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Irish politician proposes switch to right-hand driving

by Anna Brones (RSS feed) on Feb 14th 2008 at 10:00AM

Driving on the left side of the road while traveling in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia can be difficult, even dangerous, for travelers used to sticking to the right side. The difficulties of those travelers, as well as an influx in immigration from other European countries, are making Ireland debate switching to right-hand driving.

Last week Donnie Cassidy, a senior Irish politician, proposed to move towards a right-hand driving system in order to ease life for travelers, but also for Irish citizens who like to travel abroad. "I know when I go to America it takes me five or six days to adjust," said Cassidy.

The motoring body AA responded by saying that the idea was completely ridiculous. But the idea is not as crazy as it seems; Sweden switched to right-hand driving in 1967 to align with the rest of Europe.

Even if the proposal doesn't pass, Cassidy still wants to make things a little easier on travelers from countries that drive on the right hand side of the road by respecting a 80 kilometer per hour speed limit instead of the normal 120 kilometers for Irish drivers.

Filed under: Europe, Ireland, Transportation, News

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Eva Feb 14th 2008 10:28AM

In Ireland's case, this really would be crazy. Because, um, everyone in Northern Ireland would still be driving on the right. Kind of hard to have two different driving systems on one small island...

Anna Brones Feb 14th 2008 10:32AM

true... and can you imagine proposing such a thing to a society that has always driven on the left-hand side of the road??? I can just see the faces of the politicians in the room when the idea was proposed...

Brian Flaherty Feb 14th 2008 10:33PM

The Irish have done extensive research on this
subject and the changeover will be January 2009.
To facilitate the change there will be a transitional
period for trucks and cars.
Cars will commence two weeks before trucks so that
the average Irishman will be au fait with the new
setup.
Trucks will then move to the other side of road after
the cars have had two weeks practice.

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