Filed under: Euro, First Drive
Irish politician wants country's drivers to move right
We don't mean moving to the right ideologically, mind you. Senate leader Donie Cassidy wants Ireland to consider changing which side of the road people drive on. Like England, Ireland drives on the left side of the road, which might be a problem for an increasing number of people working in or visiting the country. The growing workforce migrates in large part from other parts of continental Europe. Similarly, Americans make up a good number of the tourists visiting Ireland. The common denominator is that both of those groups drive on the right side of the road in their native lands. By switching sides, Cassidy believes that the number of accidents involving visitors not accustomed to the left-side arrangement could be reduced. Conveniently, he doesn't mention the potential driver error scenarios facing an entire Irish population that has only ever driven on the left if it's forced to summarily change sides to cater to visitors. Unsurprisingly, there's opposition to his idea. The local automobile association calls it "completely impractical," for example. Cassidy, possibly realizing that his idea might fall flat, has a Plan B. This week, he suggested imposing lower speed limits on drivers visiting from right-driving nations, which could create an entirely different mess. After all, if the number of foreign workers and tourists is big enough to warrant specific driving legislation, slapping them all with a lower speed limit is going to put a lot of slowpoke out-of-towners on the roads. Here's a novel idea: visitors should adapt to the country they're driving in, instead of making the country adapt to them. And if, as a tourist, you're not comfortable with the left-side-drive arrangement, do yourself (and everyone else) a favor: don't drive.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Steve Levin 3:11PM (2/10/2008)
It's not as crazy as it seems. Belgium performed this transition back in the 1970s, IIRC.
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Dazza 8:57AM (2/11/2008)
Belgium switched to right-hand road usage in the 19th century. The last two European countries to convert to driving on the right were Sweden in 1967 and Iceland in 1968.
Chaz 3:11PM (2/10/2008)
It's a silly proposal, but FWIW, I would argue that there are dramatic differences between driving styles among LHD countries, many with more drastic effects than the wheel swap. Sure it take a bit to get used to the switch, especially with a manual gear change, but it takes more to adapt to the aggressive driving style in say Rome or Tel Aviv if one's from somewhere like North Carolina. (Don't misconstrue this please, I use this example because when I drove around NC, mostly in the Triangle area, and it was an absolute pleasure, very courteous drivers...go Tarheels!).
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Harrison 3:12PM (2/10/2008)
Hmm...I'm not Irish, but am I the only one who sees the potential political strife over this?
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f3rg 3:16PM (2/10/2008)
Compromise: America adopts the Metric system, the rest of the world drives on the right side of the road.
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DIRETTORE 4:45PM (2/10/2008)
* f3rg - Done Deal!
Think long term people. Eventually, this will happen. As we struggle to save energy & time, it only makes sense for manufactures to research, develop & make a common driveline.
Insurance, maintenance, parts, repairs, etc.
Since over 3/4 of the world is LHD it only makes sense to swich. Its simply a matter of time & is a bullet which must be bit today, tomorow, 50 years. The sooner we do it, the better for everyone.
The Metric System is another perfect example!
Who is the US largest trading partner? Thats right, the Canucks. Where will the new Camaro & many other vehicles be built? Where will the New Cadillac & Corvettes be sold? Globally & especially Europe. Most of the world is Metric. It a far more accurate, easier to calculate & understand & user friendly system. This too will come & for every day of its delay means greater consumption of energy, resources, time, $, etc.
Think of the poor mechanics which must face redundancy having to have multiple sets of tools to perform the same task?
Check these excellent historical references to see the origins of traffic directionality.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=traffic+directionality
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=right+hand+drive+history
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=left+hand+drive+history
turbo-quattro 3:27PM (2/10/2008)
note: i think the title of this should have been "Irish politician wants country's drivers to move left." Although I know you are referring to the car moving onto the left side of the road, the picture makes it seems like you are reffering to the position of the driver in the car.
anyways, the problems i see with this:
1)the entire country has RHD cars. there would be quite a number of cars driving on the left side of the road with RHD cars for a long time until the number of new cars starts to outnumber old cars. This would take many, many years for the RHD cars to phase out.
2) Do they just expect everyone to wake up morning and all switch to driving on the other side of the road? People will forget, there will be bad accidents. Plus when is the exact moment that they make the change? There are always people on the roads.
3) Road signs...they will all be on the wrong side of the road. And it would be pretty much impossible to put up all of the new signs instantaneously.
I do agree that since the world is becoming less and less separated because of how technology allows to communicate and move freely around the world(more so than before, and probably even more in the future) we need to move to much more standardized systems.
I think that measurement systems will probably become standardized sometime in the future, and we will all speak one universal language. So, we will have to have everything else be more standardized, like have everyone drive on the same side of the road.
Although I do see this as something that will happen/will need to happen, I dont know exactly how such an endeavor will be executed.
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Andrew 3:28PM (2/10/2008)
I could deal with that.
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Mr. Blake 3:32PM (2/10/2008)
Part of the charm of travel is experiencing the differences of another country. If everyone adapts to everyone else, what differences are left to enjoy?
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James 3:33PM (2/10/2008)
Guys... has everyone forgotten about Northern Ireland?
N.I. has, for all its strife through the troubles, remained a part of the UK. And the UK has no plans to switch. The NI / ROI border is completely open and a real mesh of minor and major roads.
Every single one of them would have to have some mind bending interchanger. And just switching to help new immigrants would be at the expense of the many people who cross the border every day for work, leisure, family or other reasons.
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Franz 4:15PM (2/10/2008)
Very good point! I also fail to see what the big deal is: I'm from Jamaica, and we drive on the left. The majority of tourists visiting Jamaica are from the US and I personally haven't seen or heard of any instances where any US tourists had accidents because of the left/right transition. I'm sure there might be a few instances but I've never heard it... and my family's business is Tourism.
Also, I spend most of my time in the US and I've never had a problem making the switch whenever I travel back and forth. I think it's ridiculous to expect a whole nation to have to cope with a change like that to benefit Tourists. And what the hell is gonna happen to all those RHD cars already in Ireland? Who's gonna pay for new LHD rides for everybody? This is a stupid idea if you ask me.
Nick 3:42PM (2/10/2008)
I think they should phase it in over a number of weeks :-)
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MixiM 3:50PM (2/10/2008)
What he said!!!
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David W. 3:50PM (2/10/2008)
lol if that happened I would be at a loss :P I suck at conversions :(
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Robert Ryan 3:53PM (2/10/2008)
The most insane suggestion from a politician.
the only country that switched to driving on the other side was Sweden in the 1970's, as its neighbours drove on the opposite side and it was joined to them by Land not water..
People in Rome and the rest of Continetal Europe drive on the same side of the road as you do in the US.
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C'est Raoul 3:54PM (2/10/2008)
They did the switch decades ago in Sweden I think (or was Norway or Finland? or several of them). I am not sure. I can't imagine the mess. As one said above, you would still have the steering wheels on the wrongly side. Driving on the other side of the road is not such a pb, except immediately after switching. But I see a major pb switching drivers to newer cars. It's a mess to drive manual and switch side inside the car. I remember open the door each time I wanted to change gear when I first drive a british car.
As one said, some would just forget (drunks), and the head to head accidents would be quite common.
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rgseidl 3:55PM (2/10/2008)
The cost overhead of switching an entire developed country from RHD to LHD is prohibitive these days. Not only do drivers have to adapt and eventually, purchase LHD vehicles, you also have to move every single sign and redo every single road marking. And all that for basically no economic gain whatsoever.
Here's something that might address Ireland's problems a little better: for a limited period of time, give auto manufacturers fiscal incentives to sell RHD versions of their products fitted with automated transmissions of one type or another (e.g. manumatic, dual clutch, AT, CVT, ECVT). This would reduce the learning curve for those moving to Ireland from a LHD country and, may also find favor with some of the locals.
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Peter 4:04PM (2/10/2008)
Where did hear or read that? As far as i know belgians have always driven on the right and i should know, being belgian. Please get your facts wright when placing a comment.
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DKB_SATX 4:09PM (2/10/2008)
I've never had a problem with driving in the UK, except for trying to find an on-ramp for the highway to Birmingham when I was in London, and that would've been the same issue on either side of the road. I was always driving a RHD car with the gearshift to my left, so while I had to adjust to the location of the gearshift I was at least reminded by my position in the car that they do things differently there.
The typical problems I've heard about involve people visiting the UK (or UK citizens visiting The Continent) with their own car. So, you're in a car set up for driving on the opposite side of the road with nothing intrinsic to remind you that when you make turns you need to think about which lane to take, and roundabouts go the opposite way than you expect.
Never mind the fact that most of my fellow Americans have a hemorrhage at the very sight of a roundabout... at least Texans do.
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sw 4:11PM (2/10/2008)
For every bill a politician tries to pass into law, there should be a check box to never allow them to work as a politician ever again if their ideas are completely retarded.
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