Tuesday, 03 November, 2009

1. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @12:50pm:

   That's pretty amazing. "Thank Gawd" that Canada didn't follow the British left side of the road ways!
2. By Evil Klown. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @12:52pm:

   ... and accident rates went down in the year that followed.

   
   Sorry, I don't buy it.
3. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @12:59pm:

   I wonder how Samoa did when they switched this year?
4. By Don Coyote. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @01:12pm:

   "Thank Gawd" that Canada didn't follow the British left side of the road ways!
   
   Yes, we figured we didn't need our sword arms waving in the traffic. Although driving on the right side does give left-handers a road-rage jousting or sword-fighting advantage. You have to love the English for their quaint anachronisms.
5. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @01:36pm:

   @Evil Klown
   
   Why don't you buy that accident rates went down? Why would or wouldn't they?
6. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @01:41pm:

   On 7 September of this year, Samoa stopped driving on the right and start driving on the left.
7. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @02:13pm:

   I remember seeing this on the news way back when it happened. I think it was the inspiration for the Jimi Hendrix line "The traffic lights, they turn blue tomorrow".
8. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @02:37pm:

   Switching sides is the sort of thing you would expect from the French, not the Swedes.
9. By Evil Klown. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @03:03pm:

   Why don't you buy that accident rates went down? Why would or wouldn't they?

   
   It just seems to me that if you've been driving on one side for a long time and then switch to the other side, it's a major snake-handling.
   
   I've heard peeps describe vacationing in places that use the other side and it's all they can do to keep from crashing their rental car (and some have crashed.) Therefore, if EVERYONE does it at once, my vision is a total cluster-circus. I have no proof ... I just don't buy it, that's all.
10. By Evil Klown. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @03:10pm:

    Of course, now that I rethink that, it is possible that everyone was so freaked out for a while that they drove with EXTRY caution and the rates went down. That sounds feasible ... I might buy that.
11. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @03:19pm:

    They built busses with doors on both sides already years before.
12. By R I C H A R D I N C A L I F O R N I A. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @03:44pm:

    Seems pretty light for 4:50AM.
13. By Shannon. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @04:09pm:

    A few years ago, I remember reading a Scientific American article about a study done in China on relatively uncontrolled, very high volume vehicle traffic. The study came about because the accident rates on "poorly" regulated traffic were counterintuitively low.
    
    
    I recall one of the reasons the study cited for this puzzling lack of bloody carnage was that drivers are forced to be extra attentive and slow down to avoid accidents. Thus, little driving on autopilot while multitasking and farting around with the radio.
    
    So, Evil Klown, I think you may have hit on something with the extry caution.
14. By Blue. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @05:01pm:

    I don't think they drove with extra caution. I think they were too frightened to drive at all.
15. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @07:09pm:

    The change over may have gone smoothly and the accident rate may have gone down, but the long term effects on Swedish society have been entirely negative as documented by Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church.
16. By . Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @07:34pm:

    @Evil Klown
    Oh, good points. I thought maybe you knew something about left vs right driving safety that made you doubt that switching would increase safety.
    
    Good, I can continue believing that right-side driving is far, far superior to that left-side nonsense.
17. By Blue. Comment posted 03-Nov-2009 @08:24pm:

    LandStander - you might call it nonsense, but you won't get very far over here if you insist on it. Not in an uncompressed format at least.
18. By Dave (TDC). Comment posted 04-Nov-2009 @02:39am:

    "I can continue believing that right-side driving is far, far superior to that left-side nonsense."
    
    Why, there is NO intrinsically better side to drive upon. Every country used to drive on the left so a rider’s sword arm could come to play if meeting an oncoming foe.
    So why did it change? Simple, Napoleon was left handed and thought he should have the advantage so he changed the side in all the countries he conquered. That is the only reason.
19. By . Comment posted 04-Nov-2009 @10:22am:

    Evil, why don't you just say what you really think, that it's all a liberal plot...

Original content © 2009, John Walkenbach