To The Left, To The Left!

I don't know about you but when I was a kid, I struggled with left and right directions. Learning and remembering which is which was difficult, having to learned them both in English and Tagalog was an even greater challenge.

But it's a completely different story when you try to drive again and every orientation you are used to are flipped altogether! That's what I struggled on when I first drove in NZ. NZ is one of the many countries that drive on the left side of the road, which also means, the driver sits on the right side. I'm glad the acceleration and break pedals are the same! Can you imagine the trouble I'll get into in the middle of a traffic jam, bumpers just inches apart and decided to stop?

My first experience hopping in the passenger's side, which is the driver's seat that I'm used to, was a little weird. Turning on intersections would give me couple of milliseconds of scare and panic-attacks. With perspective from the driver's seat, my brain would tell me we're turning on the wrong lane which makes me awkwardly push my leg to an invisible brake pedal.

On my way home from work

What really surprised me was, seating on the driver's seat (right side) made all the difference. Sitting there with the steering wheel in front of me was an entirely new experience that I didn't have any old habits to influence me. Suddenly all worries and anxieties were really for nothing because it wasn't as difficult as I originally thought.

Every so often I still wonder why don't we change everything to the right and be done with it, everybody happy, right? The thing is, even Philippines back in earlier part of 20th century (source: wikipedia) drove on the left, so it's not entirely unique to NZ or other commonwealth countries.

One of my funny and scary experiences on this was that time I was heading for a collision with a huge bus when I drove to a narrow street. Good thing it wasn't a busy road and I was driving very slowly, I just backed up and gestured my apology to the driver.

Driving everyday to and from work for the past 6 months have improved my driving (I think). It's a good practice for me especially I'm planning to apply for full NZ license early next year. I heard horror stories about how strict the license driving test is but with almost a year of practice, it should be a piece of cake right?!

Having experience driving on both sides of the road, I can say that it's not important if you're driving on the left or right, if you know how to drive, you know how to drive! Unless you're Asian, woman or worse, both! =P