h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Everybody else drives on the right side of the
road simply because it is the, er, right side.

Actually, I think it makes more sense to drive on the right merely because I drive a stick shift. My left hand is not nearly as dexterous as my right so I would have extreme difficulty shifting gears if it were the other way around.

If your left hand has so little dexterity then I'd be more worried about you steering with it!

Americans drive on the right side of the road because after the revolution we wanted to have nothing to do with you terrible, evil Brits! (Just kidding, guys)

Yeah, but I think you may be right! See my posting in the Driving on the Left thread.

If you learnt to drive using the gears with your left hand you would think it natural and easy to do.
I think I'd find it hard to manage gears with my right hand (at least at first), even though I am right handed. It's just what you are used to.

I found it easy to jump into a left hand drive car equipped with manual gearbox. Only twice did I attempt to change back down to first gear using the window winder

I was more concerned about keeping the car central in my lane - that's the bit that I need to keep in check.

Whenever I'm driving abroad, I always seem to try getting in the passenger seat a couple of times too, much to the hilarity of my fellow travellers.

Americans do it all the time when I get them from the airport (I drive a taxi). I tell them that even if they drive they still have to pay, and they soon jump out of my seat pretty quick!

On the (rare) occasions I've had to drive Americans about here in England, I usually hear a "Jeez you drive really fast" from the passenger seat.

Which leaves me checking the speedo, thinking . o O ( Hmm we're only doing 70mph on a dual carriageway )

Having lived in both the US and the UK I've had the chance to drive both right and left handed shifting vehicles. My experience with it was this. Left or right handed it seemed pretty much the same thing. I got right in the left handed shift and was able to drive. I do remember being concerned about the pedals and then found out they were exactly the same.

We Brits do it right.
It's the rest of the world that drives wrong.