The issue of right-hand drive on our roads
08/21/2018
Recently I was offered a relatively new right-hand drive car, a Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG (similar to the one pictured). At first I thought that this was a good opportunity to get an attractive car at a good price, because it is well known that only a few car buyers in this country are prepared to buy a right-hand drive car.
I actually enjoy driving on the right and I hardly see it as a disadvantage on the road. At most, the lack of forward visibility can have a negative effect when overtaking.
Just over 60 years ago , in Automobil Revue, long after driving on the right had been introduced on our roads, some readers spoke out in favor of the steering wheel on the right-hand side. The advantages cited were that you could drive closer to the right-hand edge, that it was safer to overtake cyclists, that it was safer to get off at the side of the road and that there was greater discipline on the road overall. There were even people who called for right-hand drive to be enshrined in law. Of course, this did not happen. Even Lancia, the car company that for a long time only sold right-hand drive cars, eventually had to switch to left-hand drive. Today, right-hand drive cars are the exception, mostly older British vehicles or pre-war cars.
But what about right-hand drive youngtimers? The advantages mentioned back then still apply. However, they are countered by a number of weighty arguments. Wherever you have to reach out of the car window to get a ticket, turn a key or press a button, you are at a disadvantage as a right-hand driver. You can only enter the underground parking garage thanks to the passenger or after getting out and running around the car. The situation is similar at highway toll booths, where you quickly become an obstacle to traffic if you drive on the right. And overtaking maneuvers actually become a little more risky because you simply have a poorer view of oncoming traffic.
So in an everyday car, people are very reluctant to choose a right-hand drive model, not least because most people find it very difficult to get into the right-hand driving position, reach for the window crank instead of the gearshift and look for the interior rear-view mirror in the top right-hand corner. And from time to time you (perhaps) lean your car out to other people ...
