Defend RHD in BC.. Nows your Chance

[dah_hunter]

Defend RHD in BC..

Comment away

http://www.drivesmartbc.ca/miscellan...nd-drive-world

[Shadao]

wow 2 comments both against RHD vehicles.... id like to know if those people actually have driven a RHD vehicle, id also like to know there age and what they do for a living

o well iom registering and im commenting BIG TIME

well lets hope they approve my replies and comments i practially wrote them a novella...

although i dont agree that they need to be approved unless its just to prevent names and name calling :P

[skidmark]

As I responded on the IVOAC site where you posted the same thing, why wouldn't I approve your comment? If you have a valid viewpoint and express yourself reasonably I always approve them, contrary or not.

[ARC240]

Wow...such b/s. I love how people obligate themselves to inform (and lie to/poorly educate) the public about an "issue" that the really has no real knowledge about. I can bet that the writer has never driven an RHD car in his lifetime. The only thing I felt "iffy" doing was making a left turn at a busy intersection, but that was only because it was my first time driving an RHD vehicle, I found it was pretty easy to get used to and differed very little, if at all from driving an LHD vehicle.

[Shadao]

like the response in ivoac, that was made... it is a touchy subject, i dont personally know you or whom it is you represent... it is not a personal attack against you... ive just had enough experiences with not having comments approved because my points contradict the owners feeling in this topic and many others... i do not know your personal veiw on the topic. so please dont take my aprehension personally...

obviously with the aproval of my comments you are not the type of person who would censor valid points, and your doing so is out of the ordinary in my experiences... it is nice to see both sides of the coin for a change

all too often it seems we only get to see one side of the coin, its like that all the time in the paper, letters to the editor kind of thing... having an open forum that is neutral ground on such a subject is the perfect place for public debate and education... as we all know that many of the fears created by RHD vehicles are held by people who just dont know enough about them...

EDIT:
i noticed your sig, and wanted to comment on it...i tried to click it on your site to answer the question... and i do know someone who does admit they are not better than average, my good friend admits hes not a great driver he feels that he is average, he doesnt take chances, hes super careful but not super confident, i think hes a good driver but he doesnt think so... my GF used to be a poor driver, but with my tough love she went from being an well below average auto-matic driver to a just above average manual driver... i drive professionally for a living and have never been in an accident while driving... i consider myself VERY lucky

[SpartanAir]

This is my post:


"If you drive smart, you wont be in an accident. Look at Barbados,Trinidad, Great Britain, and Japan... All countries where LHD and RHD coexist. Focus more on driver's education"

I fully agree with this statement. I drive a right hand drive car, and I've been driving for over 10 years, with no speeding infractions or accidents. I chalk it up to natural competence, but also proper TRAINING. I took Young Drivers when I was starting, and I DO think they helped me be a better driver. I was TRAINED to drive on the road safely. So, if you're a government and you allow RHD vehicles to be imported and insured, if you feel there is a safety issue, because you made the call, YOU MUST TRAIN PEOPLE TO USE THEM PROPERLY. Personally, I don't find it difficult to drive a RHD car. It took me all of a day to learn. But there are any concerns (which should have come up when it became legal to import cars from other countries, but clearly wasn't an issue or we wouldn't be here), you have a duty as a government to educate the people on the differences between them.

There are thousands of RHD cars in BC now, and across the country. Most people are aware that they exist, but yes, they aren't as common as LHD. So, people know they're around, but have mixed information about how they operate. "Well, ICBC says they're unsafe, so they must be right." "Right hand drive cars, aren't they illegal?" "How will I go through my Starbucks Drive-thru?" "I like that car, I would probably own one if it wasn't right hand drive. It's just too scary to me." So many of these cars have been allowed on the road in the past few years, and the government sits back and allows this cloud of doubt and mystery to grow and grow around these cars, and does NOTHING to educate the people about them.

The only semi-valid point about RHD cars being less safe than LHD cars was in this story, told to me by my friend. He was about to cross the street one day, when he made eye contact with who he thought was the driver of the car, but was the passenger, and could not tell it was RHD. Having thought he had a non-verbal agreement with the driver that it was safe to cross, the car went through the intersection as he was stepping off the curb. No injuries were incurred, but it was the confusion that caused him to almost step in front of a car.

Well, let's see here:
a) it didn't help that the government, due to lack of mass-media education did not let him consider it could be a RHD car, and
b) Personally, before stepping in front of moving vehicles, I would look for more indications than 'eye contact with the driver' that the vehicle is accelerating; for example, wheels turning, engine accelerating making noise etc

ICBC needs to do their job and educate people about these cars and not just all of a sudden make it illegal because it's too much work to make them safe on the roads. There are many more millions of drivers in Japan driving LHD and RHD cars on the roads every day without causing accidents; I doubt you would be able to pull statistics from the country indicating that one type of vehicle (RHD/LHD) causes more accidents than the other.

It doesn't help any that their are unskilled, uneducated drivers on the road in general. Slow drivers occupying the passing lane, not using turn signals....this is just an indication that the driving standards are subpar in Canada.

Not to mention the growing number of senior drivers on the road whose senses and reflexes are deteriorating, but they are still allowed to keep their licenses out of 'respect for the elderly', because it's 'such a touchy subject'.

You're worried about me not being able to have full visibility in my right hand drive car, when there's a driver behind me whose vision and hearing is failing completely?

I'm pretty sure there are more aging drivers on the road than Right Hand Drive car owners.

[r3gill]

^^^ very well said bro.. i went threw ICBC's GLP program too when i got my license in 2002, and it does help alot when it comes to driving. Now i have my class 1 and so far no crashes or major violations.touchwood.. My point is there are some typical noobs out here in our community that won't understand. For example for a diesel powered vehicles about 80% people here still think they're just worthless and super dirty enngines, don't start in cold weather, whereas people in europe, asia and so on are smart and 80% of them think its the other way around. ie diesel vehicle is the way to go for a DD vehicle.Although this myth is clearing up.

so bottomilne is people have thick brains typically the ones who think RHD vehicles are unsafe or diesel engines are dirty/underpowered/bad in cold weather, I just can't stand these people. And they're the people who lack driving skills because they don't know sh!t.:hit_head:
And at the end its all because of lack of knowlenge or you can say people don't wana learn. All they do is eat a fat ass hamburger sit and f*kin fart on the LHD vehicles seat with a thick head on their sholders.

[89Baysideblue]

I posted my comment which is qued for mderation before being posted.
Logged in as Torredo.

:drive: RHD ftw!!

[superdaveosbourne]

Seems like the steam has been taken out of that debate pretty quickly... It's good to know that with everything going on in the world today, RHD is the most important thing to worry about... Makes me feel pretty special

[spank110]

Did anyone notice that the only two "replies" against RHD vehicles were made by the article author?!!! The username in both instances is DriveSmartBC.... Someone has an agenda. :roll: