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T-plates are one traveller's 'genius' solution for overseas road trips
If you've ever rented a car while overseas on holiday, you may have had to deal with the harrowing experience of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.
Whether you're on a road trip in the US or visiting wineries in Europe, driving in a foreign country is stressful - especially in countries like Italy, where locals are notoriously reckless on the road.
After a particularly white-knuckled drive on holiday in Spain, one holidaymaker has come up with a solution.
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Driving on the other side of the road can be stressful. Getty
Robert Marshall, a Scottish hotel owner, has invented the 'Tourist Plate'.
Like an L- or P-plate used by learner drivers, the Tourist Plate is a sticker that travellers can put on their car to let others on the road know that they're not familiar with the roads.
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Robert was on a holiday in Tenerife when he came up with the idea.
"I was completely stressed, I was driving on the opposite side of the road from what I'm used to," he told CNN.
"I couldn't read the signs, but everybody was tailgating me. I shouted at my partner, 'I wish these people knew I was a tourist, because they would just stay away from my car.'"
Tourist Plates aim to help people feel more comfortable on the road. Tourist Plate
I could have really used these genius plates on a road trip I took in Tunisia a few years ago.
Over there, they drive on the right, and also have a particularly chaotic way of behaving on the roads.
Plus, I was driving a manual rental car, in which the driver's seat was on the left - meaning I had to change gears with my right hand. It sounds like a simple switch but it took a lot of brain power, which is tricky to do while also navigating the bonkers traffic situation in Tunis.
Having tourist plates on my car would maybe be a little humiliating, but it may have earned me a little grace from other drivers on the road.
I needed tourist plates on a trip to Tunisia. Supplied
Even when I rented a huge campervan for an Australian road trip, I was tempted to put L-plates on the rig so that people would be nicer to me while I tried to navigate its huge blind spots on the highway.
Robert, the Tourist Plate's inventor, owns a hotel in the Scottish Highlands, where there has been an increase in fatal road crashes involving tourists.
According to Transport Scotland, the number of crashes involving overseas drivers on the wrong side of the road had increased by 46 per cent in a year.
Tourist crashes in the Scottish Highlands have increased. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Though the Tourist Plates haven't been endorsed by any authorities, they have been generating buzz online.
Robert told CNN that he has received orders from as far afield as the United States, Pakistan, and India.
One driver even tested it out by going 15 kilometres under the speed limit on a busy road, with the plates on. She says that once people saw the T-plate on her car, they backed off and gave her space.
