As a right-handed person born and grown up in central Europe and living in the UK, thus having ample experience driving on both sides of the road, all I can say to the above argument is... bo11ocks.

You may just as easily argue for steering with your left hand and operating the gear stick, the radio and whatnot with your right. After all, then you would use your dominant hand for things that require more manual dexterity.

In other words, I agree with Dave. If your dominant hand influences your preference for a given side of the road, then you need a bit more time on the driving simulator before you are allowed on the public road.

Some people have preferences based on what they are used to and then they try to justify it with made up arguments. My favourite is why mixer taps are so rare in the UK. (For those who don't know, they have separate taps for hot and cold water. Even my grandfather, in a country behind the iron curtain allegedly 20 years behind, had mixer taps in his house.) People come up with the most exotic excuses, but no one admits that the real reason is, "because it's always been like that".

The same with driving on the left. Left or right, the choice is completely random. Before WWII, the proportion of European countries driving on left or right was about 50:50. But with opening the borders, it makes sense to unify on one side. The right side won - not because it was in any way better, but because the biggest countries (mainly Germany) happened to use it. Island nations who drive on the left do not have the impetus to switch, so they don't. Dominant hands have nothng to do with it.

I get where you're coming from but both you and Dave are wrong.
Just because driving in a particular fashion increases my chances of driving faster and safer, does not in any way mean I can't drive with another orientation.

Again, a product that caters to the majority is a product that will be better for the majority and less so for the minority. So if driving on the left-side of the road (or the steering wheel on the right) is slightly more advantageous for the majority of people... then it is just that.

And another point you made with the shifter. Sure you need some control over it, but you need much more precision when handling the steering wheel over the shifter. On top of this, the steering wheel needs to be interacted with all the time (save for redlight intermissions)... whereas a shifter is used when necessary. You wouldn't expect to even touch the shifter when you go on those long trips. And to seal the deal, manual cars are the niche. Automatic transmission was perfected a long time ago, and are able to be mass produced without expanding the cars price too much. Auto Trans is even quicker on the track.

If you're thinking about the radio controls, well the same argument stands: you are not interacting with it as much as the steering wheel and its importance is far less. In fact, you can even get those controls mounted on the steering wheel if you like. Or use voice controls instead. Seems like an overkill just to NOT use your lefty, but I'm just looking at all perspectives here.

So if you are entering a car, the most likely case is that you are the driver, you are right-handed, and the car is an automatic. In order to give you a slight advantage in driving, the steering wheel on the right-side is a great idea. And safety is tremendously improved in the case of a side-passenger take-over (and I've experienced one of these things).

So should the whole world change to this?
Nah, its fine. We've got bigger problems to face.

Would the world change to this?
Not in the least. As you put it, its always been that way so no-one is going to want to change for limited improvements.

PS sorry to hear about your taps, that sucks tremendously

That's alright, it only sucked for the first 5 or 6 years. Until I bought my own house and replaced them all with mixers

Oh goodie...
It's about time...
wish it were a little less visually obvious a location...
But can't wait to chroot this way...

Nice...brain contacted to www.
Talking about time...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...=weird-science

I can't recall the ancient greek philo who put it best...
but he coined time as a flowing river that comes at us...at everything... from the future and crashes against us aging us ...and passing by us to head into the past...
I like the analogy...
the clock is false time...material time...ticking and tocking against the flow of true time...the balance point being everything caught in between the process ages...
like a rock or a salmon in a stream...

Fake time...

yea...
pretty much...
we believe today that the clock on the wall is all there is...
our ancestors knew better..
hidden in puzzle, riddle, rhyme, parable, mythos and story...
"Who killed cock robin?"...
The Oak King and Holly King coming forth at their appointed opposite times of the year...hunting each other down...
the Great Battle of the Two:...giants, knights, warriors, kings, monsters, or beasts...
Most mythologies have someone like Arthur settling the dispute / battle as arbiter or judge...
the two fight over a thing /place / person of value....which is really representative of the Earth or Creation...
Each year they fight...and the the victor gets the spoils for a year...so the eternal battle goes until the last battle...
the Gauls had names for these gods / powers ..
Teutates /Toutatis (material time and power rep. as a being holding up livestock in it's hands) and opposingly Taranis (ethereal / spiritual / true time and power rep as a being holding human beings ...All that is without form...eg..energy)
Old stories...real real old philo.
Caught between these two Eastern and Western compass poles were two concepts as Divinity which essentially was reflective of all of us..
Tau / Thau ...the "All" that is...the collective...the objective..(humanity)...the Many...
and Esus at the Bottom....the individual...the subjective....the One...

I'd go on...it is cool oldie-old-old stuff...but... many may find it's a boring topic when compared to other things ...
Speaking of Concept-uals an Powers, Mytho and Philo and all.

But one thing to think on is that material time is not a fixed thing...that time... say... in neighbouring Galaxies may or plain-flat-outright doesn't move the way it does in ours...
cool appetizer for thought...

Time is money.

....and if time is fake? Oh lord, what have I done!!!

Hahahahahaha
transitory power there....time is money until money becomes worthless and something else becomes the currency of value.
Time ..your time...my time...that is really one of the best currencies that is precious ...
How many summers will a human see in his/ her lifetime...? at best 'tween 65 and maybe 90? ...How many beautiful summers will they remember out of that? Really remember that is..really recall....maybe 50-some -odd? At best 80-ish? Not many summers...tends to make one feel their mortality quite keenly when viewed thus...time becomes quite a valuable commodity then ...