Having to drive on the "wrong" side of the road

In late 2003 this American drove over 1,000 miles in Australia after
driving 250,000 miles in his life in North America and no where else.
He is suprised to have gotten out of the whole deal alive


My brother who has jumped out of airplanes five times said he was to
scared to try such a thing.

You are taught not to think when you drive but to do. And for forty
plus years that is what you do. Then you come to the Wonderful World of
Oz and there ain't no Good Witch of the North to help you, and there
sure ain't no Wizard when you are driving down the right side of a busy
divided downtown Sydney avenue
At least the cops are understanding after pulling you over more times
in less than forty days than you have previously been pulled over in
more than forty
years.

Have any of you left-side drivers had similar experiences in North
America?

Aussie in Canada for 3 years,
No, not a single problem
but then, I'm not dumb

--
like fu_ a porcupine
1000 pri_ks against one
_
wrote in message
oups.com...
At least the cops are understanding after pulling you over more times
in less than forty days than you have previously been pulled over in
more than forty
years.

Have any of you left-side drivers had similar experiences in North
America?

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:36:06 GMT, "AlmostBob"
wrote:

Aussie in Canada for 3 years,
No, not a single problem
but then, I'm not dumb

--
like fu_ a porcupine
1000 pri_ks against one

Nice. Not 1000 pri_ks, just one big one.

Alan

On 18 Oct 2005 03:56:50 -0700, "
wrote:

In late 2003 this American drove over 1,000 miles in Australia after
driving 250,000 miles in his life in North America and no where else.
He is suprised to have gotten out of the whole deal alive


My brother who has jumped out of airplanes five times said he was to
scared to try such a thing.

You are taught not to think when you drive but to do. And for forty
plus years that is what you do. Then you come to the Wonderful World of
Oz and there ain't no Good Witch of the North to help you, and there
sure ain't no Wizard when you are driving down the right side of a busy
divided downtown Sydney avenue
At least the cops are understanding after pulling you over more times
in less than forty days than you have previously been pulled over in
more than forty
years.

Have any of you left-side drivers had similar experiences in North
America?

Yep. LA suburbs for three days, then to San Francisco via
Big Sur. Later, New Orleans to DC via the south. Later
again, 11000km through Europe.

I did encounter several understanding policeman; I also
discovered a few new deep southern terms of endearment.

I hardly hit anything (I don't count side mirrors:-), but I
understand the problem. My main hassle was remembering that
I had two metres more car on my right, and two metres less
on my left, so I kept much too close to the kerb. Lost a
couple of mirrors that way.

Cheers, Alan, Australia

wrote in message
oups.com...
In late 2003 this American drove over 1,000 miles in Australia after
driving 250,000 miles in his life in North America and no where else.
He is suprised to have gotten out of the whole deal alive


My brother who has jumped out of airplanes five times said he was to
scared to try such a thing.

You are taught not to think when you drive but to do. And for forty
plus years that is what you do. Then you come to the Wonderful World of
Oz and there ain't no Good Witch of the North to help you, and there
sure ain't no Wizard when you are driving down the right side of a busy
divided downtown Sydney avenue
At least the cops are understanding after pulling you over more times
in less than forty days than you have previously been pulled over in
more than forty
years.

Have any of you left-side drivers had similar experiences in North
America?


Cant say I have, hire cars are relatively easy to deal with as the
steering wheel being on the other side is a bit of a give away
and reverse parking was a bit interesting the first few times
but basically it was no problem.

Keith

Done a lot of driving in USA and Europe but live in Australia - never had a
problem, never been stopped by a cop, only one ticket for illegal parking in
Croatia. I actually parked in a parking space and got a ticket, I should
have parked on the foot path like I did in the rest of Europe and got no
tickets.

Did 12,000km in Europe this year, then one day driving in the UK, then 2
weeks in the USA - all no problems, even with the one day in the middle on
the other side of the road.

Stevesub




"Keith W" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
In late 2003 this American drove over 1,000 miles in Australia after
driving 250,000 miles in his life in North America and no where else.
He is suprised to have gotten out of the whole deal alive


My brother who has jumped out of airplanes five times said he was to
scared to try such a thing.

You are taught not to think when you drive but to do. And for forty
plus years that is what you do. Then you come to the Wonderful World of
Oz and there ain't no Good Witch of the North to help you, and there
sure ain't no Wizard when you are driving down the right side of a busy
divided downtown Sydney avenue
At least the cops are understanding after pulling you over more times
in less than forty days than you have previously been pulled over in
more than forty
years.

Have any of you left-side drivers had similar experiences in North
America?


Cant say I have, hire cars are relatively easy to deal with as the
steering wheel being on the other side is a bit of a give away
and reverse parking was a bit interesting the first few times
but basically it was no problem.

Keith

I hardly hit anything (I don't count side mirrors:-), but I
understand the problem.

I hit some unusual birds. Light gray body and white heads. I was
driving very fast on a very straight and very empty highway some where
within a couple hundred miles east of Adalaide if mory serves. If the
birds woud have stayed put they might have been OK. But no....Then I
ran into what seemed the survivors between Adalaide and Melbourne, and
they had not learned their lesson.

You could say the same of me, but then I survived


My main hassle was remembering that
I had two metres more car on my right, and two metres less
on my left, so I kept much too close to the kerb. Lost a
couple of mirrors that way.

For some strange reason I kept bumping into curbs also.

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 08:01:11 +1000, "Stevesub"
wrote:

Done a lot of driving in USA and Europe but live in Australia - never had a
problem, never been stopped by a cop, only one ticket for illegal parking in
Croatia. I actually parked in a parking space and got a ticket, I should
have parked on the foot path like I did in the rest of Europe and got no
tickets.

Did 12,000km in Europe this year, then one day driving in the UK, then 2
weeks in the USA - all no problems, even with the one day in the middle on
the other side of the road.

Stevesub

The one I found really fascinating was Charlotte Amalie in
the US Virgin Islands. They drive on the left, but all the
cars are imported from the USA so they are left-hand drive.

It's a bit disconcerting sitting beside the driver of a
bus/cab as the other cars whiz past by your right ear. I
don't suppose it really mattered, because he rarely looked
ahead anyway:-)

Cheers, Alan, Australia