Will cars & roads ever be universal?

DoYouEvenLift

I'm talking about left and right handed cars and driving on the left and right side of the road. Also, what happens if you cross the border of a left side driving country into a right side driving country? Does such a thing even exist?

slimjimmc

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

I'm talking about left and right handed cars and driving on the left and right side of the road. Also, what happens if you cross the border of a left side driving country into a right side driving country? Does such a thing even exist?

It does indeed, as does Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Changing_sides_at_borders
Traffic lights, bridges, junctions or even just signpost are used.

DoYouEvenLift

slimjimmc wrote: »

It does indeed, as does Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Changing_sides_at_borders
Traffic lights, bridges, junctions or even just signpost are used.

Looks like Ireland and UK are in the minority lol

myshirt

The left side of the road is the most correct and natural side of the road to drive on

Alun

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Looks like Ireland and UK are in the minority lol

Probably, but it also depends on how you measure it. There are fewer countries driving on the left, but more than you'd think when you take all the small island nations into account and probably fewer cars too, but if you take populations into account, then countries like India skew the figures a bit even though the vast majority of that population don't have access to cars (yet!). I remember seeing a website where it was all broken down according to no. of countries / number of cars / population but can't for the life of me find it now.

hi5

The Lotus bridge Macau to mainland China




A figment of someone's imagination

DoYouEvenLift

hi5 wrote: »

The Lotus bridge Macau to mainland China

http://i.imgur.com/rdkWz.jpg


A figment of someone's imagination

Haha something about that is so satisfying to look at, a gif from closer would be even better

h3000

I heard the UK were planning to change over to match mainland Europe alright.
They plan to introduce it on a phased basis. HGVs and buses first, then all other vehicles.

Akrasia

Driving in 20 years time will be utterly unrecognisable to what it is now.

Autonomous vehicles will be standard and they'll drive on whatever side of the road the law tells them to.

jimgoose

Achtung! Links Fahren! Conduire à Gauche! :pac:

Alun

Akrasia wrote: »

Driving in 20 years time will be utterly unrecognisable to what it is now.

Autonomous vehicles will be standard and they'll drive on whatever side of the road the law tells them to.

They were saying that 20 years ago too.

DoYouEvenLift

Alun wrote: »

They were saying that 20 years ago too.

But at least now we actually have some working proofs. Google have one that's driven over 700k miles without any accidents or traffic violations. I think he's probably right.

H3llR4iser

Alun wrote: »

Probably, but it also depends on how you measure it. There are fewer countries driving on the left, but more than you'd think when you take all the small island nations into account and probably fewer cars too, but if you take populations into account, then countries like India skew the figures a bit even though the vast majority of that population don't have access to cars (yet!). I remember seeing a website where it was all broken down according to no. of countries / number of cars / population but can't for the life of me find it now.

But then you have China driving on the left with even more population than India, and add in the whole American continent, Russia and the EU. There are definitely more cars in left-hand driving markets.

That said, having learnt to drive on left-drive cars, I still find it very natural to switch over - not a single issue. Frankly, aside from the car industry not having to differentiate models between target markets, I can't see who else would benefit form a "standardization".

Henry Ford III

The Govt. are proposing to change the current system over to driving on the right.

The change will be made gradually.

Alun

H3llR4iser wrote: »

But then you have China driving on the left with even more population than India, and add in the whole American continent, Russia and the EU. There are definitely more cars in left-hand driving markets.

You're mixing up terms left right and centre there (pun intended!)

China, US, EU and Russia drive on the RIGHT, India, and UK/IRL drive on the LEFT.

LHD = Left Hand Drive = driver sits on LEFT, drive on the RIGHT side of the road
RHD = Right Hand Drive = driver sits on RIGHT, drive on the LEFT side of the road

jimgoose

Henry Ford III wrote: »

The Govt. are proposing to change the current system over to driving on the right.

The change will be made gradually.

Why in righteous buggery would they bother doing such a horrendously expensive and potentially dangerous thing on a small island??

Alun wrote: »

...EU drive on the LEFT...

They do, do they? Be careful if you ever end up in France! :pac:

irish_goat

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Frankly, aside from the car industry not having to differentiate models between target markets, I can't see who else would benefit form a "standardization".

Fewer accidents when people travel from one rule to the other? Would ultimately lower the price of cars as well.

BMJD

Everyone should be given a McLaren F1 to keep things simple.

ardmacha

BMJD wrote: »

Everyone should be given a McLaren F1 to keep things simple.

Frankly, during the changeover period I'd rather one of these

Yakuza

Cars made in Europe could be cheaper if they don't have to be produced in two different formats. (Less overhead from setting up production runs of the different drive layouts, dashboards not having to be different shapes etc).
No, wait, the Government here will bring in a Vehicle Reconfiguration Tax (or VRT for short:rolleyes:) or something to keep them at the same price level as before.

Alun

jimgoose wrote: »

They do, do they? Be careful if you ever end up in France! :pac:

Ooops Edited.

Henry Ford III

Henry Ford III wrote: »

The change will be made gradually.

How do you 'gradually' introduce that? :P Surely it has to be an overnight change? Or traffic will be going in two directions in the same lane? :P

mgbgt1978

jimgoose wrote: »

Why in righteous buggery would they bother doing such a horrendously expensive and potentially dangerous thing on a small island??

It's starting next Monday apparently. All those who registered for the Water Charge will be allowed to go first...and then the rest will start on Friday.
Looking forward to it myself, do a bit of panel-beating on the side.;)

Mint Sauce

h3000 wrote: »

I heard the UK were planning to change over to match mainland Europe alright.
They plan to introduce it on a phased basis. HGVs and buses first, then all other vehicles.

Lets hope they mean the side the steering wheel is on. Wouldn't fancy meeting string of buses/trucks head on.

Jesus.

Akrasia wrote: »

Driving in 20 years time will be utterly unrecognisable to what it is now. Autonomous vehicles will be standard and they'll drive on whatever side of the road the law tells them to.

They said that back in 1989 and look how they thought the driving of today would look like:

Henry Ford III

Deleted User wrote: »

How do you 'gradually' introduce that? :P Surely it has to be an overnight change? Or traffic will be going in two directions in the same lane? :P

Your humour bypass operation was a complete success clearly

spacetweek

irish_goat wrote: »

Fewer accidents when people travel from one rule to the other? Would ultimately lower the price of cars as well.

Insurance company research worldwide has always shown that crashes due to the (presumably foreign) driver driving on the wrong side of the road to be a small proportion of the total.

hi5

Jesus. wrote: »

They said that back in 1989 and look how they thought the driving of today would look like:

And no 'Hoverboards' either:(

cml387

Since this thread pops up every so often, you'll all know that Sweden changed over from left to right in 1967.
Mind you all their cars were already LHD

CiniO

spacetweek wrote: »

Insurance company research worldwide has always shown that crashes due to the (presumably foreign) driver driving on the wrong side of the road to be a small proportion of the total.

Hmm probably small proportion, because there isn't such a big exchange of drivers between countries driving on different sides.

But from my experience, as I drive mostly in very touristic region of Ireland, and during the summer most of cars I pass are rental cars, then situation isn't that good.
Plenty of people not being able to feel the car position on the road due to steering on the other side. It also happens often enough that I encounter someone coming on the wrong side of the road.

Same with me - as I travel to the Continent regularly enough, I must admit it happened to me few times, that I unwillingly drove on the wrong side of the road. Even once I tried to approach roundabout in wrong direction.

So it's not always as easy as it seems.

hi5

The easiest rule to remember when driving a rental car is;
'your arse should always be in the middle of the road'.

DoYouEvenLift

hi5 wrote: »

And no 'Hoverboards' either:(

they're working on them too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSheVhmcYLA

HandsomeDan

Car markets are too globalized. The saving would be insignificant. Not worth it IMO.

Fúck the left. Fúck Paul Murphy.

Sam Kade

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

But at least now we actually have some working proofs. Google have one that's driven over 700k miles without any accidents or traffic violations. I think he's probably right.

I've done more miles than that without any accidents or traffic violations

Sam Kade

hi5 wrote: »

The easiest rule to remember when driving a rental car is;
'your arse should always be in the middle of the road'.

If your arse was in the middle of the road you would be driving over the white line My cousin in law is a Yank driving here with over 20 years and she always says to herself drivers side to the middle of the road. Even after 20 years she has to keep reminding herself.

keithclancy

CiniO wrote: »

Hmm probably small proportion, because there isn't such a big exchange of drivers between countries driving on different sides.

But from my experience, as I drive mostly in very touristic region of Ireland, and during the summer most of cars I pass are rental cars, then situation isn't that good.
Plenty of people not being able to feel the car position on the road due to steering on the other side. It also happens often enough that I encounter someone coming on the wrong side of the road.

Same with me - as I travel to the Continent regularly enough, I must admit it happened to me few times, that I unwillingly drove on the wrong side of the road. Even once I tried to approach roundabout in wrong direction.

So it's not always as easy as it seems.

Just as you said it, been driving here for 7 years and unwittingly found myself on the left hand side of the road for 2 or 3 seconds after coming out of LIDL earlier this evening.

Seems to happen when the road is unmarked for some reason.

Think it's happened maybe 3 or 4 times.

It's like your hands are doing one thing and your brain is doing something else

DoYouEvenLift

Sam Kade wrote: »

I've done more miles than that without any accidents or traffic violations

Uh, okay? The point was that the tech for self driving cars have come a long way and seem to be safe now so in the future when the tech is even better and there are better GPS systems they'll be even safer

CiniO

keithclancy wrote: »

Just as you said it, been driving here for 7 years and unwittingly found myself on the left hand side of the road for 2 or 3 seconds after coming out of LIDL earlier this evening.

Seems to happen when the road is unmarked for some reason.

Think it's happened maybe 3 or 4 times.

It's like your hands are doing one thing and your brain is doing something else

Exiting parkings, petrol stations, small lanes without traffic is the most likely scenario to drive on wrong side. I had few of those in my life.

But the biggest one I had was few years ago.
I spend over a month and over 10,000km on the continent with my Irish car (RHD). Not a single side-of-road mistake during that time. I got really used to driving RHD in right hand traffic.
And then I was driving back to Ireland. Went through Euro-tunnel, and drove all through UK to Holyhead - it's all way motorway and double-carriageway.
As we were few hours early in Holyhead for the evening ferry, we stopped at some parking in the town, and went for dinner and bit of exploring of the area. Then after few hours break, we came back to the car, and as it was midweek evening Holyhead was completely dead - very few people on the streets. I drove out of parking, and went on the right side of road. I didn't realise and drove like that for at least a through few lanes. My wife didn't notice either. We didn't meet a single car on that stretch.
Then I was approaching roundabout (the main one by McDonalds) and as I was just about to enter it, I was a car on the roundabout going clock-wise, and realised how horrendous mistake I made by driving on the wrong side of the road through most of the town.
This was definitely biggest mistake on my side, but I genuinely didn't realise.
I was tired after long journey, and fact that I drove on the right side of the road with RHD car for a month before that, and Holyhead was actually first left-hand driving town I drove in for a while (as through UK it's just motorways) definitely helped, as well as there was no traffic.

lau1247

ardmacha wrote: »

Frankly, during the changeover period I'd rather one of these

Reminds me of "these are small, but the ones out there are far away"

spacetweek

Sam Kade wrote: »

If your arse was in the middle of the road you would be driving over the white line My cousin in law is a Yank driving here with over 20 years and she always says to herself drivers side to the middle of the road. Even after 20 years she has to keep reminding herself.

Wow. I've driven in right-side countries many times over the years and never had to remind myself.

dr.fuzzenstein

myshirt wrote: »

The left side of the road is the most correct and natural side of the road to drive on

No it isn't

Alun

keithclancy wrote: »

Just as you said it, been driving here for 7 years and unwittingly found myself on the left hand side of the road for 2 or 3 seconds after coming out of LIDL earlier this evening.

Back when I lived in Germany, I drove all the way through the village I lived in on the wrong side of the road once, just after returning from a visit home. I still remember the way someone looked at me when I stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let him cross, and him looking at me a bit strangely Luckily it was very quiet at the time!

dr.fuzzenstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSzln0T9ZI

jhegarty

If the UK changes the RSA will just install these on border: