Should NZ Change to Left-Hand Drive?

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Linuxluver

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#203176 20-Sep-2016 16:25

NZ is one of the few countries that still drive on the left hand side of the road.

Seems to me we'd have a much larger range of cars vehicles of all kinds available, both new and second hand.....and cheaper, if we changed to the other side.

Plus the roads would be safer once everyone got used to it and the tourists (most of them), of course, wouldn't have to adapt at all.

Yes...there would be time allowed - 10 years? - for retiring old RHD vehicles from the fleet. Maybe we could also offer a subsidy or incentive to buy a new left-hand drive vehicle sooner. Add more cash to make it electric....and we have great way to lower transport emissions at the same time.

We're spending $8 billion on new roads for trucks and $1.9 billion on defense hardware that will never probably never actually be used. A $5,000 subsidy to make the transition would be affordable on that scale.

I've driven on both sides for years and years each......It just takes a few minutes to get used to the mirror-image version of stuff we know well.

No need to do much on the roads except re-paint the markings and move the signs to the other side of the road. On-ramps become off-ramps and so on.

It would be a big change for some people.....but overall it has a lot of benefits to offer a few years down the track.

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#1636659 20-Sep-2016 16:30

Would be a surprising amount of extra road re-designs, basically every intersection, roundabout, off ramp is designed for it's direction of traffic. Is an interesting thought experiment. Sweden did the switch back in the 60s before major roading projects.

Maybe if Japan changed over we might need to, for the used car market!

trig42

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#1636662 20-Sep-2016 16:32

Funny, as I was driving home last night I was wondering the exact same thing.

There would be some pretty massive costs, motorway offramps wouldn't all switch over nicely (most would though),

Imagine the logistics of changing the paint and signs - wouldn't it all have to happen in a very short time frame (to stop confusion of roads and signs being all wrong before the 'change')?

I think any government will put it into the 'too hard' basket (unless Australia, Japan and the UK and India do it first - then we will run out of cars).

Linuxluver

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#1636670 20-Sep-2016 16:45

jonb:

Would be a surprising amount of extra road re-designs, basically every intersection, roundabout, off ramp is designed for it's direction of traffic. Is an interesting thought experiment. Sweden did the switch back in the 60s before major roading projects.

Maybe if Japan changed over we might need to, for the used car market!

I read a bit about the Swedish experience...and the roads camber / slope on the roads and drainage didn't need any changes. Places that sit at the lights to go onto the motorway and up coming off the motorway to lights before entering the road way. Yes, the moving of traffic lights would be a big logistical exercise over night. One suggestion was to lower all the speed limits by 20% of a year while the change occurred...and to use a corps of human or mobile temporary traffic lights while the fixed ones were re-located.

Of course there is the old joke about phasing it in: trucks on Monday, cars on Tuesday. :-)

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darylblake

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#1636671 20-Sep-2016 16:49

IMHO Probably not worth the effort to change. Its mainly stuff like causeways etc, and they would all need to be re-designed and signed simultaneously. I would put this idea in the "too hard" basket.

We should feed the hungry kids first. Children should never have to suffer, they don't get to choose.

MikeB4

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#1636673 20-Sep-2016 16:49

A lot of roads would need a lot of work to redo the banking of corners etc. I really do not see any great advantages and as for the chaos that would ensue, look at all the drivers that could not get the change of intersection indicating right and I still encounter drivers who get the right hand rule wrong

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Linuxluver

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#1636674 20-Sep-2016 16:50

trig42:

Funny, as I was driving home last night I was wondering the exact same thing.

There would be some pretty massive costs, motorway offramps wouldn't all switch over nicely (most would though),

Imagine the logistics of changing the paint and signs - wouldn't it all have to happen in a very short time frame (to stop confusion of roads and signs being all wrong before the 'change')?

I think any government will put it into the 'too hard' basket (unless Australia, Japan and the UK and India do it first - then we will run out of cars).

Changes would really only be a intersections and then REALLY only necessary at the busiest, most complex intersections. The vast majority would be just moving the stop signs to the other corner and a pain stripe. Roundabouts are the easiest of all.....just need the blue arrow signs replaced.

I can see how it could be largely over in a week, with a few compromises on a few problematic interchanges. Trying to think of which ones. Most of the new interchanges are already roundabouts......and wouldn't require anything, really. Thinking of the Greenlane and Ellerslie monsters roundabouts on the southern motorway in Auckland: no real changes needed at all.....just drive the other way and move the entry-rationing lights to what are now the off-ramps.

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Linuxluver

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#1636676 20-Sep-2016 16:52

MikeB4:

A lot of roads would need a lot of work to redo the banking of corners etc. I really do not see any great advantages and as for the chaos that would ensue, look at all the drivers that could not get the change of intersection indicating right and I still encounter drivers who get the right hand rule wrong

Think about it. The banking in the corners doesn't need to be changed. A vehicle going along it at 50kph or whatever speed is going to have the same centripetal force no matter which direction....particularly in the mid-point of the curve - accelerating or decelerating hardly matters.

As for the road rules....we all know drivers who just shouldn't be driving.

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bluedisk

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#1636677 20-Sep-2016 16:53

I would love to see this happen, as I'm slightly more comfortable at left-hand drive. But cannot see it happening till Australia does it first, and as I've just bought a new car that I expect to drive for at least ten years, hopefully not too soon either.

Samoa recently went the other way from RH drive to LH drive to mesh in with Aus and NZ, and to avoid "expensive left-hand drive imports from America".

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Linuxluver

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#1636678 20-Sep-2016 16:54

bluedisk:

I would love to see this happen, as I'm slightly more comfortable at left-hand drive. But cannot see it happening till Australia does it first, and as I've just bought a new car that I expect to drive for at least ten years, hopefully not too soon either.

Samoa recently went the other way from RH drive to LH drive to mesh in with Aus and NZ, and to avoid "expensive left-hand drive imports from America".

Maybe they meant cheap LHD imports from China.

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bluedisk

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#1636681 20-Sep-2016 16:57

Correction: I meant Samoa changed from LH drive to our RH drive

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#1636682 20-Sep-2016 16:57

What would happen to all the right hand drive vehicles? - export them to Japan?

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MikeB4

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#1636683 20-Sep-2016 16:58

we should also change the way angle parking is done. We should back in and drive out that way the driver has better view of the traffic coming.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

simon14

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#1636684 20-Sep-2016 16:59

I don't see it happening. UK, Australia, Japan, India all drive on the left hand side.

Samoa recently (2009) changed from the right side to left side:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8243110.stm

It would be an insanely massive project to change... it would be even more difficult for UK and Aussie... i really don't see it ever happening.

Rikkitic

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#1636685 20-Sep-2016 17:03

Samoa would feel pretty stupid if they had to change back. The Swedes seemed to get through it okay when they did it, not sure how much confidence I have in our drivers. I might not plan any road trips for a few years. Still, it's an interesting idea but I have doubts about the practicality. Like Britain, we are an island and maybe that helps make it work since there are no borders where the rules suddenly change.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

WyleECoyoteNZ

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#1636689 20-Sep-2016 17:05

Linuxluver:

NZ is one of the few countries that still drive on the left hand side of the road.

Seems to me we'd have a much larger range of cars vehicles of all kinds available, both new and second hand.....and cheaper, if we changed to the other side.

I disagree. A lot of the major car manufacturers have global platforms underpinning a wide range of cars\brands. So whether it is left or right hand drive doesn't really make a lot of difference

As a well known example, the Volkswagen Group's 'MQB' platform, this underpins the Audi A3, Audi TT, VW Golf, Skoda Superb, Skoda Octavia, VW Passt, VW Tiguan, Audi Q2 as well as others.

And it's not just in the small cars\crossovers. The top end of the market is the same as well. The newest Audi Q7 and brand new Bentley Bentayga (2 vastly different price points) share the same underpinnings to a degree.

The same evens applies to the supercar\hypercar market too, all the McLaren's that have been released since the MP4-12C have used variants of the central tub

The same logic will also apply to the like's of Ford, Honda and GM

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