Is it time to change to left hand drive

Henry Ford III

Healy Rae is allegedly in favour of a gradual change to LHD

Cee-Jay-Cee

It is never ever ever ever going to happen. It should have been done 50 years ago when there were less cars and the road network hasn’t been developed.

Can you imagine the carnage if it were to happen now! Drivers forgetting and driving on the wrong side of the road, pedestrians being knocked down because they looked the wrong way, it simply will never ever happen here.

To even contemplate it would be a billion euro nightmare, signs, junctions, road markings, etc would all have to be changed before D Day. Ideally the government would have to implement a plan to get people to buy LHD cars 25 years or so before the actual date to ensure that the vast majority of vehicles are LHD before making the move to drive on the other side of the road. It will never happen.

salmocab

It would take months or even years just to sort out the traffic lights, they can’t just be turned around they have to be taken down repositioned and rewired.

Stephen15

Random Bloke wrote: »

If there is a hard brexit, then the level of imported and exported cars in the U.K. is likely to reduce substantially. The brits will buy more cars made in the U.K. in order to avoid the heavy tariffs on cars imported from the EU. Nissan, Honda, Ford, GM Vauxhall and many others have big production plants in the U.K. and will be well able to look after U.K. demand for cars.

So, in a hard brexit scenario, the brits are likely to buy a lot less EU-made cars. The question then is if the EU manufacturers will bother to make right hand drive cars if their biggest market for them is effectively closed. Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat, Skoda, etc etc will not have big markets for right hand drive cars outside of the UK. BMW and Mercedes have big factories in South Africa so they will continue to make some ranges in right hand drive. Japanese manufacturers will also have large markets that justify producing right hand drive cars.

This hard brexit scenario will have a big impact on the cars sold in Ireland. Right hand drive car options will be more limited and probably more expensive. Imports of used U.K. cars will stop virtually overnight as all such cars will be liable for VAT @23% as well as VRT.

Of course none of this will happen if there isn't a hard brexit. But if there is a hard brexit, Ireland will need to seriously consider switching to driving on the right in order to have a range of competitively priced cars.

The thing is though a lot of those car manufacturers will likely decide to shut up shop in the UK in the event of a hard brexit as they manufacture cars in The UK for the EU market in The UK. Cars in general or at least new ones could become a bit of a luxury in The UK if there was a hard brexit due to the import duties on them.

Gonzales the mouse

I’m all for driving on the right of the road. At least the lane joggers will be doing something right.

Indricotherium

colm_mcm wrote: »

So only 1% of cars out there are older than 08?

Every 15-20 years then.

There's a level of natural wastage. Throw some sort of grant for changing 15 year old cars for nearly new lhds for the first ten years to accelerate that wastage jobs a good'un.

It's a couple of billion yo-yos of a problem, but on the scale of the EU that's peanuts.

dr.fuzzenstein

Stephen15 wrote: »

The thing is though a lot of those car manufacturers will likely decide to shut up shop in the UK in the event of a hard brexit as they manufacture cars in The UK for the EU market in The UK. Cars in general or at least new ones could become a bit of a luxury in The UK if there was a hard brexit due to the import duties on them.

And you know they will then come whining to the EU about their unfair treatment.
I love it when the Brits complain about "not respecting their decision" on discussion boards.
I love pointing out to them that they decided to take out a shotgun, aim it at their own foot and then pull the trigger to teach us all a lesson and then complained that people told them that that maybe wasn't the smartest thing to do.
I'm watching the implosion of the UK with interest.
Brexit and Trump prove that democracy doesn't work, because the vast majority of people are unbelievably stupid. They eat Tide Pods FFS. Democracy is like giving a monkey a gun.

demanufactured

Majority of Irish drivers can't drive using right hand drive... What are you hoping for?

salmocab

Every motorway exit would need to be reengineered it’s not just a matter turning the signs around, when you get to the top of the exit the lanes aren’t set up to just be changed in most cases I’d say. Traffic lights is a major issue probably costing in the billions to sort as every one in the country needs work probably replacing and recalibration get which would take years to get right and that would be after the change over so traffic chaos lasting a long time, every road marking pretty much needs to be changed barring some double yellows and every road sign too. Then as somebody else jokingly pointed out the drive throughs and other businesses that we probably can’t even think of for now all would probably get compensation we also share only one border that would need a ridiculous amount of engineering and for what? So we can drive on the same side as other countries that we have no road links with. It’s a logistical and financial nightmare that will never happen and in the future we will end up with driverless cars that don’t have a ‘side’ anyway making that all a waste of time money and heartache.

Indricotherium

salmocab wrote: »

Every motorway exit would need to be reengineered it’s not just a matter turning the signs around, when you get to the top of the exit the lanes aren’t set up to just be changed in most cases I’d say. Traffic lights is a major issue probably costing in the billions to sort as every one in the country needs work probably replacing and recalibration get which would take years to get right and that would be after the change over so traffic chaos lasting a long time, every road marking pretty much needs to be changed barring some double yellows and every road sign too. Then as somebody else jokingly pointed out the drive throughs and other businesses that we probably can’t even think of for now all would probably get compensation we also share only one border that would need a ridiculous amount of engineering and for what? So we can drive on the same side as other countries that we have no road links with. It’s a logistical and financial nightmare that will never happen and in the future we will end up with driverless cars that don’t have a ‘side’ anyway making that all a waste of time money and heartache.

Sure all that is jobs for people.

salmocab

Indricotherium wrote: »

Sure all that is jobs for people.

Well yeah it would be a lot of work but would also cause huge amounts of extra traffic costing a lot of money for the economy and certainly cause some accidents which also cost money so I’m going to go ahead and say that the costs of doing would far out weigh any benefits.

Charles Babbage

salmocab wrote: »

Well yeah it would be a lot of work but would also cause huge amounts of extra traffic costing a lot of money for the economy and certainly cause some accidents which also cost money so I’m going to go ahead and say that the costs of doing would far out weigh any benefits.

When Sweden changed they had less accidents for a while as people weren't acting the bollix.

However, on an island the costs outweigh the benefits. I doubt if Cyprus will change.

fritzelly

Left hand drive was the most prevalent side in most countries, but changed for varying reasons, even the UK considered changing it in the 60's but was too expensive

JohnBoy26

Shefwedfan wrote: »

With Brexit getting closer is it time now to final put the last few nails in the coffin and move to left hand drive. Just a quick look at this map and it shows how few countries actually are right hand drive anymore

https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/list-of-left-driving-countries/

Moving to left hand drive should lower the cost of cars, from what I can gather we pay a premium for right hand.

With the potential increase of import/export tax to UK, the second hand market from UK is going to drastically decrease.

If we move to left hand we suddenly open up the whole European market, getting over to France is a bit longer but also as simple as getting to UK.

With manufacturers concentrating on left hand drive it would also help us to get newer models quicker....

I don't see a huge issue with moving.... move a few signs to other side of road and off you go :P

Barriers in carparks and so on would need to be changed, all road marking would need to be changed, not to mention changes to road layouts, toll boots would need to be changed, and not to mention issues with the all ready mentioned mcdonald's drive tru . Im sure there is a lot more issues along with those which will be astronomical in cost to change and what about all the cars that people will have to change including new or fairly new cars?

I can't see any point in it. Used Car prices are also much more expensive than ours on the continent so no value there.

Harry Palmr

Right hand drive makes sense and always was better, how else are the great majority expected to down an approaching vagabond with a quick swish of a rapier blade?

Wishbone Ash

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

... the government would have to implement a plan to get people to buy LHD cars 25 years or so before the actual date to ensure that the vast majority of vehicles are LHD before making the move to drive on the other side of the road. It will never happen.

It would be a bit awkward for the majority of buses though as the doors have to be on the left. They'd have to change 'overnight'.

(Although in saying that, Aircoach have to order their fleet with a door on the right as the DAA gave them a bus stop on the right at Dublin airport.)

Rubberchikken

You obviously dont remember how difficult irish drivers found to change from miles to kpm road signs. Driving on the other side of the road would make their heads explode.

eeguy

Once cars drive themselves it wont matter what side of the road we drive on.

endacl

cisk wrote: »

If the Chinos didn’t make Hong Kong or Macau change to driving on the right then I don’t think it’s that important or worthwhile.

??? ???

Indricotherium

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

It would be a bit awkward for the majority of buses though as the doors have to be on the left. They'd have to change 'overnight'.

They could just reverse everywhere.

Bring solutions not problems.

Harry Palmr

sugarman wrote: »

Forget about changing the roads themselves, but why don't more people just adapt to actually driving a LHD car on the left?

Ah yes that makes perfect sense. How let me just get past that truck :rolleyes:

JohnBoy26

sugarman wrote: »

Forget about changing the roads themselves, but why don't more people just adapt to actually driving a LHD car on the left?

What sense would that make? It would just make things a lot more difficult.

JohnBoy26

sugarman wrote: »

Nowhere near as bad as you're making out, been out in left hand drives in Dublin traffic, even over the M50. Just have to read the road a bit better.

I wasn't suggesting the whole country change! Just those that would like to dip into the EU used car market.

What about carpark barriers, drive tru's, toll booths? Tbh left hand drive is very awkward

Del2005

sugarman wrote: »

I wasn't suggesting the whole country change! Just those that would like to dip into the EU used car market.

Why dip into a more expensive market for a vehicle that requires a lot of compromises? Our 2nd hand cars are generally cheaper than continental ones. So unless it's something special that was never made RHD there is no benefit to buying a LHD vehicle for here.

CiniO

Rubberchikken wrote: »

You obviously dont remember how difficult irish drivers found to change from miles to kpm road signs. Driving on the other side of the road would make their heads explode.

Indeed looked difficult.
Even 13-14 years later, some people still don't know how to write it

veetwin

Rubberchikken wrote: »

You obviously dont remember how difficult irish drivers found to change from miles to kpm road signs. Driving on the other side of the road would make their heads explode.

Remind us how difficult we found the transition from mph to kmph. I don't remember any major issues.

Also hundreds of thousands of us travel to the US and the continent and rent cars or bring our own and drive on the right without a problem,

Shefwedfan

Rubberchikken wrote: »

You obviously dont remember how difficult irish drivers found to change from miles to kpm road signs. Driving on the other side of the road would make their heads explode.

How was it difficult? I dont remember any major problems?

Drivers went over the limit before and they continued to drive over the speed limit afterwards....

Voodoomelon

If we change to left hand drive roads, we still get to hog the middle lane right?

Shefwedfan

Voodoomelon wrote: »

If we change to left hand drive roads, we still get to hog the middle lane right?

Of course....this goes without saying

ELM327

Fully agree with this we should change over ASAP.
Can't believe we're stuck in the last bastion of RHD with the brits and the ex colonies.