British driver in USA

I didn't know where I should post this question but I thought this would be an appropriate board for it. My husband and I are planning a trip to Arizona later this year to visit my family. We are going to rent a car while we're out there but my husband has never driven in the US before. I don't drive full stop.. not in the US or in the UK so I'm not much help to him at all. I'm wondering if theres a website out there with helpful tips for Brits driving in the US? We've come across a few that are slightly helpful but I figured some of you would have some tips or know of a helpful site? Thanks 

I haven't found any websites, but I did learn to drive in the UK and had only driven in the UK before being dropped in the US for a holiday a while ago.

It's reassuringly easy - American roads so often have those dividers and the driving-on-the-right thing is internalised really quickly. Not to mention the road layout is often a lot simpler and clearer by virtue of far larger roads. The one problem I did always have was being in the left-hand lane on one-way streets. I immediately went back to British mode and twice ended up driving into oncoming traffic, so if he has the same issues as me perhaps he should watch out a lot in one-ways.

Also, the motorway merging is a lot more stressful in the US - way more junctions and the lead up is often rather short, plus (it seemed the general busy-road behaviour, at least) it's the responsibility of the person entering the interstate to merge into traffic. So he should make sure that he doesn't just expect people to let him in or change lane for him.

It's really not that hard. All of my relatives and friends from overseas who have driven here have found it simple. Especially since you are not driving in say, New York City or Los Angeles.

... it's the responsibility of the person entering the interstate to merge into traffic. So he should make sure that he doesn't just expect people to let him in or change lane for him.

I would strongly second this point.  It's important to keep in mind that people on highways often aren't paying any attention to those merging onto the road. 


Another thing that can be tricky (and this very much depends on what region you're in) is changing lanes, especially on a highway.  In some areas, people like to leave plenty of room between vehicles.  In other areas, they're happy with a couple of inches.  In my experience, it's the latter who pay more attention to what other cars are doing, and are more likely to switch lanes to let you in/out, etc.  But don't count on it.

Overall, as other posters have said, it's relatively easy to drive here, because there's plenty of room and things tend to be well-marked.  There are very few roundabouts (although, mostly, Americans still don't know how to use them, so you'll see an awful lot of people treat them more like 4-way stops.)

One last note (which may have been in the hints you've already found): Speed Limits.  Although, personally, I fully recommend strict adherence to the posted speed limit  (and it's almost always posted, at frequent intervals)....most people treat it as more of a baseline.   Honestly, you should drive at the speed you're comfortable with, even if that's below the speed limit.  But be prepared to be passed by almost everyone.  The actual speeds tend to be 5-10 mph over the posted limit, whatever that limit is.  Sometimes it's even more, particularly on city bypasses, etc.  Also, once you're at a comfortable highway speed, if your car has cruise control, use it.  Most other people do, and few things are more annoying than following someone who keeps changing speed.

One last note (which may have been in the hints you've already found): Speed Limits.  Although, personally, I fully recommend strict adherence to the posted speed limit  (and it's almost always posted, at frequent intervals)....most people treat it as more of a baseline.   Honestly, you should drive at the speed you're comfortable with, even if that's below the speed limit.  But be prepared to be passed by almost everyone.  The actual speeds tend to be 5-10 mph over the posted limit, whatever that limit is.  Sometimes it's even more, particularly on city bypasses, etc.  Also, once you're at a comfortable highway speed, if your car has cruise control, use it.  Most other people do, and few things are more annoying than following someone who keeps changing speed.

In the city of course, speed limits are often ignored and more lax. However, I highly recommend that you stick to the speed limit if you're driving in rural areas. The police in the middle of no where tend to pull you over even if you're a couple of miles over the limit  Boredom perhaps? 

My husband and I drove across the US in April.  He had never driven in the US, never driven an automatic, never been on the opposite side of the road or car, and did absolutely fine. My advice: maybe give him a couple of days of easy driving (maybe just to go out for dinner or something) or let him practice for an hour or so somewhere where there's not many other cars so he can just get the feel of it.  Other than that he really should be fine.
Safe trip!

He'll be ok. As another poster said, give him a fairly quiet and short route to start with. I was thrown in at the deep end by DW because she has a bridge phobia and we had to drive over to Philly from South Jersey, so she pulled into a car park and then said I had to take over and drive across the Walt Whitman bridge. I drove around the car park for 5 mins to get used to the car and then off I went.
I apologise to all those people beind me wanting to turn right on a red light and blasting their horns but I just didn't feel comfortable doing it!

Another bit of advice if you are renting a car....if you can, get one with out of state plates. When we went back to Jersey just after we got married we picked up a car from Philly airport and it had Wisconsin plates - I did notice that other drivers seemed to give me a bit more leeway if I was wanting to change lanes etc!
So this last time when we picked up a car from JFK and I had a choice of 2 cars I picked the one with Virginia playes over the New York plates! Didn't seem to make much difference though until we got out of New York!

Another bit of advice if you are renting a car....if you can, get one with out of state plates.

This can cause as many problems as it prevents, tbh.  Although it can serve as a sort of notice to other drivers that you might not know where you're going, etc., depending on the states involved, it can make people less courteous. 

And as for bored, small-town cops... they definitely pay more attention to out-of-state vehicles.