Thread: Which side of the road to drive on?

If 70% drive on the left would it not be easier for the other 30% to swap rather than the other way around?

When I lived in England (early 90s), there were plans being made for the UK to change to driving on the right to be consistent with the rest of the European community.

It was proposed that the change would be introduced in stages. Trucks and buses would begin driving on the right first. Cars would change once the effect could be confirmed a success. :-)

If Australians only bought cars made in this country and Australia was the only country to drive on the left then there might be something to think about possibly considering.

But, since car manufacturers have for years not had an issue with producing RHD cars for countries where your drive on the left I don't see the issue (especially since Japan also drives on the left so for Nissan, Toyota etc it's 'normal').

Besides, it's not just simply case of switching the side of the road to drive on. Image the cost involved in re-engineering almost every road interchange to suit driving on the right: acceleration lanes, deceleration lanes, sighting distances, traffic signal phasing and location would all need to be changed and checked. Then you'd have to switch pretty much every sign, redo every lane marking.

Switching sides of the road would be such an unimaginable nightmare and so prohibitively expensive it won't happen.

Originally Posted by d2dave

If 70% drive on the left would it not be easier for the other 30% to swap rather than the other way around?

The original post seems to refer to left hand drive, not left hand traffic.

The majority of the world has right hand traffic. Not all countries with right hand traffic insist on left hand drive vehicles though, despite the obvious safety implications (Russia, China etc)

It's always amazed me all Oz states agreed to drive on the left as they can't even manage to agree on the same road rules applying everywhere.
Let's not even suggest changing to the wrong side of the road as I suspect some our big noting big spending pollies would just love to do it and bugger the expence.
Just think of the jollies them and their fat cat bureaucrap mates could have jetting around the world to see how it's done.....
AlanH.

Changing to driving on the right would be impossibly expensive and, with Australia sharing no land boarders with any country driving on the right, there is no possible justification for the change.

There might be a small increase in the number of cars available, but mostly this would only apply to second hand cars, as most new cars are available in either left or right hand drive.

And even if allowing in left hand drive cars, most of the cars proposed for import would still fail to meet ADRs, usually in trivial matters such as child restraint anchorages.

There have been a few cases of countries changing, but none with such advanced road structures as Australia has. The ones I can think of were Sweden, many years ago - this made sense, with land or short ferry connections to all its neighbours driving on the right, and the the other was Burma, where the change, with two of its neighbours (Thailand and Bangladesh) and its two major suppliers of second hand cars (Thailand and Japan) driving on the left, it made no sense whatever. I have seen right hand drive (ex-Thai) buses, with the doors on the right, in Yangon, with the conductor holding up traffic on multilane roads, while passengers load and unload.

John

John

Originally Posted by Fred Nerk

When I lived in England (early 90s), there were plans being made for the UK to change to driving on the right to be consistent with the rest of the European community.

It was proposed that the change would be introduced in stages. Trucks and buses would begin driving on the right first. Cars would change once the effect could be confirmed a success. :-)

I assume this is meant to be a joke as how would traffic driving on both sides of the road in the same direction work.

i think standardising the national road rules, rego and insurance should come first.