I rented a car in Ireland in 2009. It was a stick shift, wheel on the right, 
drive on the left side of the road. It wasn’t difficult.

 

We rented the car in Belfast, toured the shipyard where the Titanic and the 
Olympic were built, drove to Downpatrick to see St. Patrick’s burial site (at 
the Anglican cathedral there), then drove to Dublin. The minute we crossed the 
border, I noticed:

 

The road signs were in both English and Gaelic.

Speed limits and distances were in km.

I had to find a bank machine to get some euro notes.

 

Carleton

 

On 2016-07-11, 17:39, "USMA on behalf of Mark Henschel" 
<usma-boun...@colostate.edu on behalf of mwhensch...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Interesting thing about the British and their roundabouts, and driving on the 
left side of the road.  

 

I was in a car being driven around England a few years back. The driver sits on 
the right, but the gear shift is in the left, in the middle of the car. So 
since they travel on the opposite side of the road, their roundabouts turn 
clockwise,  not counter clockwise as ours do.

 

So here we are with the driver on the right, her left hand on the gear shift, 
right hand on the steering wheel, left foot on the clutch and right foot on the 
accelerator, and attempting to go counterclockwise into a roundabout. All the 
time looking right and turning left. At least in the USA we can use our best 
hand for most of us (right handers) on the gear shift and just hold the 
steering wheel with the left hand, look left and turn right, but I imagine it 
is a challenge to constantly use your left hand to shift gears if you are right 
handed.

 

Few European cars have automatic transmissions. Even when I rented cars in 
Germany, they were usually stick shift but diesel engines. Hmmm. wonder if I 
got one of the cars VW cheated on the emissions with?

 

Mark

 

On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 4:15 PM, John Dunlop <jrdun...@igc.org> wrote:

I just received a note from Queen Elizabeth.  She has declared that we are 
flubbing democracy, and therefore, effectively immediately, our independence is 
revoked.  Among the changes she will implement in the country formerly known as 
the USA:



6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start 
driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go 
metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.  
Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of 
humour.


John



John Dunlop
jrdun...@igc.org personal email
612-374-2181 home phone


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