How do you drive a British car? Is it with the left hand and foot or right? [duplicate]

So, I'm an American. I'm right-handed and I drive on the right side of the road :)

My clutch is the pedal furthest to the left, followed (from left to right) by the brake and the gas. I use my right hand to change gears, and my right foot to control the brake and the gas. People differ in regards to whether one should use the left or the right foot to control the ~~clutch~~ brake.

If I rent a car in the UK, obviously I'm going to be driving on the left hand side, but is the arrangement of the pedals and clutch different? It would seem to be awkward to use my non-dominant (i.e. my left) hand to shift gears and to use my left foot to control the brake and gas.

But, is this the case when I drive in the UK? The spatial relationship is eluding me right now.

uk driving

Best Answer

From my experience driving in Japan, the major problems you will run into are:

When you are turning, especially if you are the first car in line. You aren't going to be driving down the road and just switch to the wrong lane, but when you are turning and not following a line of cars in front of you, habit kicks in and you can turn into the wrong lane.
Gear shift being on the opposite side and foot pedals never troubled me, but I can't count the number of times I turned on the wipers instead of signaling or vice versa.
This isn't strictly a driving problem, but crossing the street while walking is actually a bit of a problem at first. Instead of "look left->look right->look left->go" you have to switch it around and "look right->look left->look right->go". Several times I saw people almost get hit because they looked the wrong way and stepped out in front of a car.

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Is a British car left hand drive?

Even though the vast majority of cars in the UK are right hand drive, It's entirely legal to drive a left hand drive car in the UK.

Which hand side driving is in UK?

The British drive on the left because most people are right handed. There is a logic which everyone seem to be missing. The two basic hand functions are gear changing and steering. Most cars in the UK have a manual gear change.

Is England a right hand drive?

Green coloured countries drive on the right, orange countries drive on the left....List of all left- & right-driving countries around the world.Country / state / territorydrive(s) on theleft / rightEnglanddrives on theleftEquatorial Guineadrives on therightEritreadrives on therightEstoniadrives on theright155 more rows•Jan 24, 2022

How do I know if my car is left or right hand drive?

In right-hand driving, you will see that the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. As such, the driver uses the left side of the road. Meanwhile, left-hand cars have their steering wheels placed on the left. This means that the driver has to use the right side of the road.

Driving Your Left Hand Drive Car in the UK

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Images: Aedrian, Lê Minh, Pixabay, Lisa