A small hint to the modern UK - change to right hand traffic

The Swedes did it in late '60's...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving..._left_or_right

Note it say "long-term" and not associated with the switch-over.

ABC

 

...with a population below 10 million, and fewer than 2 million cars on the roads. There's nearly 15 times as many cars in the UK. Not to mention the number of roads (with attendant road signs, junctions designed for LHT, etc.)

 

Yes, yes but anything is possible if you really want it...
The problem here is the UK don't want it...
So it won't happen...

Ireland is in the same boat (but we are half way towards Europe - we use kms, km/hr, l/100km). I personally would love if we could switch to driving on the right like the rest of Europe. No government in their right mind would push for it as it would cost too much money and thus hurt them in the next election. And governments these days just live for the moment unlike the good old days of long-term strategy and sacrifice. The only way I could imagine it happening is if the EU would sponsor the switchover in the name of 'integration'.

 

I don't really mind spending half my time driving on the wrong side.
Heck, I am Dutch but been in the UK for so long now, I don't even know which side is the right side anymore..

The only time when it gets annoying is if you have to get out at a McDrive or parking garage, for sitting on the wrong side of the car. And the allignment needs to be adjusted a bit, or I am forever buying front right tyres..

 

Of course it won't happen. You seem to be implying that the UK does not want to switch based on simple stubbornness. The question - and what I was trying to point out - is the cost vs. benefit. The UK doesn't "want" to switch because the cost is huge, the benefit is highly debatable.

Switching over in a relatively unpopulated country with few vehicles and extensive land borders is one thing; on a densely populated island with many vehicles it's quite another. The UK could (should?) have switched in the 1930s, but probably after WW2 it was already too late.

The jingoistic argument about "it's always been like that" would not hold if a sensible cost/benefit analysis showed undisputable benefits way in excess of the certain huge costs. But what would they be?

 

Hey. It's safer driving on the left.

ABC

 

There is no logic for a change in the UK now.

If we had land borders with the rest of Europe, as the Swedes have, there would be some sense.

Suddenly having to switch sides of the road as you drive along is nuts.

But to get into or out of the UK you need to get out of the car and use other transport, ferry or tunnel. so it is easy to switch to driving on the right/left as the case may be.

The economic cost would be massive, every road sign in the country would need to be changed, the massively overloaded UK road system would be gridlocked for weeks whilst drivers tried to get to grips with it and minor accidents would go through the roof with knock on effects for car insurance.

For what benefit?

UK roads are the most overcrowded in Europe, a change would be disasterous in the short term and have few if any benefits in the long term.

Anyway, I guess nobody can answer my first question?

 

Is it!?

Who cares, I have had a lot of fun driving a local rental car with stick shift in London
and all around south England.

I'm only sorry that I haven't visited the mid- and northern parts of you beautiful islands.

 

Let's hope you or your family don't have to.

ABC