Is it time to change to left hand drive

Shefwedfan · 26-01-2018 11:29pm #1

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

Del2005 · 26-01-2018 11:33pm

The whole road network would need to be redesigned and rebuilt to for driving on the right, so it'll never happen.

biko · 26-01-2018 11:33pm

When the only countries between us and the continent are RHD and most cars we buy are from UK, then it kinda makes sense to stay RHD.
I see no argument that seems valid.
We don't pay premium for RHD
Most/all manufacturers make RHD and LHD cars, they don't charge extra for RHD.
The European market won't happen, most Irish will still go to UK.

SCOOP 64 · 26-01-2018 11:34pm

Hope we would never be arsed to do it.

elperello · 26-01-2018 11:40pm

http://realscandinavia.com/this-day-in-history-swedish-traffic-switches-sides-september-3-1967/

Sweden did it over 50 years ago.

We could do it but not without cross border co-ordination with NI.

PixelTrawler · 26-01-2018 11:47pm

Our dual carriage way and motorway system is designed for left hand exiting. Itll never happen.

ED E · 26-01-2018 11:50pm

Give it a while and we'll all be in Autos, then it'll be a flick of a switch. Much simpler than H Day was.

Indricotherium · 26-01-2018 11:57pm

PixelTrawler wrote: »

Our dual carriage way and motorway system is designed for left hand exiting. Itll never happen.

I can't think of a motorway junction that would cause huge problems if it were reversed.

colm_mcm · 26-01-2018 11:57pm

Imagine the UK buying all their clocked Focus and Passats back!

doolox · 26-01-2018 11:57pm

And it was back in 1967 when there was a lot less traffic on the roads in those days and most drivers were sober industrious middle aged men, not like today where there is a huge increase in traffic and all types of people on the road of highly variable abilities. Then you have the problem of the present day fleet being all RHD. I have never driven an RHD car on the right like people do when they ferry to France and would not imagine it would be easy except in leisurely holiday for a week or two. I would not like to try it in a stressful time critical commute with a host of other commuters around me and have to do it for possibly 5 or 6 years until its time to change cars.

Just the hint of such a changeover would bring the 2nd car market crashing to a halt as people would wait to get a LHD car after the change over.

The roads would all have to be redesigned and re signposted literally overnight, as I recall from an article about it the Swedes had to install new signage covered in black plastic until the very night of changeover and then all traffic was stopped at midnight. Some time later cars were allowed to resume their journeys on the right side of the road with army lorries leading the way at reduced speed limits and a lot of extra surveillance for a number of days. A huge army of council workers and other public sector workers were drafted in to change the black plastic covers from one side of the road to the other and it took a few hours to do while no moving traffic was allowed.

You could not do that today on Irelands traffic choked roads going 24 hrs a day.

Mantis Toboggan · 27-01-2018 12:00am

Would be fantastic, the second hand market would be huge. We're European after all, this is something we should be taking a long term view on.

colm_mcm · 27-01-2018 12:03am

They’re only after doing up the McDonalds drive-thru near me. They’d have to change it around if we changed over.

PixelTrawler · 27-01-2018 12:05am

Indricotherium wrote: »

I can't think of a motorway junction that would cause huge problems if it were reversed.

It would need modeling though because you accelerate down an on ramp. Surely thats a design factor. Im not sure the experience is exactly the reverse. The exact speed you are at at a point on a curve could differ.

listermint · 27-01-2018 12:10am

India is right hand drive and has population over a billion.

Levels out your country arguments somewhat..

Del2005 · 27-01-2018 12:14am

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Would be fantastic, the second hand market would be huge. We're European after all, this is something we should be taking a long term view on.

The price of a 2nd hand car on the continent is usually higher than here. Price a 5 year old car here vs France, the market may be bigger but there are no savings. Ireland and the UK with age registration plates have cheaper 2nd hand cars than countries that do not have age registration plates.

mickdw · 27-01-2018 12:17am

PixelTrawler wrote: »

Indricotherium wrote: »

I can't think of a motorway junction that would cause huge problems if it were reversed.

It would need modeling though because you accelerate down an on ramp. Surely thats a design factor. Im not sure the experience is exactly the reverse. The exact speed you are at at a point on a curve could differ.

Would certainly need looking at but might not be such a huge issue.

mickdw · 27-01-2018 12:17am

PixelTrawler wrote: »

Indricotherium wrote: »

I can't think of a motorway junction that would cause huge problems if it were reversed.

It would need modeling though because you accelerate down an on ramp. Surely thats a design factor. Im not sure the experience is exactly the reverse. The exact speed you are at at a point on a curve could differ.

Would certainly need looking at but might not be such a huge issue.

ankles · 27-01-2018 12:19am

Would be some fun crossing the border on the M1

Stephen15 · 27-01-2018 12:20am

We'd likely have a situation similar to the 3rd September 1967 in Sweden when they switched from driving on the left hand side of the road to the right.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

It certainly is an interesting idea but I think one that would be impractical in this day and age if it was to have been done it should have been 50+ years ago there's too many cars on the road to change.

The main issue though I would see is buses as you need to buy an all new fleet for DB and BE and private operators wouldn't be too happy either as passengers would have to get off facing the road if they continued using the current fleet so a left hand drive fleet with doors on the right would be needed.

27-01-2018 12:28am

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.

Pretty interesting bridge solutions instead
https://newatlas.com/pearl-river-necklace-bridge/15679/

Candlemania · 27-01-2018 12:52am

PixelTrawler wrote: »

Our dual carriage way and motorway system is designed for left hand exiting. Itll never happen.

It is possible - on the continent you exit to the right from the slower lane (everything is mirrored: the faster and slower lane, the driving wheel; except for gas and clutch pedals- thank God

), so that's not a problem. The problem is, as doolox noticed, how to change the fleet.

It's not just a matter of turning the signs around. All the signs (think of those big motorway signs) and traffic lights would have to be transferred to the other side of the road.

mikeecho · 27-01-2018 1:30am

We should do a trial run, who's up for it

ðŸ˜႒

wonski · 27-01-2018 1:32am

This was done in Asia recently. Overnight

Cocobongo · 27-01-2018 1:45am

Del2005 wrote: »

The price of a 2nd hand car on the continent is usually higher than here. Price a 5 year old car here vs France, the market may be bigger but there are no savings. Ireland and the UK with age registration plates have cheaper 2nd hand cars than countries that do not have age registration plates.

+1 - not sure about the brand new cars, but used cars are way more expensive than here, although the insurance is nowhere near(*most of the EU countries) the cost here or UK, so i guess that levels it out.

Atlantic Dawn · 27-01-2018 1:59am

They said the Euro would lower the price of cars, it didn't. We are better off staying as we are at this stage, costs would be in the tens of billions to replace existing fleet and roads.

Random Bloke · 27-01-2018 2:05am

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.

feargale · 27-01-2018 2:50am

Allover the world small countries tend to adopt RHD or LHD as the case may be according to the system existing in a bigger, dominant country that has a land border with them. Thus Gibraltar follows Spain, Belize follows Central America and Nepal follows India. The change will never happen here while Northern Ireland is part of the UK and while the UK as usual stays out of step with the world at large.

bazz26 · 27-01-2018 3:01am

Pointless venture with little to gain imo given our nearest neighbours are either via a land or sea border and drive on the same side as ourselves. It would be totally different if we were situated on the Continent and shared land borders with countries who drove on the other side.

Indricotherium · 27-01-2018 9:16am

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

They said the Euro would lower the price of cars, it didn't. We are better off staying as we are at this stage, costs would be in the tens of billions to replace existing fleet and roads.

But the existing fleet is 99% replaced every ten years or so anyway?

colm_mcm · 27-01-2018 9:39am

Indricotherium wrote: »

But the existing fleet is 99% replaced every ten years or so anyway?

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

TrailerBob · 27-01-2018 9:42am

Between Japan, India, Australia, S.A, and us, there's more than enough market for rhd, but the problem is production of market specific cars. Euro spec are different to the others for emissions control and tax implications. Models produced for those other markets in rhd simply never get here bar the odd import. (Toyota innova, and 78 landcruiser for example). Most cars we have are specific variants to the UK & IRL market

Essentially as long as the UK stays rhd, so will we..

Is it time to change to left hand drive

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