5 ms·

"In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies... Furthermore, a

by m-i-l 11y ago

"In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies... Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse" I think this still applies today: the majority of people are right eye dominant and it makes sense having the dominant eye closer to the oncoming traffic, and the majority of people will find it easier to mount bicycles and motorcycles from the side of the road rather than the centre of the road. I wonder if there are any statistics on the safety implications of switching to driving on the right.

vonklaus 11y ago
> the majority of people are right eye dominant interesting, I did not know that. Wikipedia states 33%left, 66% right, and the balance having no difference. This might be part of the evolution of vision in humans. The brain takes inputs from both eyes and compiles them into your vision field, maybe there is an evolutionary reason that a strong and weak pair produce better results. > I wonder if there are any statistics on the safety implications of switching to driving on the right. I don't think there is any reasonable data for this. Driving in England and America likely can not be compared directly as the roads, driving test, culture and vehicle setup are different. Also, an individual who immigrates will likely be at higher risk for causing accidents as the entire system is foreign and they have been conditioned using a different one.
- baddox 11y ago
  > maybe there is an evolutionary reason that a strong and weak pair produce better results. It makes sense for some things. Perhaps the human vision system uses one eye to provide certain hints about precise alignment, in the same way that you close one eye when aiming a gun because you need to align the sights.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
On the other hand, by the same argument, why not have that slightly improved acuity applied to pedestrians, cyclists, and road signs, all of which are on the right when driving on the right side of the road?
mslot 11y ago
I regularly drive on both sides. The only difference I find is that the order of the pedals in a manual car makes less sense for left-hand drive. In right-hand drive you can put your left (gear) foot to the side and your right (throttle) foot locked against the side, which is more comfortable than putting your left foot underneath and keeping your right foot up. The differences in priority rules tick me off way more than the side of the road.
- brc 11y ago
  I have both LHD and RHD cars. I would say the placement of the pedals in relations to the footwell is something that varies a lot depending on the manufacturer and vehicle rather than 'sidedness'. A lot of people say changing gear with their right hand feels more natural. To be honest I don't think there is a lot of difference. If you're a competent driver the position in the he car shouldn't make for much difference.
  - phillc73 11y ago
    Growing up in Australia, and being left-handed, I thought changing gears with my left hand was completely natural. Now, after several years living and driving in continental Europe, I still find it slightly uncomfortable changing gears with my right hand, especially if in a hurry to do so. However, the oddest thing is that when returning to Australia I now find something like 90% of cars (excluding 4WDs) are automatic, so no changing of gears. While in Europe, the majority of cars are still manual. I do often turn on the windscreen wipers, when I mean to use the indicator, regardless of which country I'm in.
    - escherplex 11y ago
      Many moons ago on holiday with my folks on Barbados in the Caribbean a local rental outfit had a collection of old Oz MiniMokes available. Planning on a month's trip to Kiwiland the following October and wanting to drive a manual there, I decided to tool around the Island in a beat-up RHD Moke. Of course pedal configuration was the same but a mirror-image of gear selection was expected. Wrong. It was simply a task of envisioning the shifter in space and changing gears in the normal manner using the left instead of the right hand. But turning on the wipers when you wanted to signal a turn always takes some getting used to. And roundabouts (circles) or wide turns aren't problematic if you just simulate behavior in your head, remembering where you are, before executing your moves. Personally, I still find this fun.
bpyne 11y ago
No stats that I'm aware of. My observation is that people generally imagine disaster scenarios that do not come to pass when it comes to large traffic changes. Two short anecdotes to support the observation. 1) My wife and I visited Ireland for a vacation a few years back. Neither she nor I had driven on the left side previously. We drove around the southwest of Ireland for a week and a half w/o incident. Driving on the left side wasn't really a big issue. Pulling away from the curb was the biggest challenge, but it became "natural" after a day or so. It was much more difficult navigating very narrow roads with (it seemed) mere inches from a stone wall on the left and oncoming traffic on the right. Our situation was helped quite a bit by our familiarity with driving standard and familiarity with circulars (rotaries). Either of those factors would have made the situation much more difficult if we weren't. 2) Two years ago, several key roads in downtown Providence, RI (a state in the US) were switched from one to two-way. Everyone predicted a large increase in accidents. I'm unaware of any increase in accidents to date. Our largest traffic problems continue to be caused by road construction sites with poor signs, RI's overall inability to communicate effectively with signs, and college students from non-urban areas who walk into the street w/o looking and under the assumption that cars will just stop. Despite my skepticism of a switch to right side driving being a big issue, I fear that we won't see it any sooner than we will see the US finally switch to the metric system.

by m-i-l 11y ago

vonklaus 11y ago

> the majority of people are right eye dominant interesting, I did not know that. Wikipedia states 33%left, 66% right, and the balance having no difference. This might be part of the evolution of vision in humans. The brain takes inputs from both eyes and compiles them into your vision field, maybe there is an evolutionary reason that a strong and weak pair produce better results. > I wonder if there are any statistics on the safety implications of switching to driving on the right. I don't think there is any reasonable data for this. Driving in England and America likely can not be compared directly as the roads, driving test, culture and vehicle setup are different. Also, an individual who immigrates will likely be at higher risk for causing accidents as the entire system is foreign and they have been conditioned using a different one.

baddox 11y ago
> maybe there is an evolutionary reason that a strong and weak pair produce better results. It makes sense for some things. Perhaps the human vision system uses one eye to provide certain hints about precise alignment, in the same way that you close one eye when aiming a gun because you need to align the sights.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

On the other hand, by the same argument, why not have that slightly improved acuity applied to pedestrians, cyclists, and road signs, all of which are on the right when driving on the right side of the road?

mslot 11y ago

I regularly drive on both sides. The only difference I find is that the order of the pedals in a manual car makes less sense for left-hand drive. In right-hand drive you can put your left (gear) foot to the side and your right (throttle) foot locked against the side, which is more comfortable than putting your left foot underneath and keeping your right foot up. The differences in priority rules tick me off way more than the side of the road.

brc 11y ago
I have both LHD and RHD cars. I would say the placement of the pedals in relations to the footwell is something that varies a lot depending on the manufacturer and vehicle rather than 'sidedness'. A lot of people say changing gear with their right hand feels more natural. To be honest I don't think there is a lot of difference. If you're a competent driver the position in the he car shouldn't make for much difference.
- phillc73 11y ago
  Growing up in Australia, and being left-handed, I thought changing gears with my left hand was completely natural. Now, after several years living and driving in continental Europe, I still find it slightly uncomfortable changing gears with my right hand, especially if in a hurry to do so. However, the oddest thing is that when returning to Australia I now find something like 90% of cars (excluding 4WDs) are automatic, so no changing of gears. While in Europe, the majority of cars are still manual. I do often turn on the windscreen wipers, when I mean to use the indicator, regardless of which country I'm in.
  - escherplex 11y ago
    Many moons ago on holiday with my folks on Barbados in the Caribbean a local rental outfit had a collection of old Oz MiniMokes available. Planning on a month's trip to Kiwiland the following October and wanting to drive a manual there, I decided to tool around the Island in a beat-up RHD Moke. Of course pedal configuration was the same but a mirror-image of gear selection was expected. Wrong. It was simply a task of envisioning the shifter in space and changing gears in the normal manner using the left instead of the right hand. But turning on the wipers when you wanted to signal a turn always takes some getting used to. And roundabouts (circles) or wide turns aren't problematic if you just simulate behavior in your head, remembering where you are, before executing your moves. Personally, I still find this fun.

bpyne 11y ago

No stats that I'm aware of. My observation is that people generally imagine disaster scenarios that do not come to pass when it comes to large traffic changes. Two short anecdotes to support the observation. 1) My wife and I visited Ireland for a vacation a few years back. Neither she nor I had driven on the left side previously. We drove around the southwest of Ireland for a week and a half w/o incident. Driving on the left side wasn't really a big issue. Pulling away from the curb was the biggest challenge, but it became "natural" after a day or so. It was much more difficult navigating very narrow roads with (it seemed) mere inches from a stone wall on the left and oncoming traffic on the right. Our situation was helped quite a bit by our familiarity with driving standard and familiarity with circulars (rotaries). Either of those factors would have made the situation much more difficult if we weren't. 2) Two years ago, several key roads in downtown Providence, RI (a state in the US) were switched from one to two-way. Everyone predicted a large increase in accidents. I'm unaware of any increase in accidents to date. Our largest traffic problems continue to be caused by road construction sites with poor signs, RI's overall inability to communicate effectively with signs, and college students from non-urban areas who walk into the street w/o looking and under the assumption that cars will just stop. Despite my skepticism of a switch to right side driving being a big issue, I fear that we won't see it any sooner than we will see the US finally switch to the metric system.