Bartyfixedit
LIFE MEMBER
Having driven on the continent for many years in or on most types of vehicles I have never forgotten which side of the road to drive on. Hesitated, yes, driven down the wrong side, no.
Until this summer, then I had a real close shave.
It was the first day of the holiday and I had travelled from the tunnel down to about an hour south of Rouen. Looking back it was one of those nightmare journeys where everything went wrong:
Delay on the tunnel.
Thunderstorms.
Roads closed meaning I had to go right through central Rouen.
Kids acting up.
Sat Nav playing silly irriots and locking up until rebooted. Turns out it was overheating.
Due to the sat nav locking up I took a single track road which got smaller and smaller.
Running late for the campsite we had booked.
I'm sure you all have been there.
My wife was joining us later in the holiday so I had no "wingman" to spot my mistake.
To get to the point of the story.
Having finally negotiated the single track road with both sides and the roof in the trees / bushes I pulled out onto a 2 way road and went on the wrong side. Coming round the next bend came face to face with another vehicle. We missed, just.
I have now carried out a little modification that I thought I would share:
I have used each indicator output from the towing relay to feed two secondary standard relays, one for each side, which in turn energise, via a switch, a loud buzzer.
When in the UK I leave the buzzer switch off and all is silent. When I go onto the continent I make the buzzer switch so that any time I use the indicators, whichever way, the buzzer goes with the indicators.
My theory is that the time I am most likely to get it wrong is at a junction. Approaching a junction I should be using the indicators and so the buzzer will be going to remind me to drive on the right. As I said, the buzzer is switched off in the UK, it is not a sound I am used to hearing so should help.
I think this should be particularly useful on the first day or so of the holiday as the buzzer is a "new" sound and the first day or so is when you are most likely to get it wrong.
Until this summer, then I had a real close shave.
It was the first day of the holiday and I had travelled from the tunnel down to about an hour south of Rouen. Looking back it was one of those nightmare journeys where everything went wrong:
Delay on the tunnel.
Thunderstorms.
Roads closed meaning I had to go right through central Rouen.
Kids acting up.
Sat Nav playing silly irriots and locking up until rebooted. Turns out it was overheating.
Due to the sat nav locking up I took a single track road which got smaller and smaller.
Running late for the campsite we had booked.
I'm sure you all have been there.
My wife was joining us later in the holiday so I had no "wingman" to spot my mistake.
To get to the point of the story.
Having finally negotiated the single track road with both sides and the roof in the trees / bushes I pulled out onto a 2 way road and went on the wrong side. Coming round the next bend came face to face with another vehicle. We missed, just.
I have now carried out a little modification that I thought I would share:
I have used each indicator output from the towing relay to feed two secondary standard relays, one for each side, which in turn energise, via a switch, a loud buzzer.
When in the UK I leave the buzzer switch off and all is silent. When I go onto the continent I make the buzzer switch so that any time I use the indicators, whichever way, the buzzer goes with the indicators.
My theory is that the time I am most likely to get it wrong is at a junction. Approaching a junction I should be using the indicators and so the buzzer will be going to remind me to drive on the right. As I said, the buzzer is switched off in the UK, it is not a sound I am used to hearing so should help.
I think this should be particularly useful on the first day or so of the holiday as the buzzer is a "new" sound and the first day or so is when you are most likely to get it wrong.