Driving a Left Hand Drive car in the UK

How is it different?           (See Other Driving Courses)

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.

 

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	A "Fresnal Lense"

The Foreign Hazard on our Roads

Be Careful out there!

Nearly one in ten lorries involved in accidents on British roads is foreign - putting thousands of British lives at risk, damning official figures reveal.

More than 2,300 collisions a year involve foreign registered vehicles including cars, coaches, motorbikes, vans and lorries.

Leaving more than 400 motorists a year victims of potentially fatal "side-swipe" collisions from blind-sided foreign lorries.

 

The juggernauts, with the steering side on the left-hand side, often fail to see cars when the pull out to overtake - "side-swiping" unwary British drivers, sometimes with devastating results.

 

This has prompted the Highways Agency to distribute 40,000 window-mounted lenses - known as "Fresnel lenses" - to left-hand drive trucks entering the UK across the Dover Straits.

Fresnel lenses are small wafer thin sheets of flexible plastic - about 10 inches by 12 inches - with a moulded optical lens that self-adhere to flat glass. The lenses are supplied in an envelope printed with instructions in five languages.

Now the Government's Highways Agency will distribute a further 90,000 lenses, targeting major ports in both England and France.

 

A trial showed a reduction in side-swipe incidents in the south-east from roughly 26 incidents per week to 11 per week- an overall reduction of 59%. A side-swipe incident is when a truck changes lane and strikes a vehicle travelling alongside.

 

The Transport Department said: "Nine per cent of all HGVs (heavy goods vehicles) in accidents are foreign registered. Of these 1,117 HGVs, 982 were left hand drive and over 7.5 tonnes in weight."

"Some 409 foreign registered left hand drive HGVs were changing lane to the right at the time of the accident and 14 were changing lane to the left."

 

These figures were produced by a survey conducted by the Highways Agency, the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency and the Immigration Service.

 

A total of 40,000 stick-on Fresnel lenses were distributed free of charge at three French ports to drivers of left-hand drive lorries coming to the UK.

 

A new wave of 90,000 lenses will be distributed at Liverpool, the Hull ports, Newcastle, Heysham and Harwich and in France at Calais, Coquelles and Dunkirk.

 

Overseas hauliers who flout the rules of the road also face on the spot penalties and having their vehicles immobilised. Also, under EU rules, existing goods vehicles, first registered from January 2000, will be retro-fitted with wide-angle and close proximity mirrors on the passenger side by March 2009.

 

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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.