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How to practise driving on the other side of the road before you travel

A general familiarisation guide · Last updated 3 October 2026

Driving on the other side of the road is simple to understand and hard to do. You know which side you belong on. The problem is that years behind the wheel have built reflexes for the side you grew up with, and those reflexes act before you think. They catch you at the quiet moments, pulling out of a car park or onto an empty road, when there is no other traffic to copy. This guide sets out the ways you can prepare before a trip, what each one does, and where it stops.

What goes wrong, and when?

The mistakes that matter are not dramatic. They happen when nothing prompts you, on a quiet road or at an empty junction, where habit chooses the side for you. Scotland is one of the few places that counts this directly: Transport Scotland recorded 35 collisions in 2023 with inexperience of driving on the left as a contributory factor, up from 24 the year before. It helps to keep the scale in proportion. In New Zealand, overseas licence holders were involved in fewer than 6 per cent of fatal and injury crashes over ten years, according to the Ministry of Transport. The risk is real and specific, and a little preparation goes a long way. For the fuller picture, see our guide on how risky driving on the other side is.

Does mental rehearsal help?

Mental rehearsal is one of the more studied techniques in skill learning, and the evidence has held up across 25 years. Two meta-analyses both found that it improves performance. The effect is modest, and smaller than you get from real practice, but it is consistent. Driskell, Copper and Moran reported a moderate effect in 1994 (d of about 0.53). Toth and colleagues repeated the work in 2020 and, after correcting for publication bias, found a smaller but still positive effect (r of about 0.13).

Two details are relevant to driving on the other side. The 1994 review found mental practice works best for tasks with a high cognitive load, and side-switching errors are mostly decisions rather than muscle, which way to look and which lane to finish in. The 2020 review found the effect was stronger for programmes lasting one to six weeks, which is the window most people have before a trip. No study has tested this for opposite-side driving specifically. That is why we treat rehearsal as preparation, and not as a replacement for careful driving once you arrive.

Method 1: watch first-person driving videos for your destination

Search for dashcam or point-of-view drives filmed where you are going. Watching them does two useful things. It shows you how junctions and roundabouts unwind on the other side, and it gets your eyes used to traffic arriving from the direction you do not expect. What it does not do is build the feel of placing a car you are sitting in, so treat it as familiarisation for your eyes rather than practice for your hands.

Method 2: rehearse the specific moments

Mental practice only helps if you rehearse the right things. Pick the moments that go wrong and run them in your head, slowly, for a few minutes a day. Pulling out of a driveway or car park onto an empty road and choosing the correct side. Finishing a turn in the correct lane. Taking a roundabout in the direction it now flows. Looking the correct way first, on foot as well as at the wheel. Picture each one until the correct choice feels like the obvious one.

Method 3: practice apps

A few apps drill these moments directly. MirrorLane, which we make, is built around the errors above. It mirrors every drill to your trip, left to right or right to left, and covers the main ones: choosing the side as you pull out, finishing a turn in the correct lane, roundabout direction, and looking the correct way first, plus a check of the mirrored cockpit. It builds a short daily plan in the weeks before you travel, around five to eight minutes a day, and has a single fifteen to twenty minute session, the Airport Cram, for people who are already at the gate. It works offline, it is iPhone only, and it is free to try, with a one-time $4.99 purchase for the full programme. It does not teach road-width judgement or cover local rules and signs, and it is not a driving simulator. It prepares the decisions rather than the handling.

Method 4: choose the car to reduce the load

You can remove some of the difficulty before you drive at all. An automatic takes the gear hand and clutch out of the picture, which leaves more attention for the side of the road, so it is worth booking one if a manual would be new to you. A smaller car is easier to place on narrow roads. Collecting it somewhere quiet rather than in a city centre gives you an easier first few minutes. Our guide to the first 30 minutes with a rental car covers that handover in more detail.

Method 5: the first hour on the ground

Preparation gets you to the car. The first hour is where it is tested. Plan an easy first drive, in daylight, on roads you have looked at, without a tight schedule. Say your side out loud at junctions if it helps, and confirm it as you straighten out of each turn. Our guides to the first 30 minutes with a rental car and how long it takes to adjust cover what to expect.

What you cannot practise in advance

Some things only come with the real road. Judging how much car you have on a narrow lane is one, and it comes from driving the car, not from a screen. Local signs, markings and rules are another, and they vary by country and change over time, so read the official guidance for where you are going rather than relying on habit. Rehearsal prepares the decisions you can predict. It does not replace attention once the conditions are real.

A plan by time available

This is general familiarisation guidance, not driving instruction or a substitute for the official rules of your destination. Always check local guidance and drive within your ability.

Frequently asked questions

Can you practise driving on the left without a car?

Yes, within limits. You can rehearse the decisions, which way to look, which lane to finish in, and which way a roundabout flows, through mental rehearsal, point-of-view videos and apps. What you cannot build without a car is the feel of placing the vehicle, so treat off-road practice as preparation for the choices rather than the handling.

How many days of practice do people need?

There is no measured figure for this specific skill. The useful evidence is about preparation rather than a fixed number of days: mental practice shows its strongest effect over programmes of one to six weeks (Toth and colleagues, 2020), which fits the time most travellers have before a trip. A little most days tends to beat one long session.

Is a driving simulator better than an app?

They do different jobs. A full simulator can reproduce handling and car placement, which an app cannot. An app is better suited to drilling the quick decisions in short sessions, and is far easier to use in the weeks before you travel. For opposite-side preparation, the decisions are the part most worth rehearsing.

Should I rent an automatic instead?

If a manual would be unfamiliar, yes. An automatic removes the gear hand and clutch, which leaves more attention for driving on the other side. If you always drive a manual at home, the choice matters less.

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