Getting Used to the Difference

There can be many wonderful cultural peculiarities when you visit a new country for the first time, most of which you probably wouldn’t have thought about before you arrived. Many of these things are associated with seemingly bizarre eating and drinking habits, all of which are perfectly natural to the locals, after all- the people of Sweden have been eating fermented herring for generations. One such thing that a visitor can find him or herself unused to when they visit a new place is the direction of traffic.

Traffic drives on the right in the vast majority of countries, with Australia, New Zealand, the UK and several countries in south-eastern Africa being amongst the few exceptions. As adults, we don’t necessarily always follow the rules for crossing the street that were drummed into us as children, but the mentality is still there, even if we’re unaware of it- we instinctively glance in a certain direction to check for oncoming vehicles before crossing, and yet this instinct is thrown out the window if we find ourselves in a country where traffic moves in the opposite direction. While pedestrians will quickly align themselves to the new order of things, it can still be slightly disconcerting to have to amend the deeply held instincts of expecting a vehicle to be coming in your direction on a certain side of the street.

Statistically, whether as a pedestrian, driver or cyclist, you’re far less likely to be involved in a traffic accident if you’re in a country that drives on the left. The numbers are encouragaing, and there is a marked reduction in the number of accidents that result in a fatality. While countries that drive on the right certainly will never change, it’s heartening news for those who drive on the left, although visitors will still need to train themselves to look in a new direction for traffic.