Driving on the "Wrong" Side of the Road




A reminder for the tourists

  We’ve been driving on the “wrong” side of the road now for about three months.  It took some time to get used to, and we pretty much have it down now (although we occasionally mess up – all those years of driving on the right side are hard to erase!).   For our first car rental in Australia, I volunteered to be the guinea pig to try driving on the left – we figured it would be good for one of us to get good at it, then the other could give it a try.  Now that we both have it down, we’ve fallen into our regular roles:  Daron as driver and me as navigator. 

When I first took over the wheel, it felt very strange to be sitting in the driver’s seat in the right side of the vehicle.  When I would look over at Daron in the passenger seat, it looked like he had SO much room, only because I was used to seeing the steering wheel, etc., on that side of the car.  At the beginning, I barely used my mirrors at all (rear view and side) because I wasn’t used to looking for them where they are now.  I had to force myself to remember them and peek in them occasionally.  It felt like I was driving a car with a growth on the left side, or like I had a sidecar on the left side with Daron in it.  You know how you have a sense of the size of your car and the space it takes up when you’re driving?  Well, my sense of the car was all messed up!  I would drift to the left of the lane because I wanted to position myself where I was used to driving, on the left side of the vehicle, only I ended up taking the vehicle with me to the left side of the lane!  The ignition of the vehicle is on the right side of the steering wheel, same as it is at home, and the gas pedal and brake are also the same as usual.  The blinker is on the right side of the steering wheel, while the windshield wipers are on the left.  At first (and sometimes even now) both of us would accidentally turn on the windshield wipers when we wanted to make a turn!  I’m sure it’s a dead giveaway that we’re new to this! 

Daron driving in Australia

Turning is a whole other ordeal!  The turn that used to make my heart pound was turning right from the left lane!  It felt totally foreign to my body and I always felt like I wasn’t paying attention to something.  Plus I never wanted to make the mistake of turning into the right lane – that would be tragic.  A fellow passenger on the cruise ship gave us a good piece of advice – he said to always make sure that the driver is in the center of the road (close to the center line).  If you’re the driver and you’re on the far edge of your lane, then you know you’re in the wrong lane!  There are roundabouts galore both here in New Zealand and in Australia, which aren’t bad at all (surprisingly).  They are very convenient for making U-turns when you discover you’re not going the direction you want to be going.

The other thing I still have trouble with is using my left hand to put the car in reverse, or park, or drive (thankfully, all our cars have been automatics).  I’m so uncoordinated with my left hand that I can’t ever seem to get it in the gear I want.  Even though I’m used to our car having the driver on the right side of the vehicle, when I look at other vehicles, I still expect the driver to be in the left seat.  Inevitably, when I look over there is a dog or a child in that seat, which is a surprise at first.  It's a bigger shock when that seat is empty!  I guess 20-some years of driving on the other side is hard to erase!