Driving a Left Hand Drive car in the UK

How is it different?          

Get used to driving in the ditch. Or, at least, that will be how it feels at first from your new viewpoint. This will tempt you too move out into the middle of the road too much, into the path of big heavy problems coming the other way!

Driving a left hand drive in the UK requires a lot of concentration and observation. Keep a close eye on your door mirror to monitor where you are sitting on the carriageway. It is all to easy to end up drifting into the middle of the road when you are so used to driving left of the centre line.

Be aware, therefore, of your position on the road at all times, or you risk incurring the wrath of not only oncoming traffic but that of vehicles behind you.

One of the biggest dangers with a left hand drive is overtaking. Leave plenty of room (3-4 second gap) from the vehicle in front before pulling out. Ask your front seat passenger for help if you can trust their judgement.

Turning left at junctions is another problem as your view from the right will be obscured unless the junction is approached more straight on than would otherwise be the case. Keep a sharp look out though for other drivers attempting to squeeze up the inside.

The other problem at first is changing gear, the right hand is just not used to doing things like this when driving and it can be difficult and of course distracting changing gear whilst on the move. Practice changing gear whilst stationary as much as possible, when stopped in traffic queues etc. Also consider not changing gear in the face of oncoming traffic, that way if you do miss the gear and inadvertantly steer off course whilst trying to find it, you will have the whole road to use rather than just your own side.

Drive on the left with Pride

Did you know?

Research in 1969 by J.J. Leeming showed that countries that drive on the left had a lower accident rate than countries that drive on the right, but this research is questioned in Peter Kincaid's book on the rule of the road. Some countries that have switched to driving on the right (such as Sweden) saw their long term accident rates increase by more than any increase in traffic volumes. It has been suggested, but not proven, that this is partly because it is more common to be right-eye dominant. Traffic flows in a clockwise direction when driving on the left which enables right eyed people to use the right eye to see oncoming traffic. When overtaking on a right-side-driving road, the right-eyed driver looks in the wing mirror with the left eye and also views the oncoming traffic with the left eye which is not suited to the majority right-eyed people.