Should Ireland start driving on the right hand side?

thisonetaken

With brexit we will no longer be able to buy cars in the UK due to import tariffs making it too costly. Has the time has now come for Ireland to join the rest of the EU and most of the world in driving left hand drive cars and driving on the right side of the road. The EU would surely pay the costs of such a move as part of a brexit support package Ireland will be receiving.

colm_mcm

thisonetaken wrote: »

With brexit we will no longer be able to buy cars in the UK due to import tariffs making it too costly. Has the time has now come for Ireland to join the rest of the EU and most of the world in driving left hand drive cars and driving on the left side of the road. The EU would surely pay the costs of such a move as part of a brexit support package Ireland will be receiving.

We already drive on the left hand side of the road.

Carroller16

We already drive on the left.

punisher5112

If op you mean drive on the right.... Then no as this would be the stupidest thing that could ever be done....

This has been done to death.

Dr. Bre

Haha brilliant

salmocab

Well this is an entirely original thread.

thisonetaken

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Haha brilliant

Lol yeah I mean on the right hand side

MadYaker

So we'd all be sitting on the wrong side of our cars then? How would it work???

mosstin

thisonetaken wrote: »

Lol yeah I mean on the right hand side

Bless yourself before you post something like this.

not sure that you're completely left about this issue.

colm_mcm

Edited version makes even less sense.

bazz26

Didn't we have one of these threads only a few weeks back?

A waste of money for little or no gain that could be better spent on other things.

Mech1

Lets have a two year transition period.

Timberrrrrrrr

thisonetaken wrote: »

With brexit we will no longer be able to buy cars in the UK due to import tariffs making it too costly. Has the time has now come for Ireland to join the rest of the EU and most of the world in driving right hand drive cars and driving on the right side of the road. The EU would surely pay the costs of such a move as part of a brexit support package Ireland will be receiving.

Arent most cars in Ireland right hand drive?

My head hurts.

Timberrrrrrrr

Mech1 wrote: »

Lets have a two year transition period.

Drive on the left Monday, Wednesday, Friday and on the right Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Roads are quiet on a Sunday so make that a drivers choice

thisonetaken

bazz26 wrote: »

Didn't we have one of these threads only a few weeks back?

A waste of money for little or no gain that could be better spent on other things.

The gain is driving on the same side as vast majority of rest of world.
Makes it easier driving abroad, makes it easier for foreigners driving here.
Being able to buy cars from European countries which should bring down cost, especially with brexit putting an end to buying in the UK.

Also not a waste of money because as mentioned the EU would almost certainly foot the bill for that change.

SteM

Poll: Should we ban posters that keep threads about this subject?

Yes.
No.

salmocab

bazz26 wrote: »

Didn't we have one of these threads only a few weeks back?

A waste of money for little or no gain that could be better spent on other things.

Yes we did.

SteM

thisonetaken wrote: »

The gain is driving on the same side as vast majority of rest of world.
Makes it easier driving abroad, makes it easier for foreigners driving here.
Being able to buy cars from European countries which should bring down cost, especially with brexit putting an end to buying in the UK.

Bring down the cost of bring cars in from Europe? How much would it cost to change the driving infrastructure in this country? Every motorway entry and exit road etc.

SteM

thisonetaken wrote: »

Also not a waste of money because as mentioned the EU would almost certainly foot the bill for that change.

Who says they will, or are you using an assumption to support your argument? Why would the EU feel the need to foot the cost?

colm_mcm

thisonetaken wrote: »

The gain is driving on the same side as vast majority of rest of world.
Makes it easier driving abroad, makes it easier for foreigners driving here.
Being able to buy cars from European countries which should bring down cost, especially with brexit putting an end to buying in the UK.

Also not a waste of money because as mentioned the EU would almost certainly foot the bill for that change.

There’s still 1/3 of the worlds population that drives on the left to be fair.

bazz26

thisonetaken wrote: »

The gain is driving on the same side as vast majority of rest of world.
Makes it easier driving abroad, makes it easier for foreigners driving here.
Being able to buy cars from European countries which should bring down cost, especially with brexit putting an end to buying in the UK.

We are an island nation that will soon share a land border again with Britain whom we do most of our trade with. It's not as if we are a country on the continent surrounded by land borders of other countries that drive on the other side of the road. And the last time I looked there are plenty of foreigners living here who have coped with driving here, the same way Irish people who move to foreign countries cope with driving there.

How have we coped for decades up to this point? If Brexit wasn't happening would your arguments for all this still be relevant? Britain is only leaving the EU, it's not getting up and moving location, it's still the nearest neighbouring country that you drive through from Ireland.

As for the price of cars, do you really think RHD vehicles are only made for us or the UK? The UK will still buy RHD cars so nothing will change around that other than maybe the cost to them. Also Irish tax on cars is what makes them more expensive here, pre tax prices in Ireland are some of the lowest in the EU. What about all the entrances and exits of buildings that would have to be changed? What about all the roads and motorways that would require serious redesign? You want the EU to pay for all that just because Britain is leaving the EU?

The benefits just don't outway the costs involved.

Pronto63

What would happen as you drive over the "soft" border?
Would there be some kind of switchback bridge/junction just outside Newry?

bazz26

Na, there will be a replacement RHD car waiting for you just over the border, you just get into that and drive on, then switch back to your LHD car when coming back. Sure the EU will pay for all that too.

Charles Babbage

Pronto63 wrote: »

What would happen as you drive over the "soft" border?
Would there be some kind of switchback bridge/junction just outside Newry?

In the North, nationalists would drive on the right and unionists would still use the left, like the Falkland islanders during the Argentinian occupation.

That being be case you wouldn't need to worry until you got near Banbridge.

koppy

Never understood why someone would think that this would be a good idea.

SteM

koppy wrote: »

Never understood why someone would think that this would be a good idea.

So we can import a rake of cheap diesels from mainland Europe. The reasoning is sound

Pronto63

bazz26 wrote: »

Na, there will be a replacement RHD car waiting for you just over the border, you just get into that and drive on, then switch back to your LHD car when coming back. Sure the EU will pay for all that too.

RHD Porsche 911 for me please!

MadYaker

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Drive on the left Monday, Wednesday, Friday and on the right Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Roads are quiet on a Sunday so make that a drivers choice

You ever driven in India? That's literally what it's like. We spent a good few mins watching the motoway trying to figure out which side we were supposed to be driving on. Cars going both ways on both sides of the "motorway", big buses coming straight at you in the pitch dark with no lights on and 20 lads on the roof. Never again.

bazz26

There is a certain organisation/logic to the chaos on Indian roads. The locals know it but fecked if I would.

MrMusician18

I know this has been done to death on this forum before, but what topic hasn't?

So yes, OP it's a good idea, just that the practicalities of implementation of such a project are extremely difficult and costly. What's the gain? Make it easier to import from the continent and easier for tourists doesnt seem like game changing benefits to me.

Firstly there's the reengineering of all the motorways and in particular, junctions

All signage would have to be turned.

All the existing stock on the roads would be unsuited to the system and there would be an immediate destruction of wealth - all relatively new RHD existing in the country would need to be exported at a huge discount and hundreds of thousands of older but perfectly good cars would be scrapped.

Then there's the human cost -such a project would undoubtedly lead to a huge increase in road fatalities.

The time for this, if there was to be a change was just after WW2. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen as it was generally government policy to erase the British legacy in Ireland or do opposite of what the British were doing in that period.

But they didn't. And so driving on the left is hard baked into Irish infrastructure now. Maybe when we get fully autonomous vehicles we might see a change, but would it even matter then?

biko

OP have closed their account but we can keep chatting until it gets boring.


Considering the RoI physically borders UK and most car traffic is between RoI and UK, it would be pretty stupid to forgo UK to drive on the same side as countries far away.

MadYaker

So how does the border between say India and China work? Do they just slow the traffic right down and do a changeover? I guess there's probably not many cars?

Charles Babbage

MadYaker wrote: »

So how does the border between say India and China work? Do they just slow the traffic right down and do a changeover? I guess there's probably not many cars?

not many cars, becasue it is mostly at 7000m in the Himalayas!



Thai borders are good examples, or China/Hong Kong.

Lewis_Benson

Yes, let's start from 9am monday morning.

biko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52RfAiZlws

Cee-Jay-Cee

OP how about you have a think of what it would entail to change to driving on the RHS of the road and come back to us with your answer.

For a start all motorway junctions woukd run the wrong way and cannot be changed, every single signpost in the country would have to be moved to the other side of the road or turned around, ticket barriers, drive-thrus etc etc all would no longer work. Couple that with the number of accidents that would happen daily due to people forgetting etc and finally the border would present another challenge where you would require an actual hard border check point style interchange. Now think of all those things and come back to us with whether it’s the most stupid ridiculous dangerous idiotic idea that will never happen for the very reasons I outlined above along with many more I’ve forgotten.

Timberrrrrrrr

MadYaker wrote: »

You ever driven in India? That's literally what it's like. We spent a good few mins watching the motoway trying to figure out which side we were supposed to be driving on. Cars going both ways on both sides of the "motorway", big buses coming straight at you in the pitch dark with no lights on and 20 lads on the roof. Never again.

Yep! And the "might has right" rule is scary as fcuk

MadYaker

We saw so many bad crashes as well, or the aftermath at least. Id say the road death statistics would make for some eye popping reading, if they even record them.

sk8board

It’s a nonsense idea.
Sweden changed in the 60s, but for obvious reasons and an era with a small fraction of the cars, which is about the most recent example I’d say.
Even then they gave years planning it and did it all one night - well worth googling it!
They had a curfew and stopped all traffic at midnight, unwrapped all the signage and then allowed cars back at 6am. Utter carnage until all the old cars were replaced

Crock Rock

Jesus tonight. Even in my short time on this website I've seen this 100's of times.

The UK isn't our only source of cars. Peugeot are sourced form France, Opel from Germany, etc.

Cars are made in the aforementioned factories specifically for the UK and Irish markets (and the Maltese and Cypriot market too). The UK have very little indigenous car manufacturing left anyway, so they are importing their cars from mainland Europe too. The only difference is that we will still have a trade deal with the EU, they won't. They'll be more fucked than us!

BTW, Japan drives in the left in RHD cars, a trade deal is in the pipeline (if not already implemented) with the EU. Good quality Hyundai and Nissan cars!

Phileas Frog

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

For a start all motorway junctions woukd run the wrong way and cannot be changed

Qué? On ramps become off ramps and vice versa. Easily changed

Crock Rock

Phileas Frog wrote: »

Qué? On ramps become off ramps and vice versa. Easily changed

Exactly, we run that gas of the electricity and the electricity off the gas.
What can possib-lie go wrong?

I think the way they're angled or curved may not necessarily allow them to be simply reversed and repurposed at the click of a finger.

Does anyone have a solid proposal that would work?
In Iceland and Sweden when they switched, they took everyone off the road and only allowed essential users on the road at the time, back then in what would have been a very sparsely-populated country, it worked (somewhat) well, here, it'd be a disaster with a country that's awake 24/7/365.

Crock Rock

If we switch to driving on the right millions of people will be using the correct motorway lane overnight

Atlantic Dawn

Could we not just make dual controls mandatory that way we would be future proofed...

Cee-Jay-Cee

It worked ok in Sweden because stupidly enough their cars were already LHD even though they drove on the left so when the switch over happened they were now driving on the correct side of the road for their cars.

Here, buses and bus stops would also have to be changed as the doors would be on the wrong side.

People can put forward as many arguments for it as they wish but it’s never going to happen as there simply is absolutely no need for it to happen. RHD cars are readily available and always will be as the UK will still need cars regardless of being in the EU or not and cars for the irish market are made on the same assembly lines as UK cars.

Also many Japanese companies are switching their production back to japan but have a huge market in the UK and Ireland and that’s not going to change.

salmocab

Phileas Frog wrote: »

Qué? On ramps become off ramps and vice versa. Easily changed

On and off ramps are engineered differently with different lengths. Then places like M50 at the red cow have really specific engineering due to the complexity of the layout.