I accidentally drove on the wrong side of the road

21 comments

1. Good thing nothing happened. Just be careful in the future.

   I’ve met cars running the wrong way a couple of times. Usually they have made a right turn where only left turns are possible, and end up on a one way street.

2. Luckily everything is fine. It happens quite a lot in the countryside (especially with elders). Don’t worry about it.

3. I did the opposite thing in the States. Scared the hell out of me and the passengers in the car.

4. I do have one story where I was in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night and went up the wrong (single) lane onto a highway. Luckily I was only on it for a second before a saw a car far, far into the distance coming my way and realized I needed to get the fuck out of there.

5. Um, your husband doesn’t happen to be a spy I mean diplomat, by chance?

6. Did the same thing a month ago, entered a oneway street from the wrong side – no ticket yet. As far as I know, as long as you don’t run a 止まれ or a red light you’re mostly fine.

7. I worry about this all the time too! I stop panicking if I can reassure myself that I (in the driver’s seat) am in the middle of the road.

8. I have to be consciously careful each time I return from abroad. Right turns from one-way streets are especially dangerous.

9. Shake it off. Being anxious about driving will increase the likelihood of making more mistakes. If it helps, you should always be sitting in the middle of the road, regardless of where you are driving. Drivers side is always towards the center, passengers always towards the outside.

10. I did this once when turning on an empty road in the country side, no visual clues, like which way the signs are facing and I automatically took to the right side.

    One thing that still gives me a spike of anxiety is when an oncoming car pops out on a blind curve and for a split second I think it is in the same lane as me.

11. Just plan ahead in future. Draw a little map of the intersection in your head, draw the line you want to follow on it, and then follow that imaginary line in real life. Do that 500 m ahead of every intersection, at least for the right turns. After ten or twenty times or so, you’ll have it in your blood and no longer need it.

    And don’t lose sleep over it. Mistakes happen. Just make sure, they don’t happen too often.

12. I mean, it’s so bad in New Zealand – the rental car companies started putting stickers on the dashboard that say *KEEP LEFT* with an arrow pointed left.

    Perhaps you should invest in said sticker?

13. How can you make this mistake?

14. I drove into a one lane small street near my house in tokyo for about 20 meters once. too many signs that blocked the important no left turn here.

    many small one way streets in Tokyo neighbourhood that seems like a maze.

    an auntie on a bicycle gave me the wtf face before I realised I made a mistake and took another left at the next junction. lucky with no traffic then, but I felt all of the auntie’s you-have-disgraced-your-entire-family disgust face

15. I’ve been driving in Japan for well over 20 years, at least 20,000km per year but some years have been much higher. Never caused an accident and have only had one ticket in that time.

    For the first time a few weeks ago I turned onto the wrong side of the road. It was the middle of the night and the middle of nowhere so nothing happened, but damn what a shock. Muscle memory is a bitch, even after so much time and so many kilometers.

    Stay vigilant everyone.

16. The wrong side of the road isn’t the right side in Japan.

17. Some roads here are badly designed or don’t have signs where you would expect them.

    Example 1: The divider in the middle of the road is built right up to the intersection and so high that the other side cannot be seen from certain angles. If you are not a local, you might pull into the right, because you didn’t realise a left existed. Especially bad at night with poor lighting.

    Example 2: Similar to the first example, country lanes that join a “main” road, with a high divider down the middle. I pulled into the right once. No signs at all. The divider was a hedge, so I was lucky enough to see road on the other side (when I turned, I thought it was a footpath) and did a quick U-turn.

    Anyway, don’t blame yourself if the intersection is badly designed. Roads here are generally good, but sometimes you would think the planners assume everyone driving lives locally.

    Edit: deleted a word

18. Old people do this all the time. Don’t worry about it.

19. That must have been your darkest hour, when you began to doubt yourself, your ability. You were shaken, without recourse, without anyone to reassure you, to tell you what you did was… Human.

20. Its fine. At least you weren’t on a bicycle, then you could really do some damage.

21. This happened to me, after being here for 10 years, when I was in downtown Osaka. All of the surrounding traffic just waited for me to realize and I got myself corrected.

    There are probably mean people out there but everyone who drives knows how crazy the roads can be sometimes.