Ya I see what your saying but our roads are made for LHD not RHD.

there's no special design for LHD or RHD roads. the road designs literally mirror each other (with the exception of different traffic signal devices, like stop signs being circular, yield signs looking different, etc).

accidents aren't caused by the wheel position. they're caused by the drivers judgement, or lack thereof. if you can't see traffic or pedestrians coming at you in a certain spot, it just makes sense not to drive on it.

It's just as well blocked if I'm directly opposite of a truck, SUV or van that's also turning left. Just because you're in a RHD vehicle when turning left, it doesn't mean you're going to take any more chances than being in a LHD vehicle. If anything, you're going to be even more cautious than the rest and wait until you know for sure the path is clear. If that means waiting an extra couple seconds, who really fucking cares?

What other safety issues does a RHD vehicle have on a LHD road? If you watch Top Gear when they're in cars originally built for RHD, yet are driving on LHD roads, you'll notice that like everyone else, they simply unbuckle and shift themselves over if they need to pay a toll or go through a drive-through. These aren't safety issues. Going to change lanes is no different than being in a LHD car. You use your mirrors and shoulder check like everyone else. If anything, when parallel parking on the side of the road, it's safer because you don't have to watch out for traffic when getting out of the car.

If a large portion of the world can get along fine with having LHD and RHD cars co-mingle with nary a problem, what's the safety issues and why would they be different here than anywhere else?

And so is the rest of Europe, but you don't see Britons getting into anymore accidents while driving on the mainland simply because they're in RHD vehicles...

and i don't think it's going to move here anyway, if you haven't registered any vehicles recently, they now ask you if the vehicle is RHD or not. i actually found this kind of funny haha.

that would suck to live in quebec

Canada post and dump trucks are RHD. not all but the ones i see around my neighbourhood are.

Wrong. The safest place to put the driver is closest to the center of the road. RHD countries have lanes that travel in the opposite direction to LHD countries. Wheel position does matter.

First of all, other than the points i mentioned, it is also less safe to execute a pass on a single lane hwy in a RHD than a LHD vehicle.

With regards to the co-mingling of cars, you imply that people can select either LHD or RHD as a vehicle option. Not true. 99.5% of the cars in a LHD country will be LHD and vice-versa. You don't see many issues because the problems only affect a minority of vehicles on the road.

Driving a RHD vehicle is like writing with a non-dominant hand. You can do it, but it's not ideal. Speaking as one of the few board members here who drives RHD and LHD vehicles on a regular basis, I can say that I occasionally have to orient myself by remembering to be closest to the center of the lane.

Which is the same idea here. Do you even think that RHD imports is going to account for more than 1% of total number of vehicle? :rolleyes:

So then don't pass on a single lane road? It's not that hard of a concept to understand.

You seem to have inadvertently stumbled upon an answer that applies to Canada just as well as whatever other example you were trying to refer to. :eek:

Why does driving closest to the center of the road matter? I can guage how far I am to the center line via the lane marker to my right, the mirror on my left, or just simply knowing the dimensions of my car. You always come up with the stupidest points to argue about on RS

So you've never had to move over to the right lane in a 2 lane road? What if there was a parked car? Sure the parked car isn't coming to you (relatively speaking) as fast as a car in the opposite lane, but it still poses a risk when passing. What do you do to make sure you don't hit it? You make sure it's safe first.

I switch between LHD and RHD a lot and I, too, find the need to orient myself with remembering to be closest to the center of the lane. I also find myself the need to orient myself with my underwear, when switching from boxer briefs to just regular boxers. It's quite risky but I usually spend 5 to 10 minutes adjusting my underwear until I'm sure that it's safe to proceed. [/scarcasm] If you drive RHD often enough, you shouldn't need to orient yourself like that. It should be second nature. Or maybe driving LHD can be like second nature

^You ever notice all those people that drift to the right, outta their lanes? Stick em all in a RHD car and watch how many people end up having head on's. Having them on the left side puts them closer to the opposing traffic, makes them less likely to drift into oncoming traffic, because its RIGHT NEXT to them, and they don't want to get smashed by that (and the fact that they think they're safe and still in their lane sometimes, just because their body is still "in the lane", while the car is already outside the lane). I'm not saying you, or the majority of people driving RHD cars, just the general population that doesn't seem to be so co-ordinated. lol

I dont think thats the case. I think the crown of the road causes people to drift to the right, as well as alignment settings. let go of the wheel and see what happens.

however, you do raise a good point about alignment settings. apparently cars are aligned to drift off the shoulder of a road, when no crowns for drainage exists (rare but im sure theres some roads like that out there). a RHD car might have its alignment settings tuned to drift to the left, since the left would be the shoulder in its home country.

I guess that's why Quebec stopped the imports of RHD cars, to keep the numbers low. It's not a total ban, no more new ones can be registered. It never used to be a problem because it was people importing a few british roadsters here and there but now, it's hundreds of RHD's a day coming in plus inexperienced drivers. I'm not really for or against this but I think a solution that'll appease both sides is special training and licensing from ICBC that allows you to drive a RHD vehicle.

Sorry man it don't affect me too much. As a getaway car with a manican(sp?) Its not going to work taking a slow corner and rolling out in clandestine.

probably some bloc guy thought he could say he was taking initiative to make the streets safer...

the arguing on this thread seems to be getting out of control, however I must agree that in some situations driving a RHD on LHD roads can be less convenient and requires more attention, however i dun think it should be banned just because of that.

ICBC studied accidents with RHD vehicles and found them 40% more likely to be involved in an accident.

I'm surprised BC has not banned them.

^ Sorry, but those results are flawed. As much as I hate RHD vehicles and the "jay-dee-em" mentality, the bottom line is there's no statistical difference in accident rates in Canada between LHD and RHD vehicles, which means the Quebec law isn't going to stand up.

If you narrow your results down to look for specific things, then you can make the numbers show whatever you want. This is why I never trust statistics when they're being used by a group to try and show their point of view.

With the exception of some diesel jeeps (Delicas, Hilux), the majority of the imported cars are high performance sports cars - skylines, supras, rx7, etc.

...and they are relatively cheap, which means young males (who statistically speed more) can afford them.

The real statistic should be if they actually cause more accidents relative to the target group - i.e compared to LHD sports cars driven by males under 30.

Exactly! Its so retarded, waiting to make a left turn at a busy intersection is like, suicide.

I have two idiot friends who drive old ass RHD skylines back in Vancouver and to be quite frank, they think they are "cool" doing it.

I didn't read the study, but are the results geared to accident stats of RHD in RHD systems vs LHD in LHD systems?
If so, I think the results miss what we're discussing here - what are the rates of RHD accidents in a LHD vehicular city and v.versa?

Exactly, and a young male that speeds is going to do it in any car, JDM or not. if he cant pick up a cheap jdm twin turbo, hes going to speed in his moms car, his beat up cavalier, etc. when you have something like RHD vehicles, you can simply group these types of people together. without RHD, these people are dispersed amongst all car types, i guess primarily around performance cars still like mustangs, 240's, DSM's, etc

the reason y most of those cars were banned is the bumper rule...bring it back and change it to a 30 year rule...problem solved...or anybody who has one has to make a left turn at a traffic light...there u go...everyone fails