Practicing driving on the left side of the road. Where?

[Leaving4Ca]

Originally Posted by RamblingMan

I switch between driving on the left and right pretty frequently and have a few suggestions you might find useful:

--Rent a car with an automatic transmission. It is easier to focus on staying in the right lane if you don't also have to worry about shifting with your left hand.

--Take a minute before driving to familiarize yourself with all the controls. Trying to turn off the windshield wiper when you meant to use the turn signal is probably worse for your focus than trying to shift.

--Be particularly careful at traffic circles (they might call them "roundabouts" in NZ). It is really easy to automatically enter them in the wrong direction without thinking about it.

--Avoid driving at night, especially at first. Everything is harder in the dark, more so if you are tired or jetlagged.

--Don't drink and drive. At all. Really. Even one beer can relax you enough for you to drive on "autopilot" rather than focus on staying left.

--When crossing a road, remember to reverse your normal tendency to look "left, right, left."

--If at all possible, avoid heavy traffic when you first start out. In other words, if you arrive at rush hour, wait until traffic dies down before starting.

Exactly! Also, I believe the steering wheel is on the other side in NZ too. When you first get there, after some rest, practice driving around some quieter streets. Don't forget your International License. :-)

[Fredesch]

I worked in NZ for a couple of months and had to drive the shop's Morris. The biggest problem I remember is taking right hand turns, you naturally want to go in the near lane or turn on a red.

Traffic circles can be a problem if you forget, but there is either no one around so you don't have a problem or you can see which way the traffic is flowing, so much less a problem than right turns. I don't know if they still do it, but when I was there, in the cities traffic stops completely for pedestrians and they walk every which way including diagonal. So don't plan on turning on a red in a built up area if you notice crosswalks running on the diagonals as well as across the street.