Driving on the unaccustomed side of the road

"Raffi Balmanoukian" a
wrote in message
news:BC7245B4.21BC4%walkabout@TAKEOUTTHETRASHTOREP LY.ns.sympatico.ca...
in article , Keith Willshaw at
wrote on 3/8/04 3:20 PM:


"Niels Osmers" wrote in message
...
I have 15 years driving experience in germany (right(hand) side). I had
no problems driving in Australia 4 years ago. The only problem was the
switches for windshield wiper and turn signal, because it was changed
in
the rental car as well. So I needed 3 of 4 weeks in order to accustom
me
to it. And then, back home, another 3 weeks to turn it over again.
But realy dangarous is to go with an continental european car (right)
to
England or Ireland (left).


Or vice versa so watch out Niels my trusty Rover and I are headed
for Switzerland in June

Keith



A trusty Rover....now there's a concept!


Actually modern Rover's are pretty decent, of course
they use Honda engines built under license.

Keith

in article , Keith Willshaw at
wrote on 3/8/04 7:45 PM:

A trusty Rover....now there's a concept!


Actually modern Rover's are pretty decent, of course
they use Honda engines built under license.

Keith



Last two vehicles:

1. '98 Disco, bought at 3 years old, 48,000 km. Owned it for 4 months.
Cheap at the price to dump it.

2. '87 Land Cruiser. Four times the age at time of purchase, four times
the mileage, twice the car at half the price. Still going strong.

In fairness, "our" discos - NAS - are wimped up for the softies. The "best
4 x 4 x tar."

Subject: Driving on the unaccustomed side of the road
From: "John C. Baker"
Date: 3/7/2004 12:13 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

In article ,
ojunk (John0714) wrote:

Several times I got on the wrong side and got pulled over by the
police. No tickets or accidents unfortunately.

I think you meant "No tickets or accidents, FORTUNATELY." :-)

Or did you ... ?

You are correct in what
Subject: Driving on the unaccustomed side of the road
From: "John C. Baker"
Date: 3/7/2004 12:13 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

In article ,
ojunk (John0714) wrote:

Several times I got on the wrong side and got pulled over by the
police. No tickets or accidents unfortunately.

I think you meant "No tickets or accidents, FORTUNATELY." :-)

Yes.

Or did you ... ?

It's OK to say "keep the white line on the driver's side" but I
consistently allowed insufficient room between the passenger side and
the kerb.

So thats why I kept hitting the curb, err, kerb and getting all those dents.

On 09 Mar 2004 03:45:53 GMT, ojunk (John0714) wrote:

It's OK to say "keep the white line on the driver's side" but I
consistently allowed insufficient room between the passenger side and
the kerb.

So thats why I kept hitting the curb, err, kerb and getting all those dents.


Yup. I found out that one of the good things about "Eurodrive" is that a
scratch down the RHR door and a mirror hanging by it's wiring didn't
bother them at all when I returned the car.

Told you I hardly hit anything, but as that happened in Naples it didn't
count :-)

Missed hearing her mutter "too close" once too often.

Cheers Alan

I have 15 years driving experience in germany (right(hand) side). I had
no problems driving in Australia 4 years ago. The only problem was the
switches for windshield wiper and turn signal, because it was changed in
the rental car as well. So I needed 3 of 4 weeks in order to accustom me
to it. And then, back home, another 3 weeks to turn it over again.
But realy dangarous is to go with an continental european car (right) to
England or Ireland (left).



Or vice versa so watch out Niels my trusty Rover and I are headed
for Switzerland in June

If you enter the continent in France and go direct to switzerland
without hitting germany, no important persons will come into danger ;-))

Raffi Balmanoukian a wrote:
in article , Keith Willshaw at
wrote on 3/8/04 3:20 PM:
[deleted]
Or vice versa so watch out Niels my trusty Rover and I are headed
for Switzerland in June

Keith


A trusty Rover....now there's a concept!

I think there is a superfluous "t" in there. Coming to think of it,
strike that, the whole word is superfluous.

Frank "Nearly bought a Rover. Then I woke up." Slootweg

[Sorry Keith. Just kidding. [Am I?]]

Alan wrote:
[deleted]
In re-reading this thread, I realised no-one had mentioned the main
problem I found, and which also occurred to an American friend who
visited me here.

It's OK to say "keep the white line on the driver's side" but I
consistently allowed insufficient room between the passenger side and
the kerb. Your brain is used to seeing a certain distance between you
and that white line, whether on the left or right; you have become
trained to position your body in a certain location relative to those
lines. Also, you automatically stay a little further away from oncoming
traffic in that unfamiliar position. At least, that's what happened in
my case.

So the result was, after wiping out the passenger mirror a few times
(thank goodness they spring back now) I learned to consciously remind
myself to move closer to that white line on the left in the US and
Europe.

For a week or two there I'd hear a strangled "too close" from my wife
and look across to see electric poles flashing a few inches past her
window. Like I said, I hardly hit anything :-)

"White line"? *What* "white line"? "The one between the lanes."? What
"lanes"? "One lane for each direction."? What on earth for? "For the
other cars."? *What* "other cars"?

Frank "One car a day or less." Slootweg

[Yep, I know you were talking about Europe. :-)]

"Raffi Balmanoukian" a
wrote in message
news:BC7282E3.21BE7%walkabout@TAKEOUTTHETRASHTOREP LY.ns.sympatico.ca...
in article , Keith Willshaw at
wrote on 3/8/04 7:45 PM:

A trusty Rover....now there's a concept!


Actually modern Rover's are pretty decent, of course
they use Honda engines built under license.

Keith



Last two vehicles:

1. '98 Disco, bought at 3 years old, 48,000 km. Owned it for 4 months.
Cheap at the price to dump it.


LandRover are not part of the Rover group, they were bought
by Ford some years ago.

Keith

On 09 Mar 2004 12:44:53 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

Alan wrote:
[deleted]
In re-reading this thread, I realised no-one had mentioned the main
problem I found, and which also occurred to an American friend who
visited me here.

It's OK to say "keep the white line on the driver's side" but I
consistently allowed insufficient room between the passenger side and
the kerb. Your brain is used to seeing a certain distance between you
and that white line, whether on the left or right; you have become
trained to position your body in a certain location relative to those
lines. Also, you automatically stay a little further away from oncoming
traffic in that unfamiliar position. At least, that's what happened in
my case.

So the result was, after wiping out the passenger mirror a few times
(thank goodness they spring back now) I learned to consciously remind
myself to move closer to that white line on the left in the US and
Europe.

For a week or two there I'd hear a strangled "too close" from my wife
and look across to see electric poles flashing a few inches past her
window. Like I said, I hardly hit anything :-)

"White line"? *What* "white line"? "The one between the lanes."? What
"lanes"? "One lane for each direction."? What on earth for? "For the
other cars."? *What* "other cars"?

Frank "One car a day or less." Slootweg

[Yep, I know you were talking about Europe. :-)]

I suppose I should have said "when there is a line". I suspect you were
talking about Italy g

Cheers Alan