Driving on the left or right

There's the "right" side of the road and the "wrong" side.

No, but seriously, before Wikipedia existed, one of my former roommates came from Singapore, where they drive on the wrong... err, left side and he was thinking that more people in the world drive on the left. He ended up finding Which side of the road do they drive on? where he found his guess was wrong.

So, yes, we should all standardize on driving on the right.

 

we should invade all right hand drive countries and make them switch.



maybe Bush has some extra time

 

If this doesn't explain things then I don't know what will! lol

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_hand_drive]Right- and left-hand traffic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]


Perhaps other countries should switch to driving on the left as you will note from the above article that this is the safer way to go for right handed people.

Also, an amusing fact was that in Italy you drove on the right in the countryside and on the left in a city! And Alfa Romeo and Lancia only produced RHD cars until the early 1950s.

 

you shake with your left hand?

 

I thought in the U.S. all Prius drivers drove in the left lane going 10 MPH under the speed limit, anyway. Looks like we're pioneers in the field of side-of-the-road standardization!

 

Automobiles were being developed in multiple places simultaneously -- England, France, Germany, and North America. My bet is that the English and the French had to be contrary out of spite. North Americans went their own way, which by random chance matched the French.

North America never really had that tradition. The vast majority of our development and settlement happened after swords were replaced by firearms.

The world majority has already spoken. The minority is free to switch any time they wish.

I expect the Brits to switch to the 'proper' side of the road at about the same time the U.S. general public switchs to the 'proper' system of weights and measures.

 

Then when will the Brits also switch to the "proper" system of weights and measures

Maybe the world should just have a universal time as well....Greenwich Mean Time might make sense....but it's more incovenient for me, who's used to Eastern Standard Time. Maybe it will happen whenever we colonize other planets and have way more time zones to consider. At least countries are standardized with units of measure and driving rules. Arizona doesn't observe daylight standard time the way other states in the US do. But at least everyone has time zones now....which are less then 150 years old. I couldn't imagine having to set my watch going to the next town over, but aparently that's what you had to do before the current time standard.

 

i wonder if it is easier to merge on the highway on ramps when you're in the right hand seat?

 

Why don't they all build cars to be "drive by wire-less" so that the steering wheel, gas and brake paddles are modulous and can be easily unplugged from the left side and installed on the right side so the same car can drive from the left or feom the right so if you go visit England from the US you can bring your car along and save a tone of money from car rental?

 

Depends on which side on-ramps are.

One of my former coworkers who was from the UK mentioned that it's really tough to overtake others (on a 2-lane road) if the steering wheel is on the wrong side for the roads in question. For a US spec car, in the US, at least you can fairly easily look at the opposing lane for oncoming cars. If you had a steering wheel on the wrong side, like on postal delivery vehicles... have fun with that. I'd imagine people with imported JDM Nissan Skylines don't like taking them on 2-lane roads much.

One thing I distinctly remember was that when visiting the US Virgin Islands, they drove on the left side, yet had US spec cars. That was weird. One might find the section for "US Virgin Islands" at Which side of the road do they drive on? amusing.

 

lol, There's a US Airforce base near me and the US workers will mostly bring their own lhd cars with over with them. On the base itself it is like a little America - all the road signs are of the US type - 'Yield' instead of the UK 'Give Way' etc, with American cars and trucks and semi's which are all lhd, yet because the base is in the UK they must drive on the left.

It can get very interesting if a new arrival from the States forgets this whilst driving their own lhd car. Thankfully there's a 20 mph speed limit!

 

i remember in bermuda, american tourists renting motorbikes and having a go at left side driving. more than a few wound up in the hospital, especially when they hit the roundabouts!

 

That's because you're supposed to go round them

 

We had (in Finland) left side traffic until Alexander II changed it in year 1858. I think left side was much more popular way to travel back in the days...

 

Various provinces in Canada drove on the left up until the forties. People in Newfoundland switched in 1947.

An added wrinkle here in BC is the legality of right hand drive vehicles. Many have been imported from Japan, though there's reportedly a 40% higher accident rate. It feels very strange sitting in the passenger seat.

 

Why import a rhd car into Canada when there is a whole market of cheap lhd second hand cars both in Canada and the USA? I can understand importing a rhd classic or vintage car in the same way we have lhd versions here, but a lhd modern car is pretty much worthless here due to driving and overtaking hazards. You also pay a quite a premium on your insurance for the pleasure.

 

The RHD cars typically originate in Japan, and are available from a place called Japanoid that does the modifications necessary for certification. They're generally vehicles not available here, or likely anywhere else in North America. Some of them, like the Figaro, Sera, and 'S Cargo', are really pretty neat. I'd like a Toyota Sera with a 'Que' licence plate.