Keep right
Ten short tips from the app for learners who first drove where traffic keeps left, and a few reminders for everyone.
The diagrams show right-hand traffic as it is in the UAE: the learner's car is teal, the key vehicle is amber. They are never mirrored, on the Arabic page too.
In UAE cars, buses and trucks the driver sits on the left. In a manual car you change gear with your right hand, and the pedals are in the same order. Your right side is now the far side, so leave extra room there and check over your right shoulder before moving right.
In many cars here the indicator stalk is on the left of the steering wheel. If your car at home had it on the right, you may switch on the wipers when you mean to signal. Before you drive, find the indicators, wipers, lights and horn in a quiet car park.
The nearest traffic now comes from your left. At the end of a side road, look left, then right, then left again before you pull out. When you turn right, you join traffic coming from your left. When you turn left, you cross that lane first and join traffic from your right.
Go round anticlockwise, with the central island on your left. Give way to traffic already on the roundabout: it comes from your left, so look left as you approach. Choose your lane early, follow the lane arrows, and signal right after you pass the exit before yours.
Pass slower vehicles on their left. Before you pull out, check your left mirror and look over your left shoulder. Move back to the right when you can see the whole front of the vehicle you passed in your interior mirror. Never overtake on the right or on the hard shoulder.
Use the right-hand lane unless you are overtaking. The far-left lane is for overtaking, so move back right once you have passed. Heavy vehicles and buses keep to the right lanes. Staying in the left lane and holding up faster traffic can be fined.
A right turn is now the short turn: move into the right-hand lane early and watch for riders and people walking on your right. A left turn crosses oncoming traffic: wait near the centre line or in the left-turn lane, and give way to oncoming vehicles before you turn.
Make U-turns only where they are allowed, from the far-left lane or a U-turn lane on the left, turning left. Signal left early and give way to all other traffic. When you follow someone in the left lane, expect them to slow down suddenly for a U-turn.
Many people walking here grew up where traffic drives on the left. They may look right first, see nothing and step out in front of traffic coming from their left. Slow down near crossings, bus stops and shops. When you walk, look left first.
Old habits come back when you are tired or nothing reminds you: after a long flight, a holiday at home, or on an empty road. In your first minutes of driving, say 'keep right' each time you pull out, turn, or leave a car park or petrol station.
Every licence has questions on driving on the right, with diagrams drawn for UAE roads.
Android app by Blue Orbit