Car rental.....

[operknockity]

Originally Posted by ZBB

That only matters if you consider the UK and Ireland to be part of Europe

Have never been had the chance to drive anywhere else but in the US.

I almost went to Kourou, French Guyana, for work many years back and the only cars they had for us to rent were going to be right hand drive sticks. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it fell through and someone else was the stuckee for that trip.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by operknockity

Have never been had the chance to drive anywhere else but in the US.

Besides the US, I've driven in Mexico, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Czech, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain and Australia.

The most "fun" place to drive was Italy. Its crazy driving there, but once you figure out that the basic rule of the road is that you are in a race, you're OK. Essentially, if you are ahead of somebody, you are "winning" and therefore have the right of way -- and if you are behind somebody, it is your responsibility not to hit someone else. Its utterly amazing how well it works -- imagine a tied up intersection with cars heading in all directions at once would result in multiple accidents here, but in Italy its almost beautiful to watch. Cars find holes and miss by a centimeter or two, horns honk a bit, but not too much, spaces open up and are immediately filled by a car going across traffic, etc.

Countries that I've been to where I haven't driven, and never would want to drive in are India and Japan. India is just utter chaos, and while Italy has some chaotic moments (I literally saw someone pass by driving up on the sidewalk), its mostly organized chaos. India is just chaos. Japan is very organized, but if anyone has seen the Top Gear Nissan GTR race across Japan, you'll understand that the issue there is purely language-based.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by operknockity

Ooops. Yes a Maserati. Why did I say Lambo????? Need more coffee.

I thought you had typed it on your new iPhone.

[JST]

Originally Posted by ZBB

That only matters if you consider the UK and Ireland to be part of Europe


I was worried about that before I went to Scotland in '99 for vacation. It was the first time I would be driving a RHD car, and I was definitely expecting it to be stick. Turned out to be not too bad. I really didn't have any problems shifting with my left hand. The first ~20 min drive to my hotel was a nervous experience, but I took it slow and thought through all my turns (its kind of like thinking in mirror image). By the 2nd day though, I was pretty comfortable driving the RHD car, and the rest of the trip was great. I did have one instance about half way through the trip, where I pulled out of a gas station and headed to the right side of the road -- fortunately it was an empty street

I think I posted after my trip to Ireland that shifting with the wrong hand gave me (surprisingly) no trouble at all--weird how that works. It's helped by the fact that the clutch/brake/gas relationship is the same; it would be devilishly difficult if you were trying to gas with your left foot and clutch with your right.

As you suggest, driving on the left is relatively easy where there is traffic, because of course the traffic shows you where you need to be. It's where you are pulling out into an utterly empty street that you sometimes have problems.