Friday, November 5 in the TC with Nov 12 followup

[kb&2dogs]

This morning we opened the paper to see this headline, and said "here we go again!" But, to our surprise, a neutral opinion! And a little humorous about the driver jumping in the back seat while going down the road, and not so sure about the observation about right hand drivers pulling out of parallel parking spaces...

Is right-hand drive right for Canada?
By Steve Wallace, Special to Times Colonist November 5, 2010

Right-hand drive is increasingly invading our left-hand drive world. The Canadian government has relaxed import regulations and restrictions for the use of right-hand-drive vehicles on our roads.

After the war years, these types of vehicles were largely collector cars imported as specialty vehicles, or chauffeur-driven exotic and premium rides. Rolls-Royce often comes to mind when the right-hand drive image is foremost in people's minds. There were very few of these types of vehicles licensed for our roads for the better part of several decades. All that has changed in recent years.

Today, more and more right-hand-drive vehicles are appearing in everyday driving situations. They can be inexpensive, of high quality and have a lot of options. But are they perceived as being safe by other drivers?

Several vehicle insurance companies, both public and private, have asked that very question. Governments across Canada are looking into the crash rates of right-hand-drive vehicles, which are reputed to be twice the average of left-hand-drive vehicles. Concerns have also been raised by traffic-safety experts.

For example, how does a driver do a safe pass on a two-lane, alternate-direction road, at high speed? How does the driver of the right-hand-drive car see well ahead without leaning well into the oncoming lane to get a peek at approaching traffic?

This has been the main concern for traffic safety and licensing authorities, particularly if the vehicle being passed is a large truck or van.

Visibility is lacking when such a pass is attempted. The drivers of these vehicles often rely on a passenger's direction to initiate a safe pass. This is obviously a better situation than having no one sitting beside you, but many of these so called co-pilots are not licensed themselves, and are lacking in the most basic time and space factors, as they relate to driving.

Some of the owners of the right-hand-drive vans sit higher than in a normal passenger car and have fewer visibility problems. Some have equipped their vehicles with mirror systems which see oncoming traffic.

There are examples of people operating a right-hand-drive vehicle for many years without incident. They generally have a history and experience of operation in a right-hand-drive country. New drivers have no such track record.

Drivers of right-hand-drive vehicles are very likely to have trouble leaving a parallel parking spot on the right side of the street.

The best advice is to attach convex mirrors to the side view mirrors of the car. This will allow for a much wider angular view of vehicle traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. Wherever possible, the right-hand-drive operators actually seek out the parallel parking spaces on the left side of a one-way street. This allows for much better visibility when leaving the parking space.

The manner in which the right-side drivers are perceived by others is also a safety consideration. I will never forget the time I was following an SUV on the highway, when suddenly the driver jumped into the back seat.

It appeared to me that the car was driverless, barrelling down the highway. It was a right-hand driver, with a partner attending to children in the back seat. There are inherent misunderstandings when most pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and motorcyclists assume that the driver will always be positioned on the left side of every vehicle.

We should all be more attentive to the right-hand drivers around us. A legal requirement for a sign placement on the back of such vehicles, warning others of a right-hand drive vehicle would be very much appreciated.

Steve Wallace is a longtime driving teacher and the owner of Wallace Driving School in Victoria.

SteveDWallace@shaw.ca

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/today ... z14PkUVN7j

[FalcoColumbarius]

Sigh...... here we go again......

Right-hand drive is increasingly invading our left-hand drive world. The Canadian government has relaxed import regulations and restrictions for the use of right-hand-drive vehicles on our roads.

The Canadian government has not relaxed any laws. These laws have been in place and if anything have been getting stricter over the years. His opening line is at best poor journalism, at worst ~ the inception of misinformation. In fact, this is not the first time I have heard comments about the government "relaxing" the laws regarding RHD vehicles.

This article is tripe, very bland with an element of bile lurking in the throat. I truly believe that Canadians as a whole are not so idiotic as suggested in this article. It is a weak and poorly researched piece of diatribe.

Falco.

BTW: Should this topic be moved to RHD Political & Legal Matters?

[kb&2dogs]

Sigh...... here we go again......

Right-hand drive is increasingly invading our left-hand drive world. The Canadian government has relaxed import regulations and restrictions for the use of right-hand-drive vehicles on our roads.

The Canadian government has not relaxed any laws. These laws have been in place and if anything have been getting stricter over the years. His opening line is at best poor journalism, at worst ~ the inception of misinformation. In fact, this is not the first time I have heard comments about the government "relaxing" the laws regarding RHD vehicles.

That is actually the first thing I said, but he does mention that "since the end of the war" and since I wasn't around then, it may be right



This article is tripe, very bland with an element of bile lurking in the throat. I truly believe that Canadians as a whole are not so idiotic as suggested in this article. It is a weak and poorly researched piece of diatribe.

The article may be bland, but at least it isn't totally negative, which is what we usually get to read on the subject


Falco.

BTW: Should this topic be moved to RHD Political & Legal Matters?

Move away if you so desire.....

[kb&2dogs]

Follow up article in the TC today (Nov 12)


Looks like nothing's wrong with right
By Steve Wallace, Times Colonist November 12, 2010 Readers have a lot to say about the previous column dealing with right-hand drive in our left-hand-drive world."

Alistair, who drives an RHD vehicle, did a little research and found that insurance claims on RHD vehicles are 21.5 per cent lower than on LHD vehicles. There is no discernible difference in the injuries sustained in crashes involving RHD and LHD vehicles.

Alistair has been driving his RHD safely around Vancouver Island for 38 years. The often-quoted statistic about RHD vehicles being 40 per cent more likely to have a crash is actually wrong. The truth of the matter, as Alistair so emphatically stated, is that RHD owners are 40 per cent more likely to report a crash earlier than LHD owners.

From what Alistair has reported, it would seem that perceptions are more at play than reality, when it comes to the belief that right-hand-drive vehicles are more dangerous on North American roads.

Paul had some very insightful comments concerning his son's purchase of a Japanese domestic market model. "Most of the early examples of the current trend to RHD imports were high-performance cars, not previously available in Canada." He contends that younger drivers with less experience, combined with high-powered vehicles, may have initially had a negative impact on the number of crashes. Paul likened it to the introduction of the high-performance Corvette. Lots of power and younger drivers proved to undermine the high degree of safety options built into every such model. Crash statistics were high for very different reasons, despite the extra safety equipment and the latest technology.

Everyone, including me, seems to have a difficult time gathering relevant statistics on the RHD vehicle issue. It leads me to be very suspicious about whether there is an "issue" at all.

Chett says he parallel parks better in his RHD SUV, because he can more easily see the curb. He also feels safer on the right side, away from oncoming traffic on a two-way road.

Japanese RHD vehicles can be imported to Canada once they are 15 years old. The laws concerning vehicle ownership and insurance are very different in Japan than in Canada. Increasing insurance costs and other taxes make it financially impossible for most Japanese drivers to keep their vehicles beyond the five-year point.

Brokers often sell these five-year-old-plus vehicles to several countries in Southeast Asia. Exporting them to Canada became an option a few years ago.

The last time I was in Japan, (I have visited five times in the last 20 years), I had the privilege of visiting a Toyota vehicle manufacturing facility. The emphasis on quality was obvious, as it is with other manufacturers in Japan. The most interesting thing was happening on the two parallel assembly lines. One line was for domestic production and the other for export. The gauge of steel used for overseas sales was thicker than for domestic use. The use of salt on winter roads and the tendency for Canadians to keep their vehicles much longer than the Japanese was the reason given for this difference in the steel thickness. This fact would cause me concern for the use of RHD vehicles in northern climates. Rust may be an issue.

I should mention that several of the RHD models that are presently imported are not offered for sale here as new. The federal government has never allowed such open competition.

We need is hard data on the issue, rather than indulging a knee jerk reaction to a perceived problem. Until these data are available, speculation, opinion and rhetoric will continue to dominate the subject.

Steve Wallace is a longtime teacher and owns the Wallace Driving School in Victoria.

SteveDWallace@shaw.ca


Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Looks+like ... z154xW4DH5