Timeline for Is it feasible that cars would be made with a central driving position?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 hours ago | comment | added | JBH | @smithkm Race car drivers in the Real World don't have oncoming traffic.... With the evolution of central-seat driving in the OP's fictional world the rules of traffic will be very different. Complaints that worldbuilding doesn't work because it doesn't comply with the Real World are invalid. | |
| 13 hours ago | comment | added | smithkm | Race drivers don't have oncoming traffic separated from them by only a stripe of paint. I can see potential safety benefits to both centre of vehicle and toward centre of the road positioning of the driver. Without an empirical source I think it's unreasonable to assert that one is safer than the other based on nothing but intuition. | |
| 21 hours ago | comment | added | datacube | @JBH I'd add to user71659s concerns that race driving and traffic driving are two very different things. Though I have to admit, there are a lot of people out there, who confuse the two regulary. On a more serious note: the race cars that do use center seat (for example F1) are so optimized for aerodynamics, centre of mass etc. that there is simply no other position for the driver to be. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | gerrit | @MatthieuM. Uh-uh? Then why is my regional train often getting delayed while two or three or four delayed long-distance trains are overtaking? Trains do overtake :) | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Matthieu M. | @gerrit: Trains do not overtake. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | gerrit | Center drive is quite common in trains. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | user71659 | @JBH "Race car drivers sit in the center position" The vast majority of race cars do not have center seating. This includes GT, rally cars, touring, stock cars (NASCAR), Baja racing. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | JBH | @NuclearHoagie I can see that point, but it's also a point from the perspective of how many decades of institutionalization? Race car drivers sit in the center position despite the majority of curves taking them into one direction or the other, and race courses could be designed to ensure every race is clockwise or counter. And yet, they sit in the center seat. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | Not sure I agree that an equal view out both sides is actually safest. The driver's seat is almost universally positioned on the opposite side that traffic drives on, since it allows a better view of the center line and oncoming traffic to allow for safer overtaking. Roads and traffic are not left-right symmetric, I don't see much reason why having the same view out both sides would be best. | |
| 2 days ago | history | answered | JBH | CC BY-SA 4.0 |