Because over 70% of people are right handed will there be a global changeover to driving on the left?

Question

For several reasons driving on the left is safer for right handed people

When changing gear in a UK your left hand changes gear and your right hand stays on the steering wheel, (this is safer for right handed people, in the USA you hold the steering wheel with your left hand and change gear with your right hand.

Try mounting a bike in the USA and you will find yourself in the stream of traffic when getting on the bike, try mounting a bike in the UK is done from the sidewalk by right handed people.Perhaps a billion cyclists in right hand driving areas around the world are all risking their lives mounting their bike in traffic

Reversing in a USA car you must hold the steering wheel with your left hand and look over your right shoulder to look out of the rear window.

Right handed people who are also "right eyed" have the traffic coming toward them on their right in left hand driving areas

pj, so a right handed person should steer with the LEFT hand?

Governments should have had the guts to tell people right hand driving is wrong centuries ago

Amy,what evidence do you need about a right handed person driving with the LEFT hand?

Recent research shows 5 out of 6 people naturally use the right hand:

"A systematic study * of the distribution of manipulative skill has been carried out by Marian Annett and colleagues from the Department of Psychology at Leicester University. Annett and Kilshaw (1983) found that in a group of 1480 adolescents and adults, using a simple peg-moving task apparatus to assay hand skill, 82 % were more skilled with the right hand, 3% were equally skilled with each hand, and 15 % were more skilled with the left hand. When the disparity of skill between the two hands is plotted as a histogram, it becomes apparent that skill asymmetry is normally distributed: there is no clear separation into the two conventional handedness groups"

"A natural preference for the left hand in skilled tasks develops in as many as one individual in six. " Meaning of course that 5 out of 6 naturally use the right hand. (* Reproduced with permission of Leicester University UK

Answer 1

It is common sense for most people who are right handed to keep their right hand on the steering wheel. This is not rocket science. Governments made a mistake changing over to driving on the right.

Now it is embarrassing and difficult for them to change back to driving on the left.

Answer 2

The United States will never change to left side driving. Simply because it would be a logistical nigh mare. Think of the millions of people who have been driving on the right for more than 40 years and how difficult it would be to change that pattern. Think of all the billions of intersections. The interstate interchanges and ramps. The traffic lights. The road markings. Every single item must be changed and switched over night. Can you imagine the shere volume of accidents and not to mention the billions of dollars to even start to think about it. Plus if we did it Canada and Mexico would both have to do it then every country in South America would have to aswell since right sided roads cross our borders.
I am a right handed driver with a manual transmission here in the states and I have driven a manual in the Bahamas where they drive on the left. There is no benifit either way. If you drive a manual you shouldn't be shifting gears in that type of situation any way. I make it a point to never shift in the middle of an intersection or anyother time i might need two hands on the wheel. If people are stupid enough to not be able to be driving on the right side they should not be driving at all.
Plus just because a majority is doing something doesn't meen they are correct. The United States stands firm in its fight against left sided driving and strives to rid the world of that tyranny. :)

Answer 3

A nice idea, but the (literally!) billions of pounds involved make it almost a non-starter. The Brits have looked, several times at the viability of switching to driving on the right, but in a nation with one of the highest densities of cars in the world... is it really viable to ask everyone to buy a new one? Now multiply that by several million and you have the problem in the US. And that's before you've thought about changing the road signs, the road markings etc.

It's the same reason that some countries work in KM and some in miles - it's too late to change now.

There's a reason why we lefties are called "sinister"!

Answer 4

Sounds like this isn't a question. The US won't do this any time soon for several reasons. Top is insurance has way too many lobbiests and the change would create a huge increase in accidents and payouts for a few years for the learning curve. Driving actually becomes second nature such as riding a bike.
Also, the money it would cost to change infrastructure to support a change on the road would be way too high to justify this.

Answer 5

I think driving on the right was mainly brought about by Napoleon who was left handed and driving on the right suits left handed people; however governments have for 100s of years now prevented any discussion on this subject for two reasons;

1, It would be dangerous and expensive for everybody to change over to lhd driving, at least at first.

2 .. People do not easily admit making mistakes especially catastrophic mistakes like driving on the right

Answer 6

Not my experience.

Driving a manual shift vehicle on the left, as in the UK, requires that you are dextrous with your left hand. As you say, most people are righthanded, so it is more difficult to manage this.

My European friend found it fairly easy to adapt to UK driving with my automatic UK car, but had great difficulty when we had to hire a UK manual shift.

I learned and spent 20 years driving in UK, but after 10 years of oversesas driving, found it quite easy to make the change back to UK driving, but strange to have to operate the manual shift with my left hand.

Same applies to using sound system: selecting radio channels, inserting discs, tapes etc. Much easier if you have a free righthand if you are right handed, but that, necessarily means that your driving position must be on the lefthand side of the car, as in Europe.

Any idea how many people are left or right hand driving?

China is right hand, but most of the old British empire are still driving on the left, and that includes India and Pakistan. If a third of the world was under British rule, it makes for an awful lot of people driving on the left.

Answer 7

I am left-handed. I have driven in the UK without problem and I have driven on the right in continental Europe in cars with left hand drive and cars with right hand drive. Other than a few minutes of acclimatisation, there's no practical difference whatever.

Answer 8

Never going to happen McDonalds will never change there drive though.

Answer 9

Now I've heard everything. You're using being right handed as an excuse for your accident.? Wow!!

Answer 10

I'd like to know where you get your evidence from, and perhaps where I could find an fMRI study or two to support your theory as what you are saying sounds quite far from the truth.