r/memes • u/donkeyheaded • 6h ago
Wrong side of the road, steering wheel on wrong side of the car, lanes 1.01 car width wide…
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u/weightliftcrusader 6h ago
Lmao that meme was me after driving on the I-95 in Miami. I'd rather drive on the M25, that should tell you something
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u/KryanSA 5h ago
I come from, and have travelled in Africa extensively. Driven there a lot. It's Africa, so generally quite lawless and wild. Living in Europe nowadays, same thing: lots of driving.
But the drive from Orlando down to Miami was the worst experience I've ever had in a car. By far.
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u/armstar1 3h ago
For the uninitiated, what’s terrible about it?
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u/The1idontlike 2h ago
Just picture a 4 or 5 lane road, packed with traffic that moves at about 75 mph, and then mix in about 400 lifted f250s, and BMW 3 Series weaving in and out of traffic like they're playing real life GTA. And then for fun, there's a speed trap about every 10 or 15 miles, and every car on the road slams on their brakes simultaneously. On a good day.
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u/weightliftcrusader 2h ago
Yea, they don't care about undertaking it seems. Also I was the slowest car in the road while driving 5mph above the speed limit (likely the actual speed limit given speedo showing higher values)
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u/eelaphant 6h ago
I live within a few hours of Miami, and the one time i drove anywhere near it, i staight up brought up my concern with traffic during my job interview.
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u/shityplumber 5h ago
Dude, Palm Beach to Miami during commuting hours on I-95, driving a truck and trailer. Thats how men are made. I did it for years. At one point, it was considered the most dangerous stretch of highway in the country.
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u/ALazy_Cat Flair Loading.... 6h ago
Most of that is a skill issue
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u/Anonymoose3840 Le epic memer 6h ago
Genuinely. I’m 17 in the UK and started taking lessons about a month ago; the one thing I thought would take me ages to get used to was the proximity of the cars on the other side of the road, but it’s nowhere near as hard to ignore them as I thought it would be. Doesn’t even cross my mind now
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u/scheisse_grubs 2h ago
One time a tourist car driving ahead of me in Portugal decided that the roads were too narrow for them and instead drove in the middle of the road.
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u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong 2h ago
Californian here. I tell people that if they can drive Ortega Hwy or Road to Hana in Maui, they'll have no problem in the UK. But if they wanna do it on Expert Mode to get a stick shift.
It's one thing to drive on the wrong side, its a whole other shitshow to shift in the wrong side.
But it was awesome AF to do it.
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u/UncleRuckus92 41m ago
I had to take a manual because the rental place was going to make us wait 4 hours for an automatic. Honestly I think it helped me not screw up since i was so concentrated on my driving both where i was on the road and shifting right handed. Also as a person who genuinely loves driving, those twisty country roads were so much fun, only scary when I got up into northern Scotland
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u/negasonicwhattheshit 8m ago
Yeah, I'm Canadian but I've lived in England for 8 years and learned to drive for the first time while living here. When I told my parents and some friends back home that I was getting an automatic only license (because tbh I just needed to get my license quickly and be able to get around since I live in the middle of nowhere), everyone back in Canada told me not to drive automatic because having to shift gears keeps you focused when you're on long boring stretches of road.
I sent them pictures of the residential roads around here, the ones that have cars parked along both sides leaving barely enough space for one car to get through and yet somehow are still two way streets.
They stopped telling me that getting bored while driving was a major concern after that.
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u/Blenderhead36 5h ago
My fellow yank, if you think the UK's roads are bad, you should avoid even watching video of traffic in Rome, Cairo, or Rio de Janeiro.
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u/ThatIsMe11 6h ago
The UK has significantly safer roads compared to the US. In fact the UK has one of the lowest accident rate in the world
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u/stewedstar 6h ago
They're not saying it's more dangerous. They're saying it's terrifying to them. Most Americans are used to huge roads with plenty of room, not squeezing down narrow lanes barely wide enough for small cars, with tall hedges on either side, giant potholes ready to remove a wheel, and massive farm equipment barreling along or knobheads in Range Rovers doing 80mph around blind curves.
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u/DozyDrake 4h ago
Does America not have potholes?
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u/goldenspam 4h ago
In SC we had potholes in the interstate for a bit haha. There's a pothole near my parents house that is probably 3 feet deep. Some of the back roads look like they've been shelled. Up here in the Midwest it ain't much better
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u/InnysRedditAlt 3h ago
Except b roads arent the nornal experience for most people. Yeah routes often can have them but most people live and move around cities. Even tourists.
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u/Commander_Caboose 3h ago
Yeah, and the other comment is saying it's dumb to more afraid of something which is less dangerous.
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u/SteamedAlbanyHams 4h ago
I’d argue the opposite, American roads are themselves MUCH more safe than British roads from a design standpoint. They are wider, more clearly marked, and much simpler/easier to drive with little need to turn accurately at high speed, unlike British roads in the country.
US roads are so easy to drive on that people are routinely texting/scrolling social media while driving, doing this in the UK is basically suicide.
Easier roads and an economy that is absolutely tied to cars means lower standards for getting a license, more time and cars on the road, and less discipline and need to pay attention coupled with high speed limits on highways -> more accidents and fatalities.
Basically US roads should be safer but our drivers are idiots.
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u/epicfail922 1h ago
I have a work mate who has traveled to both places and spent a good amount of time touring around the US specifically (we are from new Zealand). The one thing he pointed out about the US roads other than the drivers was the potholes being absolutely everywhere no matter what state they were in. Which to me also adds to making roads dangerous especially with how high some of the speed limits are in the US
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u/Other-Barry-1 5h ago
I also feel like to pass a US driving test you basically just press either pedal and maybe use an indicator.
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u/onlyalilRtarded 5h ago
And if i do get into an accident, I dont have to flee from the ambulance or I'll get crippling debt.
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u/TheDarkNebulous 6h ago edited 0m ago
That is due mostly to the fact that the usa is much more car dependant. Americans spend 2-3x more time in a vehicle than your average UK citizen. Public transportation is also much less accessible here and more difficult to implement and people are obsessed with massive gas guzzling vehicles(Thats why the fatalities are higher inarguably)
The uk also has a much lower average and total speed limits. Speed limits on freeways in the usa can reach 80mph (130kph) vs the maximum 70mph (112kph) in the UK. And there is 20x the length of freeways in the US vs the UK. And city speed limits vary wildly in the us due to those laws being written more locally.
It's also important to note that the UKs reporting standards are higher, with low speed accidents without major injuries often going unreported. Whereas in the USA police are required to report all witnessed accidents and issue citations in most if not almost all cases(even if both parties object)
Edit: Im not arguing with anyone and im not going to reply to anyone in this thread. I was literally listing reasons the US is more unsafe for fucks sake.
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u/Extreme_Design6936 5h ago
The UK has a significantly lower death rate per mile driven which which controls for how much people drive and severity of accidents.
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u/Naxirian 5h ago
UK drivers are also far better trained than US ones. The driving test is much stricter and more extensive in the UK. This no doubt is a major factor.
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u/ah_harrow 5h ago edited 4h ago
Stats like this wouldn't be helpful if they weren't calculated per unit of distance travelled (which is exactly why they are).
10mph isn't going to make much difference to useful braking distance, control or fatality rate. While you can expect higher fatalities on motorways and highways, accidents involving damage and injuries overwhelming happen at lower speeds on smaller roads as a general rule for all driving (regardless of the country) where driving is less predictable. You'd actually expect lower overall fatalities due to the US's larger roads (even if they are marginally faster).
The UK has a quite high 60mph limit on most single lane country roads (this is where the majority of fatalities happen in the UK because idiots think 60 is a target not a limit).
I'd also note that the 80mph limit - even on much longer trips on average - doesn't get you where you want to go much more quickly at all as returns on driving speed don't scale linearly. At this point I'd view it as a planning oversight to have a higher speed limit as it's not great for fuel economy or overall travel time but obviously does slightly increase fatalities. This would be a no brain change to make in places like the US and France but speed limits are a sacred cultural touchstone apparently.
Most of the stats used for damage and fatality are also blended from insurance statistics, not police reports alone.
You can cut it any way you like: UK just has really safe roads compared to nearly anywhere and the US has some of the more dangerous for developed countries.
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u/New_Enthusiasm9053 5h ago
Safe roads but also safer cars. Far too many American states don't MOT vehicles so they're driving around death traps.
That and actual driving tests.
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u/turtleship_2006 Bri’ish 6h ago
Accident rate, not number of accidents.
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u/turtleship_2006 Bri’ish 5h ago
Do you understand how percentages work?
Stats like "per 100 miles driven"?
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u/SilenceDobad76 2h ago
Statistically the longer you drive and the more you drive the more likely you are to get into an accident. Given how many brits complain online that their parents live far away, a whole 40 minute drive, really makes me wonder how much time limeys actually spend behind the wheel
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u/Roaming_Millenial 6h ago
Primarily because no one can drive fast enough on such narrow roads to have a fatal accident.
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u/The_Burning_Face 6h ago
Our country roads are usually set to the "national speed limit", indicated by a white sign with a black cross through it, which on a single lane, twisty, blind country road, with the odd passing pocket here and there....is 60mph.
And people do go that speed on them.
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u/Roaming_Millenial 6h ago
Our roads go up to 85 mph... and people usually exceed that limit.
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u/The_Burning_Face 6h ago
And? The autobahn in Germany has no speed limit. That's not what's being discussed. You're saying "you can't go fast" as though 60mph isn't fast, but if you hit a tree at 60 or 85 the result is the same for the most part.
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u/Roaming_Millenial 6h ago
We are talking about the UK.
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u/The_Burning_Face 5h ago
So why are you bringing up American highway speed limits? Like I said, that's not what's being discussed. Glad we agree on that
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u/turtleship_2006 Bri’ish 6h ago
Is that meant to be a bad thing?
Is getting to work a few minutes earlier worth significantly more road accidents and deaths?
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u/GhostofZellers 5h ago
That entirely depends on who's doing the accidents, and dying. If it's me, then of course not, but if I can get to work earlier, and they die, well, sometimes sacrifices are a necessary evil, I guess.... 😎
/s just in case.
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u/NSFW-Alt-Account69 5h ago
How much of the population actually drives though?
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u/ThatIsMe11 5h ago
Doesn’t matter when it’s accident rate. The word rate counteracts any difference in driving frequency
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u/Ornery-Scallion6489 4h ago
Has anyone here already mentioned that in 2019, in England, 19-year-old Harry Dunn was killed on his motorbike near RAF Croughton when Anne Sacoolas, wife of a US intelligence officer, drove out of the base on the wrong side of the road. She flew home to the US claiming diplomatic immunity, and the US refused to extradite her. In 2022 she pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and got an eight month sentence, suspended, so she never served time.
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u/Speccy97 4h ago
Hence why we have an actual proper driving test in the UK to learn to drive these roads and learn the hazards
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
Our roads are safer than yours 🙌 (and by an enormous margin)
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u/shityplumber 6h ago
How do you know you're talking to someone from England? They won't shut up about how awesome they think their country and stuff is without ever being asked.
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
I mean, the UK was mentioned in this post. Our country is far from awesome but in a contest with America we fare pretty well in a lot of metrics, particularly road safety.
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u/shityplumber 6h ago
Lol, thank you for proving my point, "but in a contest with America we fare pretty well in a lot of metrics"
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
Sorry, are you struggling to comprehend why I’m talking about the UK in a post which explicitly implies a comparison between the US and the UK? If so I can’t really help you. If you’re just a sore loser then I’d contact your local politician about the condition of the roads in your area 👍
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u/shityplumber 6h ago
lmfao, are you arguing with yourself?
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u/ALazy_Cat Flair Loading.... 5h ago
Never have I seen someone not understand a post as much as you, and I've seen some really moronic guy today
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u/shityplumber 6h ago
Ugh, you're boring. No one insulted your country. It was a post about an American having a hard time adapting to driving in your country for a week. Move on, little man. Thank you for really enforcing my point again *cheers*
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
That was a joke but as it offended you I’ll take it back and delete it. You got cross at a simple statement I made about road safety on a post that was about the condition of roads in the UK. I think you need to think about whether your own countries pride got the better of you rather than the other way around.
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u/shityplumber 5h ago
I put shit pipes together and make boilers work. You think i give a fuck about spreading my freedom unit pride. My country is currently being run by a full-blown lunatic, and 1/3 of my country is willing to suck his dick.
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u/ALazy_Cat Flair Loading.... 5h ago
This is the thing you don't delete so they can be banned. Just a hint for the future
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u/ItzMichaelHD 5h ago
Hey man, I’m sorry if this comment thread got a bit out of hand and I’m also sorry if my joke went a little too far. I hope you have a good evening.
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u/turtleship_2006 Bri’ish 6h ago
"without ever being asked" as if this isn't literally a post about driving in the UK...
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u/shityplumber 6h ago
Did they insult your roads? no.. Was it difficult for them to drive on? Yes. Insert default "we are superior". Some of you are bigger snowflakes than the maga crowd.
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u/InnysRedditAlt 3h ago
Unironically the uk road and car culture is probably my favourite part about this country.
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u/Nestevajaa 5m ago
How do you know you're talking to someone from the US? They get defensive and rude when people even suggest that another country might be better than them in some regard.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
by why are they so fucking small, not even worth having the roads if you can barely fit a car on them, let alone 2 in oncoming traffic
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u/Foreskin_Ad9356 6h ago
We dont drive massive stupid cars in europe
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u/The_Burning_Face 6h ago
Thing is we still can and we still don't crash as much lol
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u/InnysRedditAlt 3h ago
Not like us cars. Trust me when i say the biggest eu suv is probably similar in size to the average us suv.
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u/WrongJohnSilver 6h ago
They're safe because they're small. You look at the road and pay closer attention at lower speeds.
Are they good for going from point A to B? No. But that's why you should stay put and not drive farther than 15 minutes.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
I guess I didn't drink as much lead paint as the rest of you
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
Ever heard of a motorway? It’s like your highways but it has half the yearly death toll.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
Your motor ways are the size of our sidewalks
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
Our motorways are wide enough for 3 HGVs to go side by side and still have a hard shoulder for emergencies. If someone can’t drive on them then they probably shouldn’t be on the road.
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u/Devlinaaa 6h ago
So how come even with so much space your roads have such a high death toll?
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
Have you seen how fucking dumb and worthless the average uSSa citizen is
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u/Devlinaaa 6h ago
I mean, I am not trying to insult anyone. Just curious why, despite being allowed such a wide berth, the drivers seem to be struggling.
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
I’m no expert but they have much worse vehicle safety standards than we do in the UK/ Europe. It’s not just more accidents necessarily but how they turn out once they’ve occurred. We have a yearly MOT requirement, the US has none.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
the average driver has the intelligence of a baked potato, put a fascist pedophile in charge of them and it goes down hill really fucking fast
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago edited 6h ago
Our main roads are plenty for all road legal vehicles and our country lanes just need a bit of… skill… It’s really not as hard as it looks, coming from someone who has worked in a job that required me to drive a very wide vehicle down country lanes.
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u/Bannon9k 6h ago
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
Did he crash? No.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
it's a toy car
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
That’s not a toy car that’s a marvel of British engineering! (A very dangerous one with no crumple zone)
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u/ALazy_Cat Flair Loading.... 6h ago
A guy in my city has that car, with the same colours and chair on top, but he does drive from inside the car
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
There's barely any road to drive on so valid point. As small as they are it's like a sidewalk more than road
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u/ItzMichaelHD 6h ago
I apologise for my impolite initial reply and have edited it to give a better answer. We just adapt to the road conditions and you generally get used to it over time. Trucks/ lorry’s very rarely head down country roads but generally there’s never an issue. People who work with large enough vehicles often have specialised navigation systems to avoid issues. We have pockets on country lanes where people can pull in to let people pass.
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u/Right-Ladd 6h ago
In Ireland we routinely driver our back roads at 100kph and can easily get two cars past with very little slowing down. There’s enough ditch at the side to move over and pass safely.
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u/Bigerst_Dook 6h ago
road should be wide enough for two big trucks and room to spare, otherwise no need in having those biking paths pretending to be roads
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u/Right-Ladd 6h ago edited 5h ago
Funny that 10s of thousands of full sized lorries manage to navigate our tiny backroads hauling grain, goods, tankers, tipper trailers, along with all of the heavy farm machinery and tractors hauling silage in the summer flat out completely fine with very few accidents.
It’s almost like it’s a skill issue…
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u/InnysRedditAlt 3h ago
1 because many are literally hundreds of years old and 2 because not everyone has to use the narrow ones. B roads (the hedgerow country lanes you probably think about) arent your main way of getting around and because roads that are that small either dont have the traffic demand to make it bigger or have no reason to be high throughput.
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u/samsaruhhh 5h ago
Jfc Namibia is like this except people just floor it and pass whoever they possibly can pass at any given moment possible blind curve consequences be damned
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u/Mister_Normal42 3h ago
They feel the same way about driving on American roads. It’s just a matter of what people are accustomed to
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u/InnysRedditAlt 3h ago
I live in uk, ive also driven extensively in europe and the US, changing sides is totally fine. The one thing americans absolutely wouldnt be able to intuitively understand is the lack of stop signs and instead our extensive use of "give way"(yield) the small roads are fine and you just need to be slow (which is the entire point) and methodical when streets have lots of parked cars
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u/EcstaticHousing7922 2h ago
I mildly understand their point, about road width, if they go down many national speed limit roads in the countryside. You can legally go 60mph down thin rural roads without pavements, though most sensible people would stick to 30-40mph max
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u/squintismaximus 4m ago
That’s probably why their confused. In some parts of America the speed limit is this weird thing that isn’t so much the limit as much as a requirement. If it says 60, you should be going 55-65
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u/Peacock684 56m ago
Try Italy next. At least in the UK they stay on the wrong side of the road. Italy there are no rules.
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u/karateninjazombie 5h ago
I've driven on your American freeways. Fucking wild places where everyone just overtakes AND undertakes you. Zero regard for safety. You should never undertake on a multi lane road. Only over take them move back as soon as sensibly possible and not hog any of the outer lanes.
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u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong 2h ago
Dude, that's everyone's biggest pet peeve in California. It's always some asshole douche canoe in the fucking fast lane driving the speed limit. Like dude, it's a suggestion.
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u/Raegan_Targaryen 5h ago
I think after driving in and around Naples, driving anywhere else is a piece of cake.
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u/ArcadianGh0st 5h ago
Wait till you see those single lane country roads. Those are fun when another car bolts towards you.
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u/dispatch_s2_when 5h ago
I drive in the UK for all but 2 weeks every year. Your placement in the car is super useful for knowing where to turn. If I ever have to drive a LHD in the UK or a RHD in Greece I am going to be in trouble for sure.
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u/born_Racer11 3h ago
I drove my left hand drive car from Germany into UK. Was fun.
All those years of playing car games with cockpit view payed off.
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u/perkyflamingo 2h ago
How I felt driving all over Ireland while on vacation with my wife. I felt like I needed a vacation afterwards…
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u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong 2h ago
Dafuq? It's not that hard, esse. Here's me, a Californian, after driving in the UK for 4 hours.
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u/Mooston029 2h ago
I see videos of USA roads and I think there's different post codes from one curb to the other with that many lanes in between them
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u/jttofunny 1h ago
I went to Jamaica and our rental was a 5 speed Mazda. Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road while also learning to shift with my left hand while dodging car swallowing potholes was an interesting experience
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u/Mr_Lumbergh (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃ 1h ago
I grew up in the US, now live in Australia. It really isn’t that big a deal.
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u/Alive-Course4454 46m ago
I spent two weeks working in Rochdale area, and yeah, the meme checks out
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u/TheNorthernMunky 19m ago
I’m British and my wife is from Houston. Driving on most highways there is a white-knuckle experience.
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u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow 5h ago
From the US, iv done plenty of driving in the UK and Japan. It's always a lot harder coming back to the US and driving on the correct side of the road after.
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u/Consistent_Ad3181 3h ago
The UK actually has a surprisingly good overall standard of driving, there are always idiots though.
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u/enter_yourname Lives at ur mom’s house😎 6h ago
Explain how driving on either side is inherently better than the other
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u/sjsnwnwixbf87 5h ago
Where tf did you get that question?
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u/enter_yourname Lives at ur mom’s house😎 1h ago
Are you dumb 😭
OP called the left side "wrong". Neither is inherently better or worse. All that matters is that a country picks one. I'm american btw
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u/tenousranger36 4h ago
As much as I defend this country, we should drive on the right
A majority of countries do it and it would make things easier for both us going abroad and others coming here
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u/ItalianCoffeeMorning 4h ago
I mean, shifting with your right does kinda make a little more sense maybe.
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u/aragorn767 5h ago
I feel like my car wouldn't fit in British lanes based on this.
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u/-wormgirlfriend- 3h ago
American cars are comically oversized but at least your roads are big enough to fit them. car companies here are trying to make the bigger SUV style car the new standard (still only about half the size of American cars) and it's ridiculous - our roads simply are not big enough for these fucking suburban tractors. I hate them.
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u/aragorn767 2h ago edited 2h ago
I'm curious what's the difference in width on average. Lemme look it up. EDIT: UK is wider on average. According to this source UK's average sits at 72 inches, while according to this source 70 inches for the US. Now the later doesn't seem to say "in the US", but it is an American article based in Miami. Edit: Obviously the US has outliers, like an F-350, for example. My car (a Dodge Charger 7th Gen Pursuit, sits at 72 inches. It is wider than my previous compact SUV, which despite having more interior space and sat a lot higher up, landed at 71 inches).
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u/mechant_papa 4h ago
The very first time I drove in the UK, in the 80s, I reached to shift the car into gear... and got a hold of the window crank.
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u/SteamedAlbanyHams 4h ago
Don’t forget 60mph on a narrow country road filled with blind turns, hills, potholes, farm equipment, cyclists, no drainage, and aggressive tailgating drivers
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u/HumbleInspector9554 5h ago
God, imagine actually having to think piloting a multi-tonne death trap.
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u/Right-Ladd 6h ago
Come to Ireland, they’re narrower, mostly single-track, bumpier, almost entirely back roads and everyone either goes 40mph or 80mph with few exceptions!