Left Hand Driving suggestions for Right hand drive person- In Europe
 

I have been driving cars and bikes for last 23 years in India.
I have driven a car in the UK form London to Scotland and back.
I have tried a bike in Greece.
Am used to the Right hand drive cars- Right side steering wheel.

I am planning a family holiday to Turkey and Germany.
Am planning to rent a car in Cappadocia ( 2 days) and Selcuk( 2 days)
and in Bavaria, Germany for 3 days ( not in the cities) Berchtesgaden, Fussen, Lindau.

I need to try it once before I can do it in futue, to get over that block in my mind.

Any suggestions and instructions please...

After an initial unfamiliarity you will have no problem. The fact of the steering wheel being on the left and the gear-change on the right will put you in the right frame of mind.

Advice: if you are travelling with a partner insist that he/she says to you very positively as you start the first journey of each day -'Drive on the Right!'. Other danger points are car parks where you can easily forget and after the initial concentration of the first couple of days on later days starting as you are used to, on the 'wrong' side of the road. We've all done it.

Apart from that you will have no problems. I spent several years living in a country which drove on the right and had little difficulty swapping about when I came home.

Be advised though that road rules and manners are different in Europe from what you will know in India. Generally far less aggressive and with very limited use of the horn.

Enjoy your trip.

You may want to give trying it in India one more thought...

Actually there isn't much of a difference. Shifting with your right hand may be a bit unusual in the beginning, but a motorically unchallenged person should be able to adjust to it fairly quickly.
I also find driving on the other side of the road not much of a challenge. As a driver you are always part of a moving, but somewhat closed system, so if you blend in, you just should be fine. Just remember on German Autobahnen the left (outer) lane is for overtaking only (or for fast drivers overtaking constantly) - and Germans are serious about it. No overtaking on the right and the reliability of that rule are a pre-requisite for unlimeted speed on the Autobahn.
I find the biggest adjustment to make in countries where traffic flows on the "other" side of the street is as a pedestrian. Because moving more freely, it's easier to forget to which side one should assign more caution.

Thanks a lot. Very good points. I will keep these things in mind.
My wife is a good driver and she can keep me alert.
In addition, I am planning to dive for not more than 2-3 hours a day, so that I don't suffer from fatigue.

After driving in India, the Scotland drive was a breath of fresh air; in all senses.
I guess it would be the same in Bavaria.

I am a bit concerned about the alpine, high altitude routes. Are they quite steep, with a lot of hair-pin bends. Do they have a barrier everywhere on the outer side between the road and the valley?

I am a bit concerned about Turkey- Selcuk to Didyma and back.
Do the roads have dividers?

Please help...

You should try to make sure you're hiring - particularly the first time - from a major hire co at a biggish airport.

That's one way you can be almost 100% sure you'll start off in a nice, flat, open air car park with little traffic about. You can't be 100% sure (at CDG Paris, for example, every car I've hired started off in a horrible multistorey thing), so check here before committing. Some discounters at off-airport locations actually have nicer, flatter, emptier car parks, so seek advice.

Then just drive round the car park till you're comfortable and your brain's got used to where you put your hands to change gear, change the heating or A/C settings, indicate, wind the windows down and all the other things you really don't want to do for the first time in a crowded city street. I've found starting the hire in a busy city street can be quite intimidating if you're on the wrong side, though you really do get used very quickly.

I've never found an Alpine road to drive on without a sturdy barrier at the road edge. My experience of driving in Turkey is that dividers are very rare - but roads outside the cities very, very empty unless you're on a key E route.

Practice is a waste of time. You are not going to overcome a lifetime of experience with a few hours of practice. The moment you quit concentrating on driving, you automatically fall back on highly-practiced ("overlearned" is the technical term) responses.

The good news is that driving on the "wrong side" is easy so long as there are no decisions. Freeways and straight roads are easy because you just drive straight.

The bad news is that nightmares can occur at choice points where part of you attention is diverted to thinking about the reading road signs and deciding which way to go. Intersection and especially round-abouts are where you can have real difficulties. Like I said, a few hours of practice won't help you when this occurs. All you can do is go very slowly and have a passenger yell out when you make the inevitable errors. And you will make errors.

I really hope there are two going. Two makes it much easier. You can concentrate on driving and the other becomes the map and sign reader. Also, a keep right now and then when needed helps too.

When we are going to be driving on the "wrong" side of the road we always rent an automatic. It makes it much easier that you don't have to try to shift gears with the opposite hand that you are used to.

One person drives and one reads the map and tells the driver to stay on the correct side of the road.

Because you will be driving on the right hand side of the road, the left wheel drive is really no problem. I just remind myself that, as the driver, I must be in the centre of the road and NEVER next to the kerb. The only difficulty I have is that when I want to turn and use the indicator, the windshield wipers come on and vice versa, the reason being that the two levers are reversed from what you will be used to. Also, remember to give way to the left - the oppositre from the UK.

I echo almcd's advise to use caution when entering into traffic. Remember to look the other way. I've read of Americans getting into collisions in the UK by not looking the correct way. So, check Left before you merge.

When I drove in Ireland, the best advice I was given by a taxi driver was just to take it easy and you'll be fine.

With my limited experience in Switzerland and France, just about any time there's a significant drop-off on the side of the road, there will be a barricade of some sort.

Certainly more often than we saw in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu and Kerela!

"Also, remember to give way to the left - the oppositre from the UK."

That bit of advice is either ignorant or malicious - dangerous in any case.

The right side in general has the right of way on the continent (unless signs explicitly stipulate something different).

In the U.S., our cars have left-hand steering wheels, and we drive on the right side of the road, the opposite of your situation. When I go to the U.K. or Ireland, I of course have to drive on the left side of the road, with a right-hand steering wheel.

My only suggestion is that you not allow yourself to become too tired so that you could have a momentary slip and thus make a mistake. Also, be patient and don't make any quick decisions.

I was driving in the Lake Country in England. It was toward the end of the day, and I was driving from a two-lane road to a dual carriageway. I briefly became confused, looking the wrong direction for traffic, and collided with a truck. Fortunately, there were no injuries and the car wasn't extensively damaged--only about $2500 worth, which my Visa gold card covered.

A few years later I drove in Ireland for three weeks and had no trouble at all.

I had trouble at first in France and sometimes in Germany with traffic circles. We have very few of those in the States, and I didn't know how to navigate them. Experience has taught me that anyone already in the circle has right of way. I'm sure there are other niceties, too.

You can always do what the folks down here in Florida do, just drive down the middle of the road at 20mph, with your left turn signal on at all times. Oh, also get a big pair of sunglasses, those that wrap half way around your head and lower the seat as far down as it will go so you can barely see.

I'm just kidding. Shifting between road sides is not a problem.

dave

So hsv thinks that if you come to a roundabout on the continent, you let the traffic on the right have right of way. I don't think so. That would mean that the traffic on the roundabout has to stop to allow the traffic coming on right of way. I hope I am never in the same country as hsv.

almcd: now you are talking roundabouts. I completely agree that normally traffic in the roundabout has the right of way vs the traffic about to enter the roundabout (I can tell you of one confusing exception in Germany, but that's what it is - a dumb exception). However, roundabouts are different from normal crossings. And roundabouts, although their number is increasing in Germany, are not the norm.

Your previous statement that the <b>left</b> has the <b>right of way</b> on the continent is just plainly <b>wrong</b>.

The rule of thumb remains:
The right has the right of way.

With regards to your hope never to meet me in traffic, I can assure you of reciprocity.

almcd should have more clearly stiuplated that when entering roundabouts in Turkey and Germany, always yield to the cars already in the roundabout, which will be coming from your left.

When I first drove in the UK, the best advice I was given was the inverse of the above. As a 25 year old from Missouri, I had never seen a roundabout!

I am also accustomed to driving on the left in a r-h-drive car, living as I do in England.

Many times have I driven in Europe, sometimes in my own British car (which has it's own set of problems), and sometimes in rental cars in which everything is on the other side, obviously!

(So far) I have never had any problems other than the pre-trip anxiety about driving on the other side. This is ALWAYS the worst part of the driving, the worrying about it in advance.

Once you get behind the wheel you will be fine. Yes, you may reach for the gearstick on the wrong side for a bit, but the pedals are in the same position under your feet, and within 10-15 minutes you will find yourself driving on the other side as if you had never done anything different.

Just be aware that you also need to be cautious when you return home and revert to driving on the other side again!

If it helps any, I am planning driving through Croatia and Bosnia in May, and am already worrying about whether I can do that - like you I worry about unfenced hairpin bends on mountain roads. All major roads are well maintained and protected, but if you decide to venture onto a minor road, then there may not be barriers on some bends - and I would expect the same will be true of Turkey.

Good luck!

after a recent trip to France, [when we took our own british RHD car] I was happiy driving down the road here when i found another vehicle coming straight towards me.

I'd forgotten that I was back in England again and was driving on the Right.

all that singing of "always drive on the right side of the road" [to the monty python tune "always look on the Bright side of life"] by my kids had worked too well.

fortunately we were both doing about 5 mph so there was no harm done.

the most dangerous time is not when you start off in the morning, but when you have stopped briefly, say for petrol or the loo.

I was afraid of the exact opposite situation for the past 30 years. As much as I loved visiting the UK I never thought I'd be able to adapt to driving on the "wrong side". Like others have said, it's only uncomfortable for the first few minutes. Practice in the rental car lot for 5 minutes before driving out into traffic. That's really all the time you'll need. The only problem I had was a tendency to stay a little to far to the left (in your case it might be to the right). After occassionally bouncing off the curb and snowbanks the first 2 days I adjusted. The car rental agent said they always knew when a Yank rented a car because the tires and hubs were scuffed from us over-compensating.