[net.auto] Right hand drive cars pedal arrangements?

dob@ihu1n.UUCP (Daniel M. O'Brien) (01/18/85)

I have a friend that is planning a trip to New Zealand.  He
was wondering how the pedals (gas, brake, clutch) were laid
out in a right-hand drive car.  Is the layout a "mirror"
image of the left-hand drive car or is it the same?

Simply stated: which feet work which pedals?


-- 
		
			Daniel M. O'Brien
			AT&T Bell Laboratories
			IH 4A-258
			Naperville, IL 60566
		
			....!ihu1n!dob
		

rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams) (01/21/85)

In article <142@ihu1n.UUCP> dob@ihu1n.UUCP (Daniel M. O'Brien) writes:
>I have a friend that is planning a trip to New Zealand.  He
>was wondering how the pedals (gas, brake, clutch) were laid
>out in a right-hand drive car.  Is the layout a "mirror"
>image of the left-hand drive car or is it the same?

 It's the same! I worried about the same thing on my first trip
 from Ireland to the USA. The only thing that took some getting
 used to was using a different hand to shift gear in a standard
 shift car - and, of course, staying on the correct side of the
 street :-).
-- 
 
 rod williams
 -------------------------------------------
 [decvax!decwrl!amdcad!dual!ptsfa!ptsfc!rjw]

doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (01/21/85)

> I have a friend that is planning a trip to New Zealand.  He
> was wondering how the pedals (gas, brake, clutch) were laid
> out in a right-hand drive car.  Is the layout a "mirror"
> image of the left-hand drive car or is it the same?

Actually, the hardest part is the "mirror" image mirrors.  The
mirrors are on the "wrong" sides.  Took me about 4 hours to
notice that I wasn't watching the mirrors (there weren't any
where I was looking for 'em).  I chose an automatic to avoid
the left-hand shifting problem -- kinda glad I did, 'cuz I
still had problems switching from Drive to Reverse and back.
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug

mroddy@enmasse.UUCP (Mark Roddy) (01/23/85)

> > I have a friend that is planning a trip to New Zealand.  He
> > was wondering how the pedals (gas, brake, clutch) were laid
> > out in a right-hand drive car.  Is the layout a "mirror"
> > image of the left-hand drive car or is it the same?

Yet another thing to be careful of: rotaries go the wrong way!

I had no problem with reversed pedals, shifts etc. (though the phantom
mirror problem was annoying.) Also right hand turns in intersections
should be taken with the same precaution one uses for a left hand turn
state-side. (One normally turns sensors to full on left turns, sensors to 
about 1/3 for right.)

Really though, not to worry. By the way, New Zealand was nice but they chopped
all the trees down.