I am in the US but drive a Japanese Domestic Market truck, so the steering wheel is on the right side and I shift left handed. Someone who learns to shift right handed will pick up shifting left handed within 1 hour. The brain flips it all remarkably easily. The harder muscle memory to break is the turn signal and windshield wipers being swapped.
I actually think what I am doing (a right-hand drive vehicle in a drive-on-the-right country) is the easiest, because parallel parking is so much easier when you are driving on the same side as the street curb. And being able to get in and out of my vehicle from the sidewalk is nice.
I can drive both left and right hand side. It all works great but if I switch frequently and I need to downshift for turns and sit on the right hand side invariably I'll hit the door really hard. I can't seem to get that bit reprogrammed to the point that it is not happening.
I'd rather shift with my left, so my right can steer. Back when I drove auto, I'd often drive with just my right hand on the wheel, it felt completely natural. It took me a while to get used to left hand only, and I'm much more likely to have both hands on the wheel now. Aside from the argument that maybe I should always use both hands, my point is just that it's probably better for right handed people to shift with their left hand since it requires less dexterity.
> my point is just that it's probably better for right handed people to shift with their left hand since it requires less dexterity.
Does everybody here agree this is generally the case with righties? I ask because I'm right handed. I bat right, write with my right hand, use my right thumb on my phone, etc. I'm not a switch hitter or ambidextrous in any way. I'm full-on right side dominant. But, I wear my watch on my right hand and I use my left hand to steer.
Is this sort of thing common? Do the vast majority of right-handed people wear their watch on their left wrist? Or is it an untested assumption?
I'm also right-dominant: right-handed writing, right-handed batting—but I'm left-handed hockey (though somewhat ambidextrous), and I am very comfortable steering with my left, but can really do either. Though I'm more comfortable steering with my left with my hand at the side of the wheel (9 o'clock) or at the bottom, under-handed (~7 o'clock). And I wear my watch on my left. I always thought that was common, but maybe more dogma than anything.
I think which wrist you wear your watch on is not (directly) related to handedness. I'm right-handed and started out wearing my watch on my right wrist since I was fairly young and didn't know that was uncommon. Many years later I tried switching to my left wrist. It felt weird at first, but it didn't take long to adjust. Now it feels weird to have it on my right wrist.
(It's also nice to have it on my left wrist while I write etc).
