Right hand drives are safe!

[quadzilla]

This letter was in today's Times Colonist. It was written in response to a letter that appeared last week.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolo ... e459e82c5a

[quadzilla]

Here is the original letter. Seems the results from ICBC's report from summer are still being misinterpreted.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolo ... d5d417f9ac

[Green1]

Lots on this sort of thing on the Imported Vehicle Owners Association of Canada website
The government is trying to deny us our vehicles, I STRONGLY urge every person on here to join IVOAC and help do your part to defend our right to these amazing and unique vehicles

[marsgal42]

I sent this reply to the Times Colonist. They haven't printed it (yet?):

Peter Taylor's letter in Monday's Times Colonist ("Right steering a safety hazard") is factually incorrect, and is little more than a clumsy attempt at Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Older cars are not banned from Japanese roads, though draconian vehicle inspection and social pressure make vehicles more than a few years old worthless in Japan. They are worth a great deal to us Canadians, who get these cars in excellent condition at attractive prices.

I know: last summer I bought a 1992 Mitsubishi Delica 4 wheel drive van. It looks and runs like it's brand new. The driving position is so high, and the visibility is so good, that the location of the steering wheel is irrelevant. This is not just my view: several family members have driven my van, and acclimated to the driving position in minutes.

ICBC's 40% figure is widely quoted. Have any media outlets actually obtained the raw data and analyzed it? I have seen the data, obtained under an FOIP request, and the data provided by ICBC do not even adequately record the driving position of the car, beyond "import, assumed RHD".

Public policy must be determined by facts, and supported by data. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt is no substitute for reasoned discourse.

...laura

[quadzilla]

Laura - I hope that get's printed. ICBC has had more press with this statistic than they deserve

[mararmeisto]

I wonder if the percentage is the same in France for RHDs from UK... or LHDs in England from France? Has anybody analysed how many of these vehicles have four wheels? Or two doors? Or glass in the openings? My point is, any one of those items, and many others besides, can all be contributing factors to the possibility of a crash.

I wonder what would happen if we got rid of RHD in Canada. Would we have to put our mailboxes on posts in the middle of the street for the postman? Of course we'd have to divide the roads and put in islands to separate the mailboxes from the traffic. Or what of garbage? Well, we'll put that in the middle too, but of course we'd have to factor in some walking space for the garbagemen.... well I could on and on I suppose.

In the end, how we all drive our RHD will be the best testament to counter the ignorance and the misinformed.

[patty]

Mainly i think their statistic clumped all the right hands together,i bet most of those accidents are skylines and other right hand sports cars that top out at 300km plus.Anyhow, the time it takes to get moving in the delica deffinatly gives your enough time to see whats going on, also we do have WAY more vissiblity then most other cars. when i try to drive my moms 4 runner or the fj crussier (test drove it)you rely completley on your mirrors.

[Green1]

The same study showed that RHD was 21% LESS likely to be in an injury collision.

When you realize that all the data was based on claims, and not actual collisions it's obvious why RHD is 40% more likely to make a claim than LHD. How many imports carry collision coverage? what's the percentage for 15 year old north american rust buckets?

In a single vehicle collision, even if you completely write-off your vehicle, you're not going to claim it unless you have collision coverage.
and in a 2 vehicle collision you won't claim unless there is damage to the other vehicle.

I've seen the raw data for the 40% report, it is extremely suspect in all sorts of ways, starting right from where they don't actually know if a vehicle is RHD or LHD.... (they assume all imports from Japan to be RHD, but in fact most luxury vehicles from Japan are in fact LHD and many of those are coming in too). then they forget to take in to account what coverage the vehicle has, they have "RHD" vehicles that are less than 15 years old? or ones that were in collisions before the start of their insurance coverage?
The report is beyond flakey, it's pure propaganda!

[jaggedfish]

Another interesting point I have discovered in support of RHD being safer is when making right turns at intersections....

How many times have we seen inattentive drivers turning too sharply and rolling over the curb sending pedestrians jumping backward to avoid getting their toes run over while waiting to cross at the crosswalk? Or conversely turning wide into the second or outside lane (which is actually illegal) because they don't seem to know where their inside wheels are? I have found my own habits much improved with RHD and feel much more comfortable because I am able to see where the curb is and make a safe (and legal) turn easily with plenty of room to spare.

The driver is MUCH safer as he/she exits the vehicle on the sidewalk/curb side of the road which eliminates the need to walk into traffic or have your door violently removed by a passing LHD vehicle that can't tell how close they really are until your door is glued to their front quarter panel.

I too could go on....

[quadzilla]

What you are alluding to is that you are an attentive driver, and your attentiveness for certain aspects of your driving has increased since owning / driving a RHD. What ICBC failed to do (among other things) was properly partition their data to take driver skill into consideration. In fact, there are several confounding variables that were not considered in their analyses that suggest a fatal flaw in the use of statistics to try and prove that RHD vehicles are not as 'safe' as LHD vehicles.

I agree with your assertion that RHD drive vehicles provide an increased level of comfort / awareness when taking right hand turns. However, in general, I think this speaks to the generally poor skills that many motorists have, which isn't a reflection on the handedness of the vehicle, but in the training that driver's receive and the speed at which our society operates (to name a couple). Not enough time is taken to really look out for our fellow motorists, cyclists, or pedestrians. I know that ICBC did not consider that in their analyses.

See the following thread on http://www.ivoac.ca for some extra reading...
http://www.ivoac.ca/pn/index.php?name=P ... 3376#13376

[marsgal42]

When I got Gumdrop I had to acclimate to driving a much larger vehicle than I was used to (1986 VW Jetta). The steering wheel position has never made any difference. My RHD experience in England and Australia may have helped in this respect. It probably showed way back at the test drive: Shogo handed me the keys, I hopped in, and off we went. No fuss.

I still have the Jetta, so on a near-daily basis I hop back and forth between LHD and RHD vehicles.

...laura

[sasquatch-hunter]

There is no bad RHD, just bad drivers.

[patty]

when i bought my deli, my dad was the only one who test drove it ( even though i paid for it fully)for some reason i didnt get a chance to test her out. so i bought it, thne because i was inexperianced in driving in cities.so my dad drove out to the super store by seymore,gave me the keys and just left me there. probably only took me about 15 min of driving around a parking lot to figure out the whole thing. plenty other people who drive my deli find the same thing, only thing any one has said was hard was to stop mixing up the turning signal and window washer.

[jrman]

Have to say that I've been truly shocked and also happy to find that the transition to RHD has been a completely and utterly "NON ISSUE" save for one unpleasant bump over an island garden roundabout that shocked me more than anyone else....day two of RHD by the way!
However, today I put a big nasty dent in the front bumper of my beloved deli due to RHD - and my poor judgment by not checking my mirrors well enough. Would not have happened on an LHD, but main point is that this was my responsibility and nothing to do with RHD. Just an expensive lesson on my part....boo hoo.