We don't mean moving to the right ideologically, mind you. Senate leader Donie Cassidy wants Ireland to consider changing which side of the road people drive on. Like England, Ireland drives on the left side of the road, which might be a problem for an increasing number of people working in or visiting the country. The growing workforce migrates in large part from other parts of continental Europe. Similarly, Americans make up a good number of the tourists visiting Ireland. The common denominator is that both of those groups drive on the right side of the road in their native lands. By switching sides, Cassidy believes that the number of accidents involving visitors not accustomed to the left-side arrangement could be reduced. Conveniently, he doesn't mention the potential driver error scenarios facing an entire Irish population that has only ever driven on the left if it's forced to summarily change sides to cater to visitors. Unsurprisingly, there's opposition to his idea. The local automobile association calls it "completely impractical," for example. Cassidy, possibly realizing that his idea might fall flat, has a Plan B. This week, he suggested imposing lower speed limits on drivers visiting from right-driving nations, which could create an entirely different mess. After all, if the number of foreign workers and tourists is big enough to warrant specific driving legislation, slapping them all with a lower speed limit is going to put a lot of slowpoke out-of-towners on the roads. Here's a novel idea: visitors should adapt to the country they're driving in, instead of making the country adapt to them. And if, as a tourist, you're not comfortable with the left-side-drive arrangement, do yourself (and everyone else) a favor: don't drive.
[Source: Reuters]
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