Car Hire

Car Hire

Driving on the Other Side of the Road

Keep right or left! This instinct is drilled into us from when we first start to drive a car and must be temporarily unlearned if in a country that drives on the other side of the road. But safely driving on the other side of the road involves a lot more than just keeping left instead of right or right instead of left.

If you can drive a car in your home country, then of course you can also drive a car on the other side of the road. There is a very obvious thing to remember, but also a more subtle point to also grasp.

Keep Right

Yes, this might seem obvious and the good news is that, most of the time, it is very difficult to forget. When you are driving on a road with other cars, it is easy to simply copy what all the other drivers are doing.

But if you turn a corner onto an empty street, you will have to force yourself to remember to turn to the right hand side of the new street. It is very easy, when doing an instinctive action such as turning a corner, and when there are no visual clues to remind you, to forget and end up on the left (but wrong!) side of the road instead of on the right side.

Similar situations can occur in other circumstances, such as when driving in and out of car parks, or leaving the freeway and merging onto ordinary streets.

Lane Position

This is very important and if you overlook this, you run the risk of mounting the curb, destroying your suspension, and side-swiping other cars. This issue has to do with the fact that not only is the car being driven on the other side of the road, but you have also changed where you sit in the car - you are not now driving from the right hand seat but from the left hand seat.

When you drive a car back home, on the left hand side of the road, you are driving it from the right hand seat and most of the car is to your left. This means that, instinctively, you position yourself in the right hand side of your lane and by keeping yourself slightly to the right of the center of the lane, the entire car is centered in the lane.

But when you are driving from the left hand seat, the opposite situation applies. If you still instinctively keep yourself on the right of the center of the lane you are driving in, then instead of this resulting in the car being nicely centered in the lane, instead the car will be severely shifted to the right, making it quite likely that the right side of your car will be outside of the lane (i.e. wheels mounting the curb or going off the road surface, and the whole car potentially side-swiping vehicles that are parked on the roadside or which are driving in the next lane over.

This is the most important - and most difficult skill - to master when changing from driving on the other side of the road. It is difficult because it is an instinctive habit that you probably didn't even know you had. Remember that the car is now off to your right, and so drive in the lane so that your personal position is to the left of the center of the lane.

Getting Help

If you have any passengers traveling with you, ask them to please remind you any time they think you are straying out of position in your lane, or anytime you end up on the wrong side of the road by mistake. They'll probably do this anyway (!) but by encouraging them to do so, no-one needs to feel embarrassed or awkward if you do momentarily forget yourself.

Other Car Hire Information

The cars will have the driver's controls on the other side of the vehicle, of course. But, mercifully, the accelerator and brake pedals will be in the same order as in your car at home - accelerator on the right and brake on the left.

If you have the choice, try and avoid getting a car with a manual gear leaver and choose an automatic, even if it costs more money to rent. The gear leaver will probably still be in the center of the vehicle, but you'd be using your right hand to control it and it can add too much to the total complexity of mastering a different car, in a different country, and on the other side of the road!

If you're driving a car with a gear leaver that is mounted on the steering column, this will be pointing in to the center of the car, so you'll still need to use your right hand to operate it.

Beware of driving your Car Hire jet lagged. Try not to take a long flight to your destination and then immediately get into a rental car at the airport upon arrival. Give yourself a day or two to adjust to the new time zone and to recover from the long tiring flight before you start driving.

With a bit of care and caution, you'll quickly find that driving on the other side of the road is easy and enjoyable. Just remember that you'll need to retrain yourself to drive on the left when you return home again!

No-one seems to have an absolute complete list of all countries that drive on the left or right sides of the road. Here is one list.

One third of the world's population, in 73 different countries, drive on the other side of the road.

This is where you go to make a booking for your car hire.

Herewith some important information from a Traveller, who recently rented a Diesel car.

"But - a word of very important warning. Here in the US, when you go to buy gas or diesel, you know that the diesel fuel comes from the green colored pump/nozzle, and gas comes from a different color (often black). So, there I was, buying my first tank full of diesel in the UK, and at the pump, confidently took the green rather than black handled nozzle, stuck it in the tank, and squeezed the lever to get the diesel flowing.

As is often the case, nothing happened for a few seconds (I guess the people inside the store needed to authorize the not pre-payed service) and then, while idly staring around waiting for the fuel to flow, I suddenly had a terrible realization. The green handled pump was for petrol! I was about to fill the diesel car with petrol - a very bad thing to do. Thank goodness no fuel had started to pump, and I desperately released the flow lever and urgently yanked the nozzle out of the tank. That was a very close call. So, remember - green for diesel in the US, but NOT in the UK.

Interestingly, diesel and petrol nozzles are different sizes, to make it impossible to fit a (larger sized) diesel nozzle into a petrol tank, but this does not prevent you fitting a (smaller sized) petrol nozzle into a diesel tank.

Anyway - if you get a diesel vehicle for your next UK/European rental, be pleased about this. They are great cars these days, and you'll save appreciably in your driving costs."