds me of first driving abroad experience in Spain. Pre-booked, new Panda (It was brand new back then) morphed into a battered 127. Wasn't funny trying to change gear with the window winder, cured by the third time.