Comment by noahjk
1 day ago
I'm surprised nobody else brought it up - what are the pros of left-hand driving? Is it about where the controls are in relation to handedness? Some sort of safety benefit? Better visibility in certain scenarios? And are postal carriers in America who drive LLVs getting the _best_ or the _worst_ of both worlds?
(I like to think about these sorts of things!)
I've driven both. Drove LHD for more than a decade in India. Now driving in RHD country for 2y now. Personally, I enjoy RHD more because I am right-handed and I get to do things easily with my RH. Otherwise, I realized that safety benefits comes from the driving discipline and not driving on a particular side of the road. Driving on Aus/Japan is way safer than India, despite all of them being LHD.
How does RHD make it easier to do things with your right hand?
I’m right-handed in a LHD country, and this means I used my right hand for almost everything. The gear selector, radio, climate controls, GPS… all done with my right hand. My left hand controls the turn signal, that’s about it. I think I’d have a very hard time with a RHD car where I need to be precise with buttons and touch screens using my left hand.
I mistakenly mixed up the abbreviations - it is "Right Hand Traffic"/RHT (which is "Left Hand Driving"/LHD).
Like you said, I enjoy LHD more where I can use my right hand for everything like radio/AC/GPS etc. and most of them work with muscle memory without even taking eyes off the road. Doing the same with my left hand while driving in India (LHT/RHD) is very tough.