You might get some insight from my article at http://softadventure.net/driveleft.htm.
BTW, even Texans can learn to drive left-handed. (I did.)
--
Harlan TEST- Soft Adventure tours, the way to go, at http://softadventure.net Japan
in Autumn 2002, http://softadventure.net/japan2002.htm Windjamming in the Caribbean,
http://softadventure.net/windjammer2003.htm Argentina/Chile/Easter Island in spring
2003, http://softadventure.net/argentina-chile2003.htm

"Dan Stephenson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:AA3B81A97088BB3A.E3417191E604F9...lp.airnews.net...
    | I'm vacationing in Britain next month and will be renting a car. I've
never
    | driven in Britain before (I'm a Texan) so driving on the left will be new for me.
    | Is there anything I should "know"? For example, a coworker suggests it is easy to
    | jump curbs and blow tires because of the unusual geometries.
    |
    | Thanks in advance, please post.
    | --
    | Dan Stephenson
    |
    | (remove from email address to reply via email)

"a.spencer3" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    >
    > Nightjar <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > >
    > > > The taxi-driver
    > >
    > Thought it was the white van.

He wouldn't have stopped at the entrance to the roundabout in the first place

Colin

The advice given by Bill Wright is mainly sound, but there are a couple of points
which need to be made:

There is awider range of speed limits than those mentioned by Mr Wright. Limits of 40
or 50 m.p.h. are not uncommon, especially on major suburban roads and on some heavily
used but narrow (or otherwise potentially hazardous) country roads. In urban areas,
20 m.ph. zones are becoming more common. In addition to signage, these areas may well
use chicanes or speed bumps ("sleeping policemen") to force drivers to go slowly.
(The chicane narrows the road so that vehicles have to give way to traffic coming in
the other direction, while the speed bump is a raised section of carriageway over
which a driver cannot drive too quickly without discomfort.)

On roundabouts, some large intersections may combine the roundabout with traffic
lights, controlling entry to the island from each tributary road. Such intersections
are often combined with a bridge or underpass allowing traffic on the most important
route to avoid the roundabout
(e.g. Hanger Lane giratory, on the A40 in London; A454 at junction 10 of the M6; at
least two examples on A38(M) in Birmingham). More rarely, roundabouts may have
some facility to allow exceptional forms of traffic to drive directly across
them. This used to be common with tramways, and the current revival of trams
has seen at least one example of a tramway going straight across an island
(Wolverhampton ring road).

Alan Harrison

Eric Holeman <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > In article <[email protected]>, Horst Prillinger
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    > I did that once on a quiet country road in Japan--we were pulled to the right for a
    > construction detour, and after the construction ended, I just kept buzzing merrily
    > along in the right lane. My boss, in the left seat, nearly had a heart attack.

These conversations remind me of an incident in Lagos, Nigeria. My driver missed the
turnoff on the Ibadan/Lagos motorway ... so just reversed back through the traffic to
return to it! Heart attack? You don't know the meaning of the words!

Surreyman

The Oik wrote:
    >
    > so, where is the furthest from the UK anyone has spotted a rusty white Trannie with
    > UK plates???

Not a white van nor rusty, but I once spotted an immaculate Bristol Lodekker
double-deck bus, allegedly operating route 134 to Colchester, driving down Via del
Duomo in Naples.

Me to gobsmacked Italian standing next to me: "Colchester? Il conducente ha perso
la strada."

Me to bus driver: "Oy, mate! Down to the sea-front, turn right and keep goin' for
about 1500 miles."

Alan Harrison

"Alan Thomas Harrison" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    >
    >
    > The Oik wrote:
    > >
    > > so, where is the furthest from the UK anyone has spotted a rusty white Trannie
    > > with UK plates???
    >
    > Not a white van nor rusty, but I once spotted an immaculate Bristol Lodekker
    > double-deck bus,

I 'found' a double decker red London bus in the middle of a restaurant in middle
America once, I think it was in Richmond IN.

In fact, if you're very hamfisted, it may be worth removing the wheels on the
left side

Rick Garner <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > One suggestion I have heard is to remove the hub caps (if any) on the left side of
    > the car, saves having to pay to replace them.
    >
    > On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 22:52:48 -0700, Dan Stephenson <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    > >I'm vacationing in Britain next month and will be renting a car. I've
never
    > >driven in Britain before (I'm a Texan) so driving on the left will be new for me.
    > >Is there anything I should "know"? For example, a coworker suggests it is easy to
    > >jump curbs and blow tires because of the unusual geometries.
    > >
    > >Thanks in advance, please post.
    >
    > Rick Garner To email replace the with isomedia

"Ptarmigan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Important to remember, you cannot turn right on red lights
    >

Or left, for that matter.

just in case it has not been mentioned.

some speed limit signs are replaced with a 'national speed limit sign'
it is a white circle with a black diagonal stripe thru it.

if u see it on a single carriageway (where oncoming trafic is NOT divided by a physical barrier,i.e grass,fence etc)means 60mph

if u see it on a dual carriageway(where oncomming traffic IS DIVIDED by a physical barrier) means 70mph

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 22:52:48 -0700, Dan Stephenson <[email protected]> wrote:

    >I'm vacationing in Britain next month and will be renting a car. I've never driven
    >in Britain before (I'm a Texan) so driving on the left will be new for me. Is there
    >anything I should "know"? For example, a coworker suggests it is easy to jump curbs
    >and blow tires because of the unusual geometries.
    >
    >Thanks in advance, please post.

Well, you'll probably want to rent a car with automatic transmission; trying to shift
manually with with the other hand could mess you up, and I did hear a story of
someone who got into an accident because of that.

They have a heck of a lot more traffic circles ("roundabouts") over there than they
do here. Basic rule is to yield to whatever is in the roundabout, then go. And "right
at the roundabout" means you have to go *left* and 3/4 of the way round it (they go
clockwise, not anti-clockwise).

And last but not least, remember to look both ways on a *right* turn, because you
will be crossing a lane. So if you don't look both ways on a right turn now,
start doing it now, before you leave; you will want to be in the habbit for when
you get there.

On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:36:35 GMT, [email protected] wrote:

    >Assuming that you use a manual transmission here, you will unconciously reach for
    >the shifter with your right hand AND HIT THE DOOR. The shifter is on the left. This,
    >too, will take some getting used to. By the time you get used to it, it's time to go
    >home. :-[

Actually, I made the same mistake the last time I was in England, even though both my
regular car and the rental car had automatic transimissions .... but the shifters
were on the floor, too. I kept bumping my hand in the driver's door the first day or
two in the UK. After I got home, back in my Saturn ..... I bumped the driver's door
again because I'd got used to the left hand.

Michael Gallagher wrote:
    >
    > On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:36:35 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
    >
    > >Assuming that you use a manual transmission here, you will unconciously reach for
    > >the shifter with your right hand AND HIT THE DOOR. The shifter is on the left.
    > >This, too, will take some getting used to. By the time you get used to it, it's
    > >time to go home. :-[
    >
    > Actually, I made the same mistake the last time I was in England, even though both
    > my regular car and the rental car had automatic transimissions .... but the
    > shifters were on the floor, too. I kept bumping my hand in the driver's door the
    > first day or two in the UK. After I got home, back in my Saturn ..... I bumped the
    > driver's door again because I'd got used to the left hand.

My experience is that, after driving 10 days in the UK, I have some trouble
readjustiong to driving on the right in the USA. It's worst when making a left turn
after the return home.

On 15 Jul 2002 08:12:06 GMT, [email protected] (Eric Holeman) wrote:

    >Best of all, you'll walk to the left side door and unlock it for the first week
    >or so ....

<raises hand> At least the part in England.

Funny story: I rented a silver Vauxhaul Cavalier when I visited my English friend in
'94. I stayed with her parents, and they lived in this u-shaped group of houses with
a sort of common parking lot.

So one night, Ann-Marie and I were going night-clubbing, and she was going to drive.
My car was parked next to *another* silver Vauxhall Cavalier, and no, I didn't
remember the license number.

So when she went between the vehicles walked to unlock the car, I walked around the
other side of what I thought was my rental and waited for her to open what I thought
was the passenger door.

She looked over over her shoulder at me with this distressed look on her face.
"Michael! Am I not driving? Is this not our car?"

Yes chillens, I'd walked around the wrong side of the wrong Vauxhall.

I didn't have a problem the following year with the Volkswagen Golf, but I made up
for it by the shifting-hand-into-the-door thing.

R J Carpenter <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > Michael Gallagher wrote:
    > >
    > > On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:36:35 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
    > >
    > > >Assuming that you use a manual transmission here, you will unconciously reach
    > > >for the shifter with your right hand AND HIT THE DOOR. The shifter is on the
    > > >left. This, too, will take some getting used to. By the time you get used to it,
    > > >it's time to go home. :-[
    > >
    > > Actually, I made the same mistake the last time I was in England, even though
    > > both my regular car and the rental car had automatic transimissions .... but the
    > > shifters were on the floor, too. I kept bumping my hand in the driver's door the
    > > first day or two in the UK. After I got home, back in my Saturn ..... I bumped
    > > the driver's door again because I'd got used to the left hand.
    >
    > My experience is that, after driving 10 days in the UK, I have some trouble
    > readjustiong to driving on the right in the USA. It's worst when making a left turn
    > after the return home.

What are you lot whinging about? You only have a problem if you come to the UK (or
one or two other places). We have the problem almost wherever we go!

Surreyman

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002 14:53:38 +0100, "a.spencer3"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >
    >R J Carpenter <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    >> Michael Gallagher wrote:
    >> >
    >> > On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:36:35 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
    >> >
    >> > >Assuming that you use a manual transmission here, you will unconciously reach
    >> > >for the shifter with your right hand AND HIT THE DOOR. The shifter is on the
    >> > >left. This, too, will take some getting used to. By the time you get used to
    >> > >it, it's time to go home. :-[
    >> >
    >> > Actually, I made the same mistake the last time I was in England, even though
    >> > both my regular car and the rental car had automatic transimissions .... but the
    >> > shifters were on the floor, too. I kept bumping my hand in the driver's door the
    >> > first day or two in the UK. After I got home, back in my Saturn ..... I bumped
    >> > the driver's door again because I'd got used to the left hand.
    >>
    >> My experience is that, after driving 10 days in the UK, I have some trouble
    >> readjustiong to driving on the right in the USA. It's worst when making a left
    >> turn after the return home.
    >
    >What are you lot whinging about? You only have a problem if you come to the UK (or
    >one or two other places). We have the problem almost wherever we go!
    >
    >Surreyman
    >
    >
It's not our fault that you drive on the wrong side of the road. :-]