[Healeys] Healeys] the wrong side of the road

[Alan Seigrist]

Stephen -

You are confused.  China in the 1920s and 1930s, when it was the Republic of
China, held the USA as its model nation and adopted many of its current
standards including Left Hand Drive and two blade pronged electrical plugs.
Communist China is still Left Hand Drive.

It is Hong Kong that is Right Hand Drive, but that is a former British
colony, therefore only six million Chinese use RHD.  Even in Taiwan (still
the ROC) uses RHD as standard.  Korea is another Asian country which adopted
LHD out of respect to the US.

The real problem in China is no one in that country, except officials, had
cars until about 5 years ago.  Now you have about 100 million new drivers,
most licensed in the last few years.  Now we all know the jokes about
Chinese drivers in the USA  (I'm half Chinese, so I can laugh at myself half
the time), so take that and multiply by 100 million people who just got
their license, and imagine trying to navigate the streets of China.
Something to be very afraid of, trust me!  No wonder Buick is such a popular
brand there, you'd be mad to drive a subcompact on Chinese roads.

Cheers,

Alan

'52 A90
'53 BN1
'59 Jag Mk IX
'64 BJ8


On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 7:21 AM, Stephen Hutchings
<s.hutchings at rogers.com>wrote:

> I wonder if it really is as much as 70% that drive on the right.....you
> have to take in India, much of Asia, and much of Africa, where the numbers
> of cars have increased in recent years.Then there are the small countires
> with big populations like Japan, and all the obvious places like Australia,
> New Zealand, etc. It will probably be China that tips the scales towards the
> right-favouring side.
>
> Stephen