Drivin' right hand drives in a left hand world

[Colin Cobb <cobmeister@domain.elided>]

> > > Is
> > >there some reason we're not supposed to have right hand drive here in
> > >the U.S.?  


Nope... 

I have owned my right hand drive Morgan (a 1966 Plus 4 Four Seater Roadster,
Ferrari Yellow) since 1980 and put 10s of thousands of miles on it, all from
the "wrong" side of the car. There is not even any particular challenge to it,
once you become accustomed.

The only real challenge is when overtaking and passing really large vehicles
(farm wagons, semis, etc.) on narrow roads. To do that you must, essentially,
pull all the way into the left lane before you can see ahead well enough to
decide if you can safely pass.... That maneuver can concentrate the pucker in
your butt upon occasion but it does teach you the several virtues of patience. 

When I first started considering buying the Morgan (as an anniversary present
for my wife) and went to look at it back in 1980 my lovely bride of fourteen
years refused to test drive it because the steering wheel was on the "wrong"
side... I declined to buy a car she refused to drive, so she drove it. And
drove it. And drove it... For 6 years it was her daily driver with nary a mishap.

Of course, part of the reason there is no real challenge to driving from the
right in the Mog is the fact that the car is so narrow. When I drove my RHD
1936 Morgan Three-Wheeler on the street there was no appreciable difference in
visibility, left seat to right seat... The challenge there was in getting that
tiny engine to do its thing when passing without having the car actually take flight...

Certainly, driving from the left seat in the land of the left-seaters is
considerably easier, but is easy what it is all about?

Incidentally, I have never found riding in the wrong side seat to be unnerving
in the least, even riding at highway speeds with my bro' behind the wheel, and
he, trust me, can definitely concentrate your mind in a hurry...

I do recall one memorable trip, back in 1983, across the south Texas wasteland
where it is customary to exchange waves between all oncoming vehicles. I was
driving Yellow, my elder daughter, then a smart-ass 15 year old, was in the
left seat, we were cruising along about 70 mph and she got bored. "Watch this,
Dad," she said. The next pickup truck driver that we met waved nonchalantly
and my daughter replied by waving both arms over her head! The poor guy in the
pickup did a triple-take and promptly ran off the road, sliding sideways into
a brushy field.

We cruised on... Daughter laughing, me berating laughing daughter...

- --Colin Cobb, Las Cruces, NM, USA
'89 Spider, '67 Alpine, '66 Mog, '65 Tiger, '98 SooBaaRoo

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