"Richard J." wrote in message
k...
Mrs Redboots wrote:
Niklas Karlsson wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 9 Jan 2005:

That's because the rule was changed some years ago. Before then
"priorité à droite" used to apply to roundabouts, giving joining traffic
the priority.

In the same way that they used "priorité à droite" to give priority to a
minor road that joined a major road, forcing traffic travelling at high
speed to brake to let a slow-moving tractor pull out in front. I wonder what
the French road safety rule-makers were smoking when they came up with that
rule!

In article , Richard J.
wrote:
Mrs Redboots wrote:
Niklas Karlsson wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 9 Jan 2005:

It is to be hoped that if we ever *do* change to driving on the
right, we don't adopt the Dutch and German rule of traffic
joining a roundabout having priority over traffic already on the
roundabout.

Sweden has not; the traffic on the roundabout has priority.
(Unless this
has changed very recently.) Anything else seems very silly, really,
IMAO.

In France the traffic on the roundabout has priority, too, and
usually there are large notices telling traffic on the joining road
that it doesn't have priority.

That's because the rule was changed some years ago. Before then
"priorité à droite" used to apply to roundabouts, giving joining traffic
the priority.

Yes, and awful jams resulted!

Michael Bell
--

"Richard J." wrote in message
k...
Mrs Redboots wrote:
Niklas Karlsson wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 9 Jan 2005:

That's because the rule was changed some years ago. Before then
"priorité à droite" used to apply to roundabouts, giving joining traffic
the priority.

In the same way that they used "priorité à droite" to give priority to a
minor road that joined a major road, forcing traffic travelling at high
speed to brake to let a slow-moving tractor pull out in front. I wonder what
the French road safety rule-makers were smoking when they came up with that
rule!

I believe in New Zealand (or maybe Australia) you have to give way to
oncoming traffic that it indicating to turn right (ie your left) across your
path into a side road.

In article ,
Martin Underwood wrote:
"Niklas Karlsson" wrote in message
...
Mark Brader wrote on Sun, 09 Jan 2005 04:44:21 -0000:
John Rowland:
Nearly all London squares have a clockwise one-way system, even though
when
all of the roads in and out of the square are one-way, an anti-clockwise
one-way system is superior (because drivers have better visibility when
curving to the left). ...

Perhaps this was done in preparation for a changeover to driving on the
right. After all, now that Britain is part of the EU...

Sweden had left-hand driving until September 3, 1967.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

The costs of doing this in the UK today would be prohibitive, both to
highway departments and to private individuals: every road junction would
need to have its white lines repainted on the other side; motorway
junctions and roundabouts would need their entry and exit roads
re-aligning (assuming that entry and exit roads are curved differently -
maybe this isn't the case); every car would need to scrapped and replaced
with an LHD car.

I remember calculating at the time that the Swedish change-over cost 2 week's
GNP. That's an awful lot of money. And for what? Junction 8 on the M1 was
designed "wrong way round" in Mrs Castle's time to test the idea of designing
junctions so that they could be changed over to right-hand drive, but the
experiment was never repeated.

Michael Bell

--

In message ,
Martin Underwood writes

Which countries still drive on the left?

Not Gibralter. But add India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa. All 74 are listed at:

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandar...tm#leftdriving

--
Paul Terry

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:53:03 -0000, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

Which countries still drive on the left?

- UK/Ireland, obviously
- Channel Islands
- Australia
- Malta
- Gibraltar? Or does that drive on the left like Spain?
- Japan (I wonder why)

What about former British colonies like India? I *think* they still drive on
the left.

Anywhere else?

Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangadesh, Thailand, parts of southern Africa..
someone must have a list on line somewhere.

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandar...tm#leftdriving
gives 74 places and a pretty map.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Richard J." wrote in message
news
Martin Underwood wrote:
"Niklas Karlsson" wrote in message
...

Ever noticed those white oval plates with GB on them? Ever thought how
their owners managed to drive in LHD countries? The idea that you would
have to scrap all RHD cars if we changed the rule of the road is absurd.
Yes, there are some problems, and overtaking on narrow
single-carriageway roads without a passenger to help you is nasty , but
I've never had a problem on a motorway apart from paying at the péage
where the kiosk is on the British nearside.

If I had to drive in mainland Europe, I'd always hire a car locally and
wouldn't contemplate taking my own RHD car over there

Having done both, I find that sitting on the wrong side
of the car is far harder to get used to than positioning
myself on the wrong side of the road.

With my RHD car I just have to accept that I can't overtake
on single carriageway roads, but fortunately most journeys
nowadays are on motorways.

With a LHD car I still position myself on the right half of the
carriageway and end up with the bulk of the car: in the kerb,
scraping a wall or occupying both lanes of a dual carriageway

Which countries still drive on the left?

- UK/Ireland, obviously
- Channel Islands
- Australia
- Malta
- Gibraltar? Or does that drive on the left like Spain?
- Japan (I wonder why)

What about former British colonies like India? I *think* they still drive
on the left.

Anywhere else?

Most of Arfica.

Apparently, by population a larger percentage of the world
nominaly drives on the Left than the right, but most of the
countries that make up this large total have very low car
ownership

tim

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...

It is to be hoped that if we ever *do* change to driving on the right, we
don't adopt the Dutch and German rule of traffic joining a roundabout
having priority over traffic already on the roundabout.

This rule seems to have gone out of use. I have never seen
a roundabout where it is still used.

It is still common for a side road to have priority over the main road
though.

tim

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 22:51:49 +0100, "tim"
wrote:

It is still common for a side road to have priority over the main road
though.

This in itself isn't unknown in British towns. It's normally achieved
by way of a mini roundabout.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
...
"Richard J." wrote in message
k...
Mrs Redboots wrote:
Niklas Karlsson wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 9 Jan 2005:

That's because the rule was changed some years ago. Before then
"priorité à droite" used to apply to roundabouts, giving joining traffic
the priority.

In the same way that they used "priorité à droite" to give priority to a
minor road that joined a major road, forcing traffic travelling at high
speed to brake to let a slow-moving tractor pull out in front. I wonder
what
the French road safety rule-makers were smoking when they came up with
that
rule!

I believe in New Zealand (or maybe Australia) you have to give way to
oncoming traffic that it indicating to turn right (ie your left) across
your path into a side road.

Not here.

Peter
Sydney