Singapore Expats

Hello All,

Just curious...how hard was it to adapt to driving on the other side of the road for expats from Left Hand Drive countries?


David

Dave954 wrote:Hello All,

Just curious...how hard was it to adapt to driving on the other side of the road for expats from Left Hand Drive countries?


David

It's not really hard. The most dangerous thing is if you are in the right lane of a one way street, your tendency will be to turn into the right lanes on the cross street, which puts you into oncoming traffic. Right turns = USA left turns.

And for about two years you will confuse the turn signals and wipers which are usually opposite that of USA cars.

It's not hard. If you do it first time just follow the cars in front of you and soon (1h or so) it should be ok. Probably the most difficult part is what SE mentioned - all the switches and such, and to add, the manual gear shift and hand brake.
Later, back to a country with "your" side driving it needs like 20min for the first few times and later it all get pretty transparent.

For an even greater challenge you should try a RHD car in a LHD country! it is fine when there are lots of other cars on the road, the problem starts when you first turn out onto an empty road. In France I drove maybe 2 or 3 miles on the wrong side of a very windy mountain road you should have seen the faces of the occupants in an oncoming french car as we both came around a blind corner!

LOL that was a big wake up call, stick a big post-it-note on the dash saying CENTER LINE ON THE RIGHT! after a week you get used to it.

QRM wrote:
LOL that was a big wake up call, stick a big post-it-note on the dash saying CENTER LINE ON THE RIGHT! after a week you get used to it.

Oh wow. That's actually a very good idea.

In Australia, on the Great Ocean Road, I remember seeing signs like this one:



particularly at the exits of the carparks.

Strong Eagle wrote:
And for about two years you will confuse the turn signals and wipers which are usually opposite that of USA cars.

This, 1000 times over.

Also, there are no turns on red here unless there is a sign specifically permitting it or a dedicated lane. Unlike most of the US.

A reminder you said ??

And you can do like the following ..

Seen in a Comfort Taxi - Artificial Speed Governor .... Yellow Warning, Red Danger .. maybe the driver got copped for speeding and decided to become wiser ..



PS: if you do bring in a LHD car, you don't have to worry much on driving on the wrong side .. most of the roads are single direction and rarely you have to be in a dual carriage way road ..

Strong Eagle: as it is for RHD cars, VW and Porsche have the wiper and Signals transposed vs Japanese cars ... not sure of other European Cars ..

ecureilx wrote:A reminder you said ??

And you can do like the following ..

Seen in a Comfort Taxi - Artificial Speed Governor .... Yellow Warning, Red Danger .. maybe the driver got copped for speeding and decided to become wiser ..



PS: if you do bring in a LHD car, you don't have to worry much on driving on the wrong side .. most of the roads are single direction and rarely you have to be in a dual carriage way road ..

Strong Eagle: as it is for RHD cars, VW and Porsche have the wiper and Signals transposed vs Japanese cars ... not sure of other European Cars ..

A reminder for which side to drive NOT speed.

It's similar to being a Brit and hiring a car in the US or continental Europe. You do get used to it quite quickly, and you need to (and will) stay alert for the first week or two.

You also need to be wise to local idiosyncrasies, like 'turning lanes' at junctions, found in parts of the US.

JR8 wrote:It's similar to being a Brit and hiring a car in the US or continental Europe. You do get used to it quite quickly, and you need to (and will) stay alert for the first week or two.

You also need to be wise to local idiosyncrasies, like 'turning lanes' at junctions, found in parts of the US.

or hook turns? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn

To the OP, it's not as difficult as you think. When I moved from Australia to the US I had to switch RHD to LHD, and I was really nervous. But in reality it's not that bad. You're doing the exact same things, just looking the opposite way/using the opposite hand.

Agree you'll probably switch the windscreen wipers on when you want to indicate a couple of times, but it's not that bad. If you're used to driving manual, the gear shift pattern (e.g. Reverse gear) is reoriented, so it suits your 'other' hand anyway.

Of course if you drive a European car, they don't bother changing the above for their RHD markets, so no adjustment there necessary

Follow everyone else for a bit, and in a week or so you'll get the hang of it...

It's the turns that gets me and if there are any roundabouts (which I haven't seen in SG), then I'm doomed!!!

Never drove a manual shift car so don't know how hard it's to shift with a left hand. I think the clutch pedal and the shifting gears are still in same place though.

Yeah, those are the same but it only take a little while to sort out shifting with the left hand. I've owned several manual cars here including the Kia I'm currently driving. The only time I've ever had a problem with as a previous poster mentioned, late at night when little traffic on the roads you tend to forget. Or if I get a little bit pie faced (don't drink and drive anymore) I go get in the wrong side and then feel rather stupid, especially if someone was with me. Hopefully it would be a lady then I could alway pawn it off as being gentlemenly and opening her door.

Hidy Ho wrote:It's the turns that gets me and if there are any roundabouts (which I haven't seen in SG), then I'm doomed!!!

There is one about 300m west of Parkway Parade where Marine Parade Road meets Amber Rd (Haig Rd).

That's one more minor annoyance for the OP: Roads in Singapore like to change names. A lot. Why Haig Rd must turn into Amber Rd for about 200m before it ends is beyond me. Or, Sims Way -> Mountbaten Rd -> East Coast Rd -> Upper East Coast Rd. It's all the same damn road. Why is one section "Upper" anyway? It doesn't go up a hill, and it isn't any farther north than the section immediately to its west without the title. Why the hate? The first time I was looking for it, I stupidly assumed when I was on East Coast Rd, Upper East Coast Rd must be to the North.