Driving in Austrialia

[flyinlow]

One of my sons is considering transferring from the US. to Melbourne for a couple of years. Any suggestions on getting use to driving on the left?

[Ghoste]

I find it much easier to drive on the left than to be a pedestrian in those places.  You instinctively look in the direction of traffic in the closest lane to you when crossing a street.  You have to remember to look the opposite way.
Learn differences in signage and things and it will be time better spent.  The other lane part is a breeze.

[Dodge Don]

No big deal. Manual gearbox is a bit harder to get used to.

[XH29N0G]

It is actually OK.  I was not in Melbourne but instead in western Australia.

I have a hard time switching right/left, and it was not bad in city driving except when I was lost  and my instincts didn't seem to work.  Far out of town I had to remind myself not to forget and end up on the wrong side of the road.  I had a few harrowing drives at dusk when I was worried about the kangaroos (some are big they seemed to pop out of nowhere).  I also had a tendency to turn on the windshield wipers every time I would try the turn signal.  

[polywideblock]

get a dynamo or similar "label  maker " and make up some  keep left signs for him to put on the dash to remind him       how is he at KMH as opposed to MPH   .

[Fred]

Is he young? I ask because it really doesn't take young people long to adjust (not like us old fogies). He'll be right in no time.

And one more thing........practice makes perfect. 

[flyinlow]

Yea he's 25 and fine with the metric system. 

He's an engineer  working in the petroleum production field and sometimes works long hours. Concerned he will revert to his first learned ways  when tired.  I was going to suggest he take a couple of remedial Drivers Ed. lessons with a local.

Thanks for the reply's,

Craig

[Ghoste]

Thats not a bad suggestion at all because the potential to fall back on what you know when tired could be quite real.  Really though I think he'll be fine and in short order it'll seem normal to him.

[stripedelete]

I find it much easier to drive on the left than to be a pedestrian in those places.  You instinctively look in the direction of traffic in the closest lane to you when crossing a street.  You have to remember to look the opposite way.
Learn differences in signage and things and it will be time better spent.  The other lane part is a breeze.

What Ghoste said x 10

IMO,  a much greater risk.

[Ghoste]

And I just remembered one other thing that catches me off guard when I drive in a left lane country.  Rear view mirrors and blind spots.  He will need to note that the blind spots he wants to pay attention to are in a different area now and he has to watch mirrors that seem wrong at first.

[flyinlow]

I find it much easier to drive on the left than to be a pedestrian in those places.  You instinctively look in the direction of traffic in the closest lane to you when crossing a street.  You have to remember to look the opposite way.
Learn differences in signage and things and it will be time better spent.  The other lane part is a breeze.

What Ghoste said x 10

IMO,  a much greater risk.

I know what your saying. I have to be careful on Asian layovers. Walking around city traffic suffering from Jet Lag.

[Dino]

Getting used to being a lefty is easy, coming back and being a righty again now that's a whole other story!  I spent a little less than a year in the UK and when I came back home I found myself driving on the left a few times.  Luckily on quiet roads. I also found myself doing 70 in the far left lane when I came home because where I just was they called this the slow lane.   

[Ghoste]

Which reminds me, I found lane discipline to be much greater in many other parts of the world than in North America.  I haven't driven in Australia but other developed places I've been they tend to use the fast lane as a passing one and they don't swerve in and out across multiple lanes as much as here. (just my limited experience though so others may have a different report lol)  Lane splitting by motorbikes however is very common and very unnerving at first.

[polywideblock]

yea the bikes have a death wish     we have a "keep left unless overtaking" law in nsw don't know about the rest of aust. but in general right lane is for passing (unless your 102 and have a bowling hat on the back shelf then the middle lane is a 60 kmh zone when everybody else is doing 100 kmh ) you have to look for the hat  but its always there  

[Fred]

It's the same here in Vic poly but sadly we have something called "road hogs" that hug the fast lane and can't be shifted at any cost. You have to go around them from the left.
On the other hand, I found New Zealanders excellent at keeping left. (when I was driving in NZ, I mean).
As for the bowlers, they're mostly metropolitan and as we live on the very outskirts, are not encountered by us.

[aussiemuscle]

australian drivers are generally ignorant of anything that's not directly in front of them. yes, i'm australia. Also Vic police are very anti-hoon atm, so don't spin the wheels.

[Ghoste]

Whats a hoon?

[polywideblock]

  hoon = drag racing /street racing, doing burnouts (car confiscated and impounded ) general anti social behaviour , you know congregating in groups and taking up parking  spaces         most muscle car owners   

[Ghoste]

Awesome, I think I'll add it to my daily lexicon. 

[nh_mopar_fan]

I drove around quite a bit when we were there for 5 weeks last year.

The ony time I screwed up was on a rotary (roundabout) in Queenstown.

Luckily, it was a Sunday afternoon and kinda quiet :-)

There may have been a beer involved as well.

[Ghoste]

They've started to add roundabouts here and they have signs all around them warning pedestrians to wait for gaps because people don't grasp yet that the idea is for the traffic not to stop.

[polywideblock]

wish more people would get that message      the whole idea is that traffic keeps flowing ,you don't come to a stop . very hard for oldsters to get their head around they just pull up like it was a regular intersection 

[JB400]

Kind of hard not to come to a stop when they throw up a 90 degree turn just to get on this round about on a highway with a speed limit of 65.

Round abouts are a new concept in my area.

[Ghoste]

Its not hard at all when you anticipate that you may actually have to slow down from the 65 speed to make it.  

[polywideblock]

sometimes acceleration  has the same effect just have to time the "jump" and allow for said oldsters propping in the middle of the road