Right hand drive simulators...

laurel7172

Somehow (I have no idea how), I have been persuaded to escort (ie deliver and then pretend I don't exist) my teenage son to DreamHack in Sweden this winter. Yes, he won't be getting much to unwrap on Christmas morning.

But with cheap flights and poor connections, the only doable way to get from the airport to the convention is to drive. I did drive a rh drive car for a week ten years ago, but I'm very, very nervous...

So, gamers, can you please recommend a (preferably free) right hand driving simulator that would let me practise the boring stuff like junctions and roundabouts so they aren't quite as terrifying when I get there?

Oh, and can anyone please explain in laywoman's terms what a LAN convention is? My impression that it's a whole load of people who usually sit at a computer screen talking to each other, ummm...sitting at computer screens talking to each other, apparently shows how old I am

Retrogamer

Do you mean left hand drive?
Right hand drive is what we have in the UK.

A LAN event will be most boring if you don't participate. Generally it's lots of PC's connected together in a room / warehouse / building and instead of playing online with random people, you play against the people sitting around you.

laurel7172

Oops...yes, left hand drive, driving on the right is what I meant, thank you.

So a LAN event IS a whole load of people talking to each other on their computers etc. I am, however, assured that some esports heroes will be there in the flesh. Which apparently still matters.

Retrogamer

On the plus side, Sweden is a lovely country i'm told and as a gamer in my 30's i'd still have a fun time at a big gaming event of any kind, let alone a teenager

adamc260

This is an image from their website to give you some idea

grahamgoo

I'm not convinced a sim would help much to be honest. Get an automatic hire car, make a sign for the steering wheel saying "drive on right!", drive slow, take care, concentrate, and you'll be fine

Jem8472

I was nervous about driving in America the first time I did it.

I would also recommend getting an auto as there is one less thing to think about.

The best thing I did before we went to Florida was to hire a sat nav from someone on ebay.

It made driving a lot easier as we did not have to worry about looking for road signs and junctions. It was brilliant.

If your phone does not have satnav I would suggest getting one as it does take some of the stress out of finding your way in a foreign country.

CKhalvashi

grahamgoo wrote: »

I'm not convinced a sim would help much to be honest. Get an automatic hire car, make a sign for the steering wheel saying "drive on right!", drive slow, take care, concentrate, and you'll be fine

I'm with this.

Driving in Sweden, where everyone generally follows the rules isn't as bad as driving in, say, Georgia, where the driving is mad, but because everyone does it, it works.

CK

macman

After about ten minutes you won't even notice the difference. The only thing I've absent-mindedly done sometimes is to drop my left hand down in a vain attempt to change gear. If you have an automatic, you'll not even have that minor error. Relative to the nearest kerbside, everything is in exactly the same position.
The only other thing to watch is to ensure that when pulling back onto roads from fuel stations etc, you go to the right lane and not the left-a note on the steering wheel boss may help. But you are far less likely to commit this error in a left hand drive car than a right.
I'd be far more worried about socialising with thousands of geeky teenagers, assuming that they ever leave their monitors...

SleeplessinScandinavia

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I'm with this.

Driving in Sweden, where everyone generally follows the rules isn't as bad as driving in, say, Georgia, where the driving is mad, but because everyone does it, it works.

CK

In my part of Sweden (at least), about 80% of drivers totally ignore mandatory speed limits. Many drivers talking away on hand-held mobiles (which isn't itself actually illegal in Sweden).

Driving here has taught me to expect some crazy manouevre to be attempted by another motorist.

Having said that, Sweden figures favourably in accident statistics - which leads me to believe this is probably because their roads are generally less congested.

Good luck with the simulator!

CKhalvashi

SleeplessinScandinavia wrote: »

In my part of Sweden (at least), about 80% of drivers totally ignore mandatory speed limits. Many drivers talking away on hand-held mobiles (which isn't itself actually illegal in Sweden).

I drove in Malmo in May, then up to Oslo and found the roads nicer to drive than the UK. This may either have been because I was in UK-plated car, or because I just got lucky.

Having said that, Sweden figures favourably in accident statistics - which leads me to believe this is probably because their roads are generally less congested.

That may be a point.

The death/serious injury from a drivers point of view, may be because everyone is driving something like below (this is 20yr old we're talking about, not Geography teacher, but I don't know how to explain in English), rather than small cars, or is this just my difficult thinking.

CK