Adventure Bike Rider Forum

I find the change going abroad far easier than reverting to the left when I get back...anyone else find the same?

I did that in June on the bike in Devon. Must have thought I was in Greece. As someone else said - Lucky I'd already been to the toilet.
Did it in Spain a few years ago at the end of a very long day. Luckily L8KTM was there to put me right before disaster.

YESS - been there and done that both Away & Home (upon return)

I have a method to try to minimise this potential problem

We all look at the speedo (at least occasionally)

A photo from Norway ..... masking tape and a marker are a cheap investment

Yup - Usually the second day of a continental trip when your guard is down.

never dont it abroad but did loads in the uk,
steve

Well I live in France and I have two vehicles parked outside. One is a LHD French car and the other is a RHD van imported from the UK. And because our 'drive' goes along the front of our house, sometimes the car and or the van is parked facing left or facing right. So that's every permutation possible. At least once per month I leave the house to drive alone and step straight into the passenger seat... Doh. If someone is looking a good trick is to open the glove box and make out that you fully intended to get in that side...
Then last week I drove the van up to the UK. I alternate vehicles quite often and drive in the UK at least once a year, so I am comfortable switching to the other side of the road as soon as i get off the ferry - no problems. On visiting my mum she said she was impressed with how easy I find it to drive on either side and alternate between countries. She told me this in front of her house in Dorset just before I waved her goodbye to drive back to France. I turned straight on to the right hand side of the A30 and within 10 seconds a lorry was bearing down on me head to head! He seemed to see the french registration plate and rolled his eyes as I sheepishly moved left. What a plonker.
So there's no room for complacency. Even old hands can make the mistake. Of course one day maybe the UK will get its act together and sort out this nonsense, but not until it's abandoned brexit I imagine.

Black Jack wrote:I find the change going abroad far easier than reverting to the left when I get back...anyone else find the same?

I'm the same. Each time I get off the ferry at Hull I have to think carefully about which way to go round the roundabout at the main road

daveuprite wrote: Of course one day maybe the UK will get its act together and sort out this nonsense, but not until it's abandoned brexit I imagine.

It's actually us that drives on the correct side. All to do with armies marching, sword in your right hand when mounted on a horse apparently.
Napoleon changed it so his army wasn't like ours.

vRSG60 wrote:
It's actually us that drives on the correct side. All to do with armies marching, sword in your right hand when mounted on a horse apparently.
Napoleon changed it so his army wasn't like ours.

Hilarious. I know the history, of course. So the earliest way is the 'correct' way? Better get your horse and cart out then...

The UK method only works because it's an island, with a clean break created by every ferry journey. If the UK had continuous non-sea borders with the rest of Europe it would probably have been sensibly required to change sides upon entering the EU back in the 70s. It remains a source of many accidents every year. Just sit outside Newhaven harbour for an hour after each ferry docks from Dieppe. The signposting is atrocious and poor mainland european drivers struggle to work out how on earth to get started on the left, with lots of close scrapes, made even worse by pot-holes, filthy broken signs and roads falling apart from neglect.

It wasn't that long ago that Sweden drove on the left.
3rd September 1967.

Guilty as charged ... Following a diversion / small contraflow in Belgium ..
Ten of us ended up facing oncoming traffic at traffic lights and one us smugly looking from the correct side of the road ..... he didn't need to buy beer all week .... grrrr