7:19 Yes you do mount your bicycle from the left, if you dismount you also dismount from the left (experienced cyclist inexperienced cyclist don't care). I don't know how much difference it makes, Even in a city where you cycle , what type of car the driver has and the type of traffic signals makes difference on how safe you can navigate the area.
I would say driving on the right is OK as long as it is for overtaking! Haha. But very interesting subject indeed. Interesting also that your observations match mine, even though I have heard other people really struggling with it. But these were people that are not interested in cars and driving in the first place. I am born in Germany and travelled to the UK for the first time aged 26. To get used to driving on the left took me less than an hour I’d say. The big surprise was on return the first thing I did was going the wrong way round a Belgian roundabout - uups. I knew driving on the right since 26 years, yet returning to it seemed much harder than coming to UK and drive on the left! This scenario repeated itself when 2 years later I took a friend with me, I did all the driving, he was passenger, returning and spending 5 hours on the Belgian and German motorway and first time my friend drove his car at home he drove on the left! I do have a theory why it is this way. It is the road layout, signs and also the behaviour of other drivers. UK drivers seem generally more defensive drivers, and they do indicate. In Germany I find roundabouts hard, because nobody indicates. In UK nearly everybody indicates, you know what the other cars are doing, and all the sudden it all makes so much sense and you can drive really fluently. If you find traffic lights in UK they tend to have a 2nd set across the road, which is easier. And I keep wondering that the British don’t seem to really realise it, but the road signs make so much sense. In brackets where it leads to, white ones for close by, green ones for further away locations, you soon realise which signs to ignore, while in Germany you have to read absolutely all signs with long words as you don’t know which ones are important. It even goes down to pedestrians with writing on the street “look left/look right”, so easy, so logical. Back to Germany and it is “Wow, so much information, so many long words, nobody indicates, nobody behaves, so many bullies or people who go slow for they don’t know what they are doing….” In short, after 26 years in Germany, UK was really easy, the cultural shock came on return! One side note: Changing from a LHD car to a RHD car I also found really easy. You have the gear shift on the left and the car ends next to your right shoulder, it is logical immediately. Maybe for some reason I would prefer changing gears with the right hand, but that’s it really. OK, biggest aspect was overtaking. You want to be sitting near the middle of the road for that and on the Motorway you have a massive blind spot in the mirrors. And that probably is an important tip for anyone who goes abroad. But main verdict: Coming to UK and drive on the left I really found surprisingly easy, but returning to what I was used to after only 3 weeks in UK was like a cultural shock. So maybe it is deeper, road signs, road layouts, habits of other road users...
Always enjoy reading your comments, insightful and interesting stuff, thanks for sharing! It's cool you've experienced a similar situation to me with that, good to know it's not just me! Roundbaouts are definitely difficult ones and I found that was the trickiest part too, that and the left-hand lane being the overtaking lane in right-hand driving countries. That's really surprising about German drivers not indicating, I guess the stereotype of following the rules over there isn't applicable to every aspect of life. I do love our road signs here, the lady who designed them in the 60s (think it was the 60s anyway) was a genius, she's saved so many lives and made journeys easier for everybody in the UK and most don't even realise it - GH
The origins of left-hand driving go back to Roman times, however I understand that one of the reasons is that it comes from a time when swords were located on the right hand side, and it was easier to access your weapon from the right side, whilst driving horses and carriage on the left side. I'm not sure when right hand driving came about or where it first happened. However I know that most English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, etc drive on the left, and India, Pakistan, amongst others. I guess it depends on what you are used to.
It's a matter of opinion at the end of the day, but those stats with left and right-hand drive compared do give a strong case for the left being safer. With regards to right-hand drive, we have done a video on that already, in short, you can blame Napoleon, you can find the full video here: ruclips.net/video/IFVT7OMhul0/видео.html
The data is not correct. It depends on how well trained the drivers are. For example, in the USA when they have no education and drive at 16, it is clear that there will be more accidents. So countries with left-hand traffic maybe have better educations. So you can throw those facts in the trash.
Oh, like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh? They all drive on the left and have very high accident rates on the roads, I don't understand your point here. There are dozens of Left-hand and right-hand drive countries to choose from for the data, varying from developed to developing, as stated in the video. There's also biological factors stated too that apply regardless of the development status of the country - GH
![Why the UK Motorway Speed Limit is 70mph - And Will it Ever Change? [Motoring Explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j1sMHcGWZ-M/mqdefault.jpg)
![Why the UK Motorway Speed Limit is 70mph - And Will it Ever Change? [Motoring Explained]](/img/tr.png)
7:19 Yes you do mount your bicycle from the left, if you dismount you also dismount from the left (experienced cyclist inexperienced cyclist don't care). I don't know how much difference it makes, Even in a city where you cycle , what type of car the driver has and the type of traffic signals makes difference on how safe you can navigate the area.
I would say driving on the right is OK as long as it is for overtaking!
Haha. But very interesting subject indeed. Interesting also that your observations match mine, even though I have heard other people really struggling with it. But these were people that are not interested in cars and driving in the first place.
I am born in Germany and travelled to the UK for the first time aged 26. To get used to driving on the left took me less than an hour I’d say. The big surprise was on return the first thing I did was going the wrong way round a Belgian roundabout - uups. I knew driving on the right since 26 years, yet returning to it seemed much harder than coming to UK and drive on the left! This scenario repeated itself when 2 years later I took a friend with me, I did all the driving, he was passenger, returning and spending 5 hours on the Belgian and German motorway and first time my friend drove his car at home he drove on the left!
I do have a theory why it is this way. It is the road layout, signs and also the behaviour of other drivers. UK drivers seem generally more defensive drivers, and they do indicate. In Germany I find roundabouts hard, because nobody indicates. In UK nearly everybody indicates, you know what the other cars are doing, and all the sudden it all makes so much sense and you can drive really fluently. If you find traffic lights in UK they tend to have a 2nd set across the road, which is easier. And I keep wondering that the British don’t seem to really realise it, but the road signs make so much sense. In brackets where it leads to, white ones for close by, green ones for further away locations, you soon realise which signs to ignore, while in Germany you have to read absolutely all signs with long words as you don’t know which ones are important. It even goes down to pedestrians with writing on the street “look left/look right”, so easy, so logical. Back to Germany and it is “Wow, so much information, so many long words, nobody indicates, nobody behaves, so many bullies or people who go slow for they don’t know what they are doing….”
In short, after 26 years in Germany, UK was really easy, the cultural shock came on return!
One side note: Changing from a LHD car to a RHD car I also found really easy. You have the gear shift on the left and the car ends next to your right shoulder, it is logical immediately. Maybe for some reason I would prefer changing gears with the right hand, but that’s it really. OK, biggest aspect was overtaking. You want to be sitting near the middle of the road for that and on the Motorway you have a massive blind spot in the mirrors. And that probably is an important tip for anyone who goes abroad.
But main verdict: Coming to UK and drive on the left I really found surprisingly easy, but returning to what I was used to after only 3 weeks in UK was like a cultural shock. So maybe it is deeper, road signs, road layouts, habits of other road users...
Always enjoy reading your comments, insightful and interesting stuff, thanks for sharing!
It's cool you've experienced a similar situation to me with that, good to know it's not just me! Roundbaouts are definitely difficult ones and I found that was the trickiest part too, that and the left-hand lane being the overtaking lane in right-hand driving countries.
That's really surprising about German drivers not indicating, I guess the stereotype of following the rules over there isn't applicable to every aspect of life. I do love our road signs here, the lady who designed them in the 60s (think it was the 60s anyway) was a genius, she's saved so many lives and made journeys easier for everybody in the UK and most don't even realise it - GH
The origins of left-hand driving go back to Roman times, however I understand that one of the reasons is that it comes from a time when swords were located on the right hand side, and it was easier to access your weapon from the right side, whilst driving horses and carriage on the left side. I'm not sure when right hand driving came about or where it first happened. However I know that most English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, etc drive on the left, and India, Pakistan, amongst others. I guess it depends on what you are used to.
It's a matter of opinion at the end of the day, but those stats with left and right-hand drive compared do give a strong case for the left being safer. With regards to right-hand drive, we have done a video on that already, in short, you can blame Napoleon, you can find the full video here: ruclips.net/video/IFVT7OMhul0/видео.html
Nonsense. Data is skewed by just a handful of countries. Generally in Europe traffic accidents are very similar. Good luck with your 40 thou.
The data is not correct. It depends on how well trained the drivers are. For example, in the USA when they have no education and drive at 16, it is clear that there will be more accidents. So countries with left-hand traffic maybe have better educations. So you can throw those facts in the trash.
Oh, like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh? They all drive on the left and have very high accident rates on the roads, I don't understand your point here. There are dozens of Left-hand and right-hand drive countries to choose from for the data, varying from developed to developing, as stated in the video. There's also biological factors stated too that apply regardless of the development status of the country - GH