| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: Driving on the same side of the road Thread poster: wonita (X)
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Russell Jones 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:28
Italian to English
Terry Richards wrote:
It's the second week that's dangerous
The first week, you worry about it. The second week is when you start to relax...
In my case, about the fifty second week. I was very used to driving in Italy, but one evening, on a deserted road, I set off on the left hand side and of course there was a car coming round the next corner.
My only accident in 48 years of driving, fortunately not serious due to evasive action by both drivers.
Terry is right; complacency is the danger.
| | | | | Yep, but without a driving licence | Mar 27, 2012 |
Giles Watson wrote: Perhaps Sweden before 3rd September 1967? Does anyone have any personal experience?
I was a bit too young for a driving licence at the time. But I still remember my dad having to re-learn driving on the left when our family spent a month driving around in the UK in 1968.
George Hopkins wrote:
When I moved to Sweden, long before they changed to driving on the right-hand side of the road, the steering column was on the left. Strange. I was told that this was most practical because the driver was closer to the side of the road and consequently there was less risk of driving into the ditch!
Good story, but I think the more pragmatic explanation I've heard is more likely: the tech spec required in Sweden wasn't the same as in the UK (all other left-driving countries being too far away for economically transporting cars in the then non-globilised world). As Sweden was, and still is, a small country population wise, manufacturing cars with steering wheels on the right for such a small market would not have made good business sense.
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My husband worked for a time in Nigeria in the 1970s, and said many roads were only wide enough for one vehicle. You drove down the middle until an oncoming vehicle appeared, and then the last to swerve to the right was chicken!
Another phenomenon is becoming increasingly common in Denmark, where chicanes are set up to force you to slalom along the road and race to get past the constriction before the other car stops you. (This is supposed to be traffic calming, but as everyone driv... See more My husband worked for a time in Nigeria in the 1970s, and said many roads were only wide enough for one vehicle. You drove down the middle until an oncoming vehicle appeared, and then the last to swerve to the right was chicken!
Another phenomenon is becoming increasingly common in Denmark, where chicanes are set up to force you to slalom along the road and race to get past the constriction before the other car stops you. (This is supposed to be traffic calming, but as everyone drives around in low gear, it is noisier and pollutes the atmosphere more.)
Last year seven (7!) chicanes were set up along a road in our town, and there are even bus stops right between the chicanes at two points. So when the bus stops to pick up or drop passengers, everyone has to wait... And it is the bus driver who sells tickets too!
I really am too chicken to drive up on the pavement on the side away from the door of the bus, but when there is a queue of schoolchildren, I bet the cyclists do!
Some people believe road rage is caused by traffic calming.  ▲ Collapse
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