Should we switch to driving on the right?

RayCun

Claw Hammer wrote: »

The benefit of driving on the right is that it requires the driver to operate the hand brake and gear shift with the right hand. Most people are right-handed and in the event of an emergency the right hand reacts more quickly than the left so it is safer.

Nonsense.

The number of emergencies where slightly faster gear shifting would be important is lower than the number of emergencies caused by someone scratching their bollocks with their right hands.

Wanderer78

RayCun wrote:

The number of emergencies where slightly faster gear shifting would be important is lower than the number of emergencies caused by someone scratching their bollocks with their right hands.

I'm able to scratch my bollocks with both hands, while driving

Claw Hammer

RayCun wrote: »

Yeah, and French knights would shake hands with their left instead. :rolleyes:

Try again.

Stairs in old castles go up clockwise because a defender upstairs is more likely to be right handed and will have more room to use his sword that a right handed attacker coming up against him. For the same reason a right handed person on horseback traveled on the left because an attack is more likely to come from his right.

TeaBagMania

one of the perks of a holiday in Ireland is getting to drive on the wrong side of the road while sitting on the wrong side of the car, its a craic, dont take that away from me

Boom_Bap

RayCun wrote: »

Yeah, and French knights would shake hands with their left instead. :rolleyes:

Try again.

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Stairs in old castles go up clockwise because a defender upstairs is more likely to be right handed and will have more room to use his sword that a right handed attacker coming up against him. For the same reason a right handed person on horseback traveled on the left because an attack is more likely to come from his right.

Yeah RayCun.


Try again.


:pac:

RayCun

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Stairs in old castles go up clockwise because a defender upstairs is more likely to be right handed and will have more room to use his sword that a right handed attacker coming up against him. For the same reason a right handed person on horseback traveled on the left because an attack is more likely to come from his right.

Yeah, when building castles people were very concerned with the possibility of sword fights on the tower stairs.

(swords were not a primary weapon in battle, and if the enemy had got as far as the stairs of your tower you were already ****ed)

And if it is such an obvious rule that people stayed left to leave their sword hands free, why do most countries stay right?

(in the age when people carried swords, the one with swords travelled on whichever side of the road they liked and everyone else got out of the way)

RayCun

So many imaginary stories made up to justify why obviously people stayed left :rolleyes:

Come one, someone post something about our hearts being on the left. Or coriolis forces in the northern hemisphere. Or the prevailing winds in the British isles. Or the magnetic pole.

Boom_Bap

Knights would also traditionally carry their wenches over their left shoulder while in building the castles leaving their right hand free for their trowel and hand shakes.

Wanderer78

RayCun wrote:

Come one, someone post something about our hearts being on the left. Or coriolis forces in the northern hemisphere. Or the prevailing winds in the British isles. Or the magnetic pole.

Fcuk that, it's clearly obvious, we all should be driving with swords, on whatever side of the road suits us, in that particular moment. Boards rocks when it comes to solving everyday life issues

Captcha

Hong Kong and China drive on different sides of the road, so you have to switch after the border.

Graces7

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

There’s a reason Sweden had to do it, they have borders with countries that drive on the right.

We don’t. In fact a lot of countries that drive on the left are islands or have a border that isn’t commonly crossed. Southern Africa is an outlier there though.

and it makes european motoring holidays all the more exciting and .... foreign...

Graces7

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It actually dates back to medieval times, knights on horseback would carry their shields in their left hands, so would pass each other on the left so they could shake hands with their right hand.

and keep their sword arm free..

Graces7

Akrasia wrote: »

We should definitely switch over to the Right. But it would be a bit hard on the older people. We should wait for them all to die first, then it'll be grand.

or just wait until we are too old to drive..

Oink

The UK actually looked into switching. Then they looked at how much it would cost simply to replace the London buses. They calculated that everybody in England would need to be sold into slavery*, and voted against it. I think Scotland and the Welsh said they could live with that but nobody asked them.



There you go. It's all about London Buses**.


* May not be true
** true story

Akrasia

Claw Hammer wrote: »

The benefit of driving on the right is that it requires the driver to operate the hand brake and gear shift with the right hand. Most people are right-handed and in the event of an emergency the right hand reacts more quickly than the left so it is safer.

In fairness, if you're so uncoordinated that you can't operate a gear stick or handbrake with your left hand, then you probably shouldn't be driving, of you should have a specially adapted car

jmayo

Balanadan wrote: »

To be more aligned with our European friends. I certainly think so.

What you term thinking may be something else.

Balanadan wrote: »

Other countries have done it, not a bother.

Balanadan wrote: »

Samoa is probably the most recent one. Sweden another fine example.

Yep mighty Samoa with a road network of 1200km (95km unpaved).
Fooking hell there are nearly more roads in a parish in Mayo than that.

And Samoa has only about 18,000 vehicles, with them split across islands.
The speed limit is 40kph and it was reduced for the switch.

Oh and most controversial of all was they banned alcohol for three days of the move.
Good luck trying that in Ireland.

Oh and remind us again how many years ago Sweden did the switch, how many cars were in the country and how smoothly it went?

Balanadan wrote: »

We have a population smaller than that of Berlin, spread across about 100 times the area. Bit of planning and it'll be no bother. I'll ask Shane to work on a feasibility study.

Ahh now you really are taking the p***.

Why not go with Donie Cassidy's plan of doing it county by county.
Shure what could go wrong.

Roadtoad wrote: »

Czechoslovakia managed it very efficiently in 1939, with some help from consultants from Berlin.

Ehh the Germans, the Hungrians and indeed the Poles started to help them in 1938.

Zaph

Zaph wrote: »

Well I wouldn't exactly say not a bother...

Vic_08 wrote: »

No it wasn't as referenced by Sweden in the 60's.

This is a myth that Sweden was chaotic in the changeover, despite there being 1.2 million vehicles and over 200,000 km of roads in Sweden in 1967:

On the day itself, only 157 minor accidents were reported, of which only 32 involved personal injuries. Over the next year, there was a reduction in collisions. Part of this was attributed to safer overtaking as vehicles had right-hand drive cars and had greater forward visibility. Motor insurance claims over this period dropped by 40 per cent over the next two weeks – although this returned to normal within two months. However, all metro and railway systems stayed on the left-hand side and continue to this day. During 1967, there were 236 fewer road deaths than the previous year.(Source)

EdgeCase

EdgeCase wrote: »

Realistically, these things should have been standardised across the entire planet in the 1920s. It's far, far too late now.

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

When it was done in Sweden it was one of the biggest projects that was ever undertaken in that country.
Many drivers already had left hand drive cars there and it was done in a period when most people didn't have a car.

To do that in Ireland today would cost billions. Couple this with the spike in road fatalities aa the vast majority of cars are right hand drive.

I would love if we did drive on the right but the cost would be just too much.

You have probably the strongest point against a changeover when noting the left-hand drive cars that already existed in Sweden before 1967 - 'Prior to 1967, all vehicles in Sweden drove on the left despite all cars being calibrated for right-hand drive (steering wheels on the left).' (Source: the Engineers' Ireland article below).

Here's a really enlightening article from Engineers' Ireland published as recently as September 2018 discussing the practical issues involved in Ireland changing road sides. The best article I've read about the topic and a really fascinating history about the background. It talks about what we should do differently to the Swedes, who at the time of their changeover in 1960 had an extraordinary 200,000 km of roads and 1.2 million vehicle:

Could Ireland emulate Sweden and switch to driving on the right? (Sept. 2018)

Bus modification also had to take place with more than 1,000 new buses purchased with doors on the right-hand side and another 8,000 older buses fitted with doors on both sides. On the final day, more than 20,000 people were working on the road network converting all items, including 300,000 signs to right-hand drive calibration....While obviously difficult, it would not be an impossible task for Ireland to attempt something similar. In 2005, almost 50,000 signs were changed seemingly overnight in the country when the switch was made from mph to km/h; however, changing the entire network to right-hand drive would be another level of difficulty.

Similar to Sweden, there are more than 100,000 kilometres of roads in Ireland that would have to be changed. There is also the matter of stopping cars overnight, which may have a minor economic effect, especially in more hectic economic times. Other elements of the roadway, such as signals, motorway gantries and road detectors would also have to be changed.... all of our 2.1 million cars, 32,500 public service vehicles, 719 school buses, 350,000 goods vehicles, 981 hearses, and three Lamborghinis (car not tractor) to right-hand drive.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

When it was done in Sweden it was one of the biggest projects that was ever undertaken in that country.
Many drivers already had left hand drive cars there and it was done in a period when most people didn't have a car.

To do that in Ireland today would cost billions. Couple this with the spike in road fatalities aa the vast majority of cars are right hand drive.

I would love if we did drive on the right but the cost would be just too much.

Actually, counterintuitively, I recall reading that road fatalities decreased in the months after the changeover in Sweden because people were driving much more gingerly out of fear of crashing. The fatalities stats then returned to normal within a few months, I think.

But that’s a long time ago when there was much less traffic on the roads. It probably can’t be extrapolated whether there’d be a reduction in road fatalities in Ireland if we tried the same. Also Wikipedia informs me that most people in Sweden drove left-hand drive vehicles so when they switched to driving on the right, the drivers had a better view of oncoming traffic. It seems weird that Swedes were driving left-hand drive vehicles when they drove on the left. Doesn’t it make sense for the driver to be as near as possible to the centre line?

argolis

Shouldn't we just wait another 25 years for everyone to be using self-driving cars, then we could all toggle a button in our car driving app on the same day to set them to drive on the other side? Simples

minikin

The drive on the right experiment (a.k.a. Operation M50) has been functioning successfully for the last few decades.

jmayo

Deleted User wrote: »

This is a myth that Sweden was chaotic in the changeover, despite there being 1.2 million vehicles and over 200,000 km of roads in Sweden in 1967:

Ever been in Sweden or any of the Nordic countries for that matter ?

If you have you should know better than to compare them to us from a motoring sense.
If you haven't take a trip over and enjoy.

Muckka

If you want to see people driving on the right/wrong side of the road.

Get up early in the morning, hang around an airport, or busy tourism area which has a hotel nearby.

I remember year's ago around Bunratty in Clare the locals used to warn each other about the forgetful driver's you'll see driving early in the morning on the wrong side of the road.

Dromoland Castle had them driving out of the entrance now and again driving straight onto the wrong side of the road.

Blarney Castle in Cork and Killarney Kerry was another hot spot for drivers getting confused....

RayCun

Deleted User wrote: »

But the state did it: every distance sign in the state was, in fact, changed.

:rolleyes:

Changing distance signs can be phased in over a period of years. Distance signs have to be replaced anyway, so the additional expense is small.

Make a list of the changes that would be involved in switching road sides, and the costs of each change.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Deleted User wrote: »

Once again, 'everybody's out of step but our Johnny!' Time for Ireland to cop-on. It took this state until 2005 to change every road sign in this state from imperial to metric, and it was the same year that Met Éireann finally dropped Fahrenheit. Both of these lasted at least 20 years longer than they should have. But the state did it: every distance sign in the state was, in fact, changed. Aside from being safer, we should be able to have access to the greater economies of scale which allow left-hand drive cars to be cheaper.

I’ve been strolling around this planet for more than 30 years and can’t ever recall Met Éireann using fahrenheit. In my living memory, they have never used it for any of their public bulletins.

A 1985 news and weather broadcast, with celsius:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcYsMlvr5zk

RayCun

RayCun wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Changing distance signs can be phased in over a period of years. Distance signs have to be replaced anyway, so the additional expense is small.

Make a list of the changes that would be involved in switching road sides, and the costs of each change.

There's actually a nice easy-to-read, authoritative article above - just for you, again - discussing how this could be done in Ireland. Read it and come back with something more erudite than :rolleyes: like a good chap.

RayCun

Deleted User wrote: »

There's actually a nice easy-to-read, authoritative article above - just for you, again - discussing how this could be done in Ireland. Read it and come back with something more erudite than :rolleyes: like a good chap.

The article that says

Also, even after amending all the signs, traffic signals, IMS signs, loop detectors and bollards, we would then have to switch all of our 2.1 million cars, 32,500 public service vehicles, 719 school buses, 350,000 goods vehicles, 981 hearses, and three Lamborghinis (car not tractor) to right-hand drive.

doesn't mention changing road layouts, and doesn't estimate how much any of this would cost?

The one that says

Furthermore, the actual benefits of this would be an issue. While Sweden had a road safety and car network argument in 1967, Ireland already has one of the safest road networks in Europe (currently seventh in EU country rankings), so spending millions to bring about a road network change without any monetary or safety benefit would be difficult to justify.

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Richard Hillman

Would be a great excuse to jack up insurance costs

Rezident

Balanadan wrote: »

To be more aligned with our European friends. I certainly think so.

No. A terrible idea that would cause many crashes and lost lives. You think old people are going to change after driving that way for decades?


You know our "Europeans friends" (who want a hard border in Norn Iron) e.g. in Brussels when you are driving along on a straight road you must give right of way to someone joining your road if they are coming from the right!? Figure that out. And good luck expecting taxis etc. to adjust.


Congrats, that is one of the single most wrong things I have ever heard on Boards. And the bar has been set very high.

DS86DS

These pro-EU nutters are becoming a joke. Ireland should make an expensive and pointless switch over for what point exactly?

Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and large parts of Africa and the Caribbean also drive on the left. And many of those countries share physical borders with other countries. It is not just Ireland and the UK that drives on the left.

Some have speculated that it has many advantages, including the fact that having the steering wheel on the right means that the right hand which for the majority of people is their stronger hand is always on the steering wheel.

Why don't we have nude beaches in Donegal and Mayo just because the Europeans are doing it. Why don't we ban pint glasses in pubs just so we can become more European. Why don't we adopt this and that bla bla bla.

If you want to drive on the right, enjoy nude beaches and drink out of non-pint glasses or whatever else you want changed. ...then go and live in those countries and stop trying to annoy the rest of us.