Alan,

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 16:52:00 +0100, Alan B. Pearce wrote:

> >>        Neat. Question though: on a right hand drive car, is
> >>the gas peddle on the left and the clutch on the right? I had
> >>a discussion with a coworker who might be renting a car in
> >>Australia. Thanks, TTYL
> >
> >No, gas pedal is on the right, brake in the middle and clutch
> >on the left (in a manual or "stick shift").  Takes a little
> >while to get used to changing gear and using the parking
> >brake with the wrong hand!

Indeed - I'm quite happy driving on the "wrong" side, but if it's manual transmission I occasionally bash my
hand on the door when I go to change gear...  :-#

> Agreed. Never had a problem with using the correct foot. Your co-worker is
> more likely to have a problem making sure (s)he stays on the correct side of
> the road. Is a big cause of accidents in NZ with American tourists. I
> imagine Australia finds the same problem.

In the UK it's roundabouts that confuse a lot of foreign drivers.  Either they are not used to them at all (we
have a *lot* of them), or reversing the direction seems more difficult to do mentally than just which side to
drive on, except that the classic mistake seems to be leaving a roundabout on the wrong side of the exit road!

> I never had a problem with using the left hand for changing gear, as I
> learnt to drive on a Wolseley 6/90, which had a neat little floor shift on
> the RH side of the drivers seat. The Morris Isis of the same vintage
> apparently had the same arrangement.

I don't remember ever seeing one of those, but I do remember column-change, which would confuse most modern
drivers...

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England

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