Have you ever forgotten what side of the road to drive on?

Only ever on holiday in Europe/LH, in a UK/RHD car.

Cannot say I have ever had it on the road in the UK in a UK car….

Had a brainfart thinking about a roundabout the other night, but thankfully muscle memory kicked in when I reached it.

Whichever country you are in, in a standard car, the middle of the road should always be on the drivers side.

So when you are driving along, and you look of your drivers side window, you dont want to be seeing a pavement immediately beside you

My first car was a LHD Beetle, bought from a friend of a friend from Berlin. I never had a problem driving a LHD in the UK, in fact I enjoyed it. But, as you say, the driver is positioned close to the pavement or parked cars in a LHD in the UK, but you get used to that quickly*. I’d had that car for a while, and one day jumped in my father’s Escort I hadn’t driven far down the main road before I remembered that my normal positioning – close to the kerb from the driver’s seat – was going to result in a crunching noise and profuse apologies to my father. I was young, it was a long time ago!

* I drove the professor of the research unit I worked in across London in that Beetle. He was terrified, being sat in the ‘driver’s’ seat while being the passenger. He clung on to the grab handle for the whole journey, asking if the car was safe. I later found that the passenger seat was only held on by one rail, so would move from side to side, and of course moving seat aside, being a 17 year old Beetle the answer to his question was actually, ‘No, it’s not very safe.’.

Being a passenger in a LHD car is just so weird, it really feels like I should be driving but there’s no steering wheel there! I really don’t like it, it’s like some sort of surreal dream

I’m also amused by seemingly randomly sited road signs many miles from a port etc saying drive on left – if you got that far without working that out it would be a miracle!

if there’s a sign it’s a good bet there’s been an accident in that spot. Similarly to don’t get warning signs for every bend in the road – just the ones where people died.

being a fair way from the port is when drivers stop being nervous and are more likely to have a lapse. It’ll often be common stop off point for tourists.

im working with a bunch of Americans just now – constantly having to grab them as they step out into traffic looking the wrong way 🙂

I do occasionally get confused in weirdly laid out car parks one of which is local to me and I’m not the only one. However, once pulled out of a layby on a long straight road with no cars and drove for about 50 yards on the wrong side until my passenger enquired as to what I thought I was doing. That was a long time ago – at that point I’d never driven abroad but I had cycled abroad – but not for a few years.

While MTBing a couple of days ago I was completely unable to remember someone’s name. Took about 5 mins for it to pop into my head. Yes, distraction and stress can substantially degrade mental performance, one reason why (for example) phoning while driving is so dangerous.

It wasn’t even very difficult MTBing, which is why I was thinking about the person (that I’m meeting for dinner tonight).

Almost went the wrong way round a busy roundabout when I was in France last summer.

A friend of my sister did that a few years ago whilst on holiday. Spent the next 9 months in hospital being rebuilt after he drove straight into an oncoming artic. He was eventually able to move about & walk normally but took a very long time to get fixed. Luckily the rest of his family were in the hotel while he went to fill the car up.

@thols2 wins the thread

driven abroad a few times in right and left hand drive cars and it’s never happened to me, not here or abroad. We were in Austria once and my mate was driving and he started going round a junction under a flyover on the wrong side of the road. I felt the urge to tell him very loudly to get on the other side PDQ!

The first time I drove left hand drive I kept scratching around in the door pocket trying to change gear, and looking at the A-pillar for the mirror, that was weird!

Yes. A couple of times.

Nearly in Nerja, Spain a few years ago. I had got lost and nearly went round a roundabout the wrong way, the sharp intake of breath from my better half soon corrected me!

Only in the UK in a LHD car, the only place I have to drive on the wrong side of the road. Madame Edukator normally puts me right immediately but on one occasion she didn’t notice either, country road with no signs or road makings to put me right. I’d like to thank Mr white van man who braked as hard as I did and flashed which suggested I was the idiot. No problems in the UK with a RHD car or in Europe with a LHD, it’s having the wrong car for the road network that confuses me, I automatically assume kerb side is passenger side.

Quite a few times attempting to leave downtown Mumbai on our Enfield but as everyone else was treating the roads like a free for all we went with it, the shrieks from my GF on the back helped alert me to the near misses.

The more you switch, the easier it becomes.

I drive in the UK rarely nowadays, but it comes back pretty quickly. I do sometimes catch myself preparing to turn left on a red before remembering I’m not at home.

Usually after the first coffee stop of the morning when on a cycling trip. Brain defaults to ride on the left which has had some interesting results (Guarda Civil getting stroppy in Tossa del Mar was a lowlight).

I have, just once, Xmas day I had walked on in the morning to a local pub to pick up the car. I pulled out of the car park onto the country lane. There was a car coming the other way and so sure of being in the right, I made him drive around me.

It was only once I reached the main road that I realised why he was looking at me funny!

in thailand and Laos its fairly common for scooters(mostly) to start driving on the wrong side of the road until there’s a gap in traffic to crossover. Which is different to trucks on corners on the wrong side of the road

But yes, i  have on occasion started the motorbike off on the wrong side, having forgotten which country i was in

If that happened to me I’d be seeing a doctor.

As others have said, I’ve no real issue with ‘mirroring’ when driving abroad, after the initial shock of adjustment. One weird side-effect though was that my partner would say “take the next left” and I’d take the next right. I’m not a person who ever confuses left-and right, in fact being left-handed I’m probably more aware than many.

My BiL was on autopilot the with his bike on the roof when he went to park in a multistorey. He’s got a towbar rack now, and a new bike.

I once did this, suddenly went “oh shit, bikes!” and stood on the brakes. Got out to inspect the damage to find the max height beam gently touching the front forks.

I’ve forgotten which way round knives and forks go when setting the table,

That reminds me. At the old house the hall/stairs light switches were backwards, so the stairs light was the switch further away from the stairs. Completely counterintuitive to a point where guests would ask for the bathroom and directions would come with an additional instruction, “and it’s the other switch.” I tried to rewire it once and discovered that the reason for it was the wires weren’t physically long enough to reach to the other poles.

I’d lived there (or visited often) most of my life and I still got it wrong. It got to a point where I’d go to switch on the light, think “no, I always get it wrong” and press the other switch, just to find that I was right in the first place and I’d overcorrected myself. I went through this merry cycle of getting it right for a few days, then getting it wrong again. I only finly cured it by thinking “bugger it” and switching on both sets of lights.

I’m consciously aware that I apparently hold mine the wrong way around, so I always know the fork goes on the left…opposite to how I actually use them.

I hold them the right way around, but as above I’m left-handed so it’s “wrong.” If I tried to use a fork with my right hand I’d have my eye out.

The first time I drove left hand drive I kept scratching around in the door pocket trying to change gear, and looking at the A-pillar for the mirror, that was weird!

This might just be a ‘me’ thing but the scary part of this for me is if I look to where the mirror should be and it’s not there (because it’s LHD or simply missing/broken) my brain doesn’t think “oh, there’s no mirror,” it concludes that I can’t see any hazards therefore it must be perfectly clear.

I do sometimes catch myself preparing to turn left on a red before remembering I’m not at home.

The first time I encountered “right on red” it was my first trip to the US and I was a passenger, literally on the drive ‘home’ from the airport.  It scared the absolute piss out of me. Bearing down on traffic lights, I’m thinking “it’s red, surely she’s seen it… she’ll be slowing down any time now… any time… SHIT THE BED, IT’S RED, WOMAN!!” The first the driver realised that something might be amiss was the two Brits in the back seat screaming.

I’m also amused by seemingly randomly sited road signs many miles from a port etc saying drive on left – if you got that far without working that out it would be a miracle!

The Scottish Highlands are full of these – and not without reason. We’ve had multiple deaths on the A9 caused by foreign (predominantly American) drivers on the wrong side of the road and then there are the nuances of the single track roads with passing places, and where these become standard dual lane roads again.

I went around a mini roundabout the wrong way once but it was in Australia. I think my brain just thought we were abroad and therefore turn right. No harm done. In Europe I tend to take a moment to orient myself before setting off anywhere.

Stress can do some very strange things and I think it’s very underestimated as a cause for all sorts of trouble. Best not sweep it under the carpet.

I’ve been known to get into the wrong side of the car when driving LHD cars, which is really amusing for everyone else.
I actually prefer driving a RHD car on the continent.

I do have a moment of worry at some junctions/road layouts in large cities. Usually, is this a no entry? Bus lane etc. I think that’s normal though.

Done it a few times after European trips, usually a case of me thinking “what’s that **** doing on the wrong side of the road” before realising I was the **** in question.

I once managed to drive through a pedestrian underpass in Bracknell, only realising why I was getting such strange looks when I got to the other end & there was only the option to drive across a park or onto a path – chose the shameful drive across the park to the nearest visible bit of actual road.

I suspect this is more about overlad as you picked up a new car. If its not something you do very often its a load of new and un-familiar things to cope with. If you arent used to changing cars a lot then it can be a challenge. I was test driving differnet cars in the summer and I was consious of how I needed to concentrate on otherwise mundane tasks as the controls were not what I waqs used to.

spent weeks driving in Europe this year in three trips, pretty much no issues at all, cycling and driving.  When I get home to the UK then I get confused every now and then.  Isnt that odd

I have on multiple people occasions opened the wrong door to drive the hire car abroad. I have positioned on the wrong side at a residential junction without road markings. But after being abroad for three months and coming back as a passenger, I shouted to my mother that SHE was on the wrong side of the road. She wasn’t.

cycling around residential areas is much harder. There is a visual cue for a hire car that you sit near the middle of the road. Assuming there are markings. On a bike that visual cue is not there.

yeah, i’ve done that – in the UK as well.

Don’t think its taken me as long as 10 seconds to get my head around it – but its certainly happened

I do travel a fair bit for work so sometimes have no idea where i am!

I do it more often on the bike – at least in the car i know that my seat should be towards the middle of the road!!

I’ve done it, can’t explain why but just got really confused. Best thing is to not think about what side of the road to drive on but, instead, make sure driver is near the middle of the road rather than near the kerb. This translates wherever you are driving a car (assuming you have hired locally and not driven uk car overseas)

I actually prefer driving a RHD car on the continent

My second time driving abroad was a trip to Italy in 2012. The first was Australia in 2010 and that’s a doddle, it’s the same side, all the signs are in English etc, etc.

I wasn’t sure whether to fly to Nice and hire a car or drive down to Finale. I asked around for advice about driving abroad.

The responses were pretty much 50/50 “take your own car, you don’t want to have think about a strange car as well as strange roads” and “hire one, it’s so much more natural being in a LHD on foreign roads” Helpful.

Having now done it eight times, six in my own and two hires, I’m in the ‘take your own’ camp, although French toll booths are a pain in a RHD van.