If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#211
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
Mark Brader:
All right, try it yourself. Google on "most populous countries" ... 1. China 1,286,975,468 2. India 1,049,700,118 Left 3. United States 290,342,554 ... Miguel Cruz: For this to make much sense we'd need data on how many people in these countries actually drive. So you're telling Lynn Gianni that she asked the wrong question. Those numbers were a response to her posting doubting my statement that driving on the right is clearly dominant worldwide by *any* measure. -- Mark Brader, Toronto | "It was too crazy to be true, | and too crazy to be false." --Tom Clancy My text in this article is in the public domain. |
#212
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...
"Mark Brader" wrote in message ... No, if you actually look at the statistics, you find that the right is far more common by all measures. All of the Americas, all of continental Europe, all of the former Soviet Union and China, and most of Africa uses the right. While there are, of course, a number of populous or otherwise important countries that drive on the left, all of them are either island countries of have Indian Ocean coastline -- not a large part of the world. India is rather large as I recall and they drive on the left as does Pakistan. In Africa Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Somaliland, Malawi, Botswana and Lesotho In Asia Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand drive on the left Finally as an exercise for the reader there is one US territory where they drive on the left. The virgin islands of course, Ed in Australia I wonder how many people know which it is ? Driving on the left is somewhat more common for trains than for road traffic, but that's a separate question. I've seen no evidence to suggest that either is superior. There really is no significant advantage to one or the other, provided that *everything* is correspondingly reversed. For example, it would be idiotic for a country that drives on the left to allow drivers to turn *right* on red allowed after stopping. Nobody has actually done that, but there are other such asymmetrical situations where countries have used right-of-way laws that would make more sense if they drove on the other side. Actually I dont recall coming across the turn right on red rule in Europe, it seems to be a US thing Keith |
#213
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
|
#214
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
"Lynn Guinni" wrote in message ... I doubt the benefit would be all that significant. Little other than autos would be affected, and even them not so much. Most autos are manufactured in the country in which they are sold. Moot point in any case. It ain't gonna happen. Wrong. If you want to consider things in a wider context i.e. most cars that are sold in Europe are probably built in Europe and most cars sold in N.America are built in N.America. Then this is probably true. However it certainly isn't true in Europe. Cars come from all over and from several different countries. e.g. In the UK if you buy a BMW it will have been built in Germany, if you buy a Renault it will have been built in France. Both of these countries drive on the opposite side of the road to that of the market they are selling to. I think the point you were trying to make is the RHD cars are mostly made in countries which drive on the left and LHD cars made in countries which drive on the right. Well this is most definitely, *not* the case. Mark |
#215
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
wrote in message om... "Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ... "Mark Brader" wrote in message ... The virgin islands of course, And I'm told my a friend of mine who went to visit there that they import their cars from mainland USA and hence they are left hand drive. Certainly not ideal when you are driving on the left! Hopefully the virgin islands traffic situation is such that you don't need to see around vehicles to overtake very often! Have they considered switching to right side driving to bring it in line with the rest of the USA? |
#216
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...
[snip] Finally as an exercise for the reader there is one US territory where they drive on the left. [snip] Isn't it one of the Virgin Islands? Strangely, IIRC, they drive on the left, with cars that predominately have the "drivers side" on the left. |
#217
|
|||
|
|||
Driving on the right (was: US going metric?)
"me" wrote in message m... "Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ... [snip] Finally as an exercise for the reader there is one US territory where they drive on the left. [snip] Isn't it one of the Virgin Islands? Some of to be accurate, IRC there are 3 major islands in the American Virgin Islands and some more in the British Virgin Islands Strangely, IIRC, they drive on the left, with cars that predominately have the "drivers side" on the left. Very probably. Keith |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Boeing design practice | Dick Locke | Air travel | 38 | January 13th, 2004 06:13 PM |
abolishing tipping? | Hatunen | USA & Canada | 112 | December 3rd, 2003 09:38 PM |
New group misc.metric-system (CFV) | Markus Kuhn | Europe | 23 | November 26th, 2003 02:24 AM |
RFD: misc.metric-system | Phil McKerracher | Europe | 0 | September 17th, 2003 12:31 PM |