How to cross a road by foot in a country that drives on the "other" side of the road

Question

I'm currently in UB, Mongolia, which has a combination of fairly aggressive driving (though I bet the comments section will list worse countries) and driving on the opposite side of the road than I'm used to in Australia. I've sometimes been looking in the wrong direction for traffic while crossing the road, or assumed that a car coming towards me will safely pass on the far side of the road before I reach it.

How can I handle cars driving on the opposite side of the road to what I'm used to?

Answer 1

If you travel a lot, it's a good idea to get in the habit of always, always checking both directions before stepping out, wherever you are, without habitually favouring either direction first:

• If it's a habit, you won't step out in front of a car if you get it wrong and forget you're in an other-side-of-the-road country momentarily (e.g. after a few drinks)
• Many cities, especially narrow winding European streets, have complicated one way systems where a pedestrian might not realise cars come from the other way, or narrow two-lane streets so choked with parked vehicles both sides that everyone drives down the middle. If you habitually check both ways, you won't miss the Audi bombing down the direction you haven't looked yet at 35 mph in a 20 mph area while checking their stocks portfolio on their iPhone
• Many cities in developed countries have growing numbers of cyclists, a small but significant minority of whom go any direction at speed and don't give a
• Many cities in developing countries have growing numbers of 'okada'-style motorbike taxis, a large and significant majority of whom go any direction at speed and don't give a
• There are many other location-specific hazards that can splatter the unwary like this. For example, trams, which are often extremely quiet and can be coming from unexpected directions. This is how Gaudi died. Don't be like Gaudi
• In some countries, there's an unwritten rule that if your car is expensive-looking enough, and/or if you have the right status signifier (e.g. diplomatic or government plates), you can drive on the wrong side of the road if you're in a hurry and it's everyone else's problem if they're in your way. Sometimes, as a courtesy, these drivers put their hazard lights on while driving on the wrong side of the road, to let you know they're not doing it by accident.
• Some locations naively installed speed bumps that only cover half of the road (for example, the half approaching a school entrance but not the half of the road leading away from it), which many drivers like to cheerfully slalom while driving at double the speed limit, weaving in and out of the wrong side of the road around the half-a-speed-bump at speed like an Olympic skier.
• Then there's all the "should never happen but sometimes does" ridiculous stuff that can happen occasionally in any country, like people driving on the wrong side of the road because they're drunk, high, confused, in a road race or police chase, reversing fast like an idiot because they drove past their stop and don't want to turn around...
• ...or maybe the driver is also a foreigner having trouble with this "other side of the road" malarky. When people make these mistakes, it tends to be on quiet streets where there are no other cars as a reference - i.e. exactly the sort of place you might step out too quickly...

If you always habitually check both ways, you're fine even if you didn't notice or momentarily forgot you were somewhere that has one or more of these hazards.

Answer 2

I (and the whole country) was raised to do look left, right and again to the left before stepping off the curb. Obviously less efficient to do it in an opposite direction country but if you get used to a three step look around you will be fine in most places.

Answer 3

Always expect traffic from both sides.
Always assume the lane you are going to cross is a one way street/lane and you do not know which way the traffic is supposed to go.
If there is a safe point in the crossing, stop and look around again, again both directions and not expecting traffic to come from a certain side.

Do not hurry.
First spend more time looking left, right, left, (or the other way around if in a country with traffic on the left) than you would at home. Better miss an oportunity to cross than start walking when you are not yet sure.
Allow yourself more time to cross the road than you expect to need, that allows for cars on the far side where you expect them to be on the near side, and for cars that slow down before they reach you.

Back home does not mean safe.
And very importantly, when you return home, keep in the habbit for a couple of weeks, (or forever,) as it can be rather dangerous if you have adjusted to traffic on the wrong side of the road and you forget, when falling in routine, that you are back home.
I nearly got hit by a car I had not seen, not looked for, on a road crossing I had been using all my life, very close to my grandmothers house. I had so gotten used to looking the wrong way.
In the years since I have learned to always look both ways, even when I know the road I am about to cross on my daily commute is a one way road.
The famous last words of a victim: Cars do not come from that way!

Answer 4

Don't jaywalk, always cross at corners. Look both ways, twice. Never step off the curb to check traffic.

A few years ago a Japanese scholar visiting chicago stepped off a curb looking right to check traffic. Unfortunately there was traffic, on the left. He was run over and killed. Tragic, but true.