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Nov. 14th, 2008

02:50 pm - Cahs

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Being American, I always find it strange to watch British movies and TV and see cars with the steering wheel on the right side, driving on the left side of the road.

I'll bet it's equally strange for British people to watch American movies and TV and see cars with the steering wheel on the left, driving on the right side of the road.

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Comments:

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From:deckardcanine
Date:November 14th, 2008 06:24 pm (UTC)
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Except that Brits probably see it more often due to the strong oversea presence of American movies.
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From:octan
Date:November 15th, 2008 11:50 am (UTC)
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And anyone who's been to mainland Europe would have firsthand experience driving on the right.
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From:zorinlynx
Date:November 14th, 2008 06:27 pm (UTC)
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Just flip the negative horizontally for UK distribution. Problem solved! :)

-Z

PS - I realize it's not that simple, as text and such in the movies would also be reversed. But I just had to!
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From:deckardcanine
Date:November 14th, 2008 06:48 pm (UTC)
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If the movie includes a baseball game, they won't know that the players are running the wrong way.
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From:orv
Date:November 14th, 2008 08:47 pm (UTC)
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Sometimes you can spot this being done in car ads.
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From:hartree
Date:November 14th, 2008 06:58 pm (UTC)
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When I drove up to Newfoundland some years back, a couple of the people I went to see there were fascinated by my speedometer. It had MPH on the outer ring rather than KPH.

The driving related thing I noticed was the difference in night reflectivity of the stripes on the road.

Go figure.
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From:orv
Date:November 14th, 2008 08:48 pm (UTC)
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I find it interesting that Canada successfully converted to metric for driving purposes, but England apparently didn't.
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From:thecanuckguy
Date:November 15th, 2008 07:09 pm (UTC)
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Amazing that you got all the way there and it was just the Newfies that noticed - you have to go through at least one other province driving from the US to Newfoundland ...
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From:hartree
Date:November 15th, 2008 07:22 pm (UTC)
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There really wasn't all that much chance. I'd flown into Portland Maine, rented a car and drove up through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia nearly without stopping save for gas. I was on a very tight schedule to catch the ferry.

St Johns was the first place where I had anyone (save for another USian who didn't have a driver's license) riding along in the car.
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From:thecanuckguy
Date:November 15th, 2008 07:53 pm (UTC)
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This is a trip I really want to do myself one day, the only provinces I have yet to see are the ones east of Quebec, and seeing all ten provinces is on my life's "to do" list.
'
I have a route all laid out to take (plan is for our tenth wedding anniversary, but that'll be the summer of 2010, probably too soon to afford it), that'll go through Maine, NB, NS, and then Newfoundland, but I have going from Bangor to northwest NS in a day and then NS to NF by ferry, nice to know it can be done in one day (especially since, to fit PEI in on the schedule, I've had to fit it in on the return trip fron NS through PEI to Bangor).

Anything I should know as one planning to make the trip? Ferry expensive at all? (Did you take the one that lands on the west part of Newfoundland or the central part?)
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From:babsbunny
Date:November 14th, 2008 08:25 pm (UTC)
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Today I have discovered two things:

1. Matilda can pee!
2. She's not supposed to.

*sighs* I had her back from the shop for five whole minutes too. And then I had to take her right back down again.

Faulty brake line, methinks. Still, seeing her make a puddle of yellow liquid from her rear wheels was a little surprising!
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:November 14th, 2008 09:54 pm (UTC)
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She did WHUT in her cups?!

Ooog. Hope they can finally fix her up right.
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From:orv
Date:November 14th, 2008 08:49 pm (UTC)
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What really throws me off, for some reason, is seeing all the controls inverted as well -- e.g., turn signal stalks on the right, column shifters sticking out to the left, etc.
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:November 14th, 2008 09:54 pm (UTC)
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It's like some kind of evil mirror-universe car!
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From:vakkotaur
Date:November 14th, 2008 10:45 pm (UTC)
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I've had a couple folks from Australia try my car (made for the US market) and they had the biggest issue with the gearshift being on the side opposite they were used to - and with a manual, that's a significant thing. I asked them about the other controls and they both said that they would tend to trip the wipers instead of the turn signal, but the rest of the layout wasn't any big deal.

There was one other difference but that was more a matter of time of vehicle manufacture. After driving a '63 VW Beetle for ages, a '98 Corolla was a bit of a surprise when stopping. "Oh, brakes that really work!"
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From:orv
Date:November 15th, 2008 01:05 am (UTC)
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I'm not surprised...I have both a column shift car and a standard shift one, and in the latter I occasionally grab hold of the windshield wiper stalk and try to shift it. Having the shifter on the wrong side has to be even worse. At least the pedals stay the same! (Although when I get in a car with an automatic transmission, I tend to stomp around on the floor for the clutch pedal before starting it...)


Edited at 2008-11-15 04:05 am (UTC)
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From:vakkotaur
Date:November 15th, 2008 01:14 am (UTC)
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I find I do the same switching from a standard (my preference) to an automatic. If the vehicle isn't too different in other ways from what I'm used to, it can be a real pain. Or at least it can be if the automatic-equipped vehicle has a so-wide-you-can't-miss-it brake pedal. So when I am about to stop, my foot automatically goes for the clutch... and hits the brake, resulting in a sudden lurch of a stop. * Mutters darkly about a '74 AMC Hornet *
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From:orv
Date:November 15th, 2008 01:35 am (UTC)
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I've done that! Another time I was driving an automatic transmission car with a console shifter, and my passenger asked, "How come you reach over and put your hand on the shift lever every time you turn a corner?" ;)
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From:discopanda
Date:November 15th, 2008 12:00 pm (UTC)
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I think the only time I've seen a car with the "shifter" on the left of the wheel, it was still a left-side-steering-wheel, and it wasn't a console shift OR a column shift - it was pushbutton automatic mounted in the dash! :-P
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From:yakko
Date:November 14th, 2008 10:50 pm (UTC)
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Yet the pedals are still in the proper order (ie, clutch is on the left, gas is on the right). They didn't want to make it too hard for us...

Though if I drive one of these cars, I'll definitely want one with a floor shifter.
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From:nikonraccoon
Date:November 15th, 2008 02:32 am (UTC)
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They mostly wonder why the road is marked 'No Parking' down the centre. (in the UK, double yellow means no parking, sorta like the red curbs here)
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From:akktri
Date:March 19th, 2009 02:05 pm (UTC)

Wrong sides

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What's even worse is going to Great Britain and seeing a child seated in the left front seat of a car.
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From:kinkyturtle
Date:March 19th, 2009 10:03 pm (UTC)

Re: Wrong sides

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Aaaagh! The car is swerving down the parkway! Maggie's at the wheel!! The car swerves again!! The music has become slightly more frantic!! Maggie's crazily spinning the wheel!! ...Oh wait, Marge is driving and Maggie's in her baby seat with a toy wheel. Whew!

Aaaaagh! Now Homer's pulled a radioactive rod out of his shirt and tossed it out the window! WE'RE DOOMED!!!
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From:akktri
Date:March 23rd, 2009 03:36 pm (UTC)

Re: Wrong sides

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Simpson, Homer Simpson...you're about to smack into a big oak tree...
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