> : As an aside, I know there were problems in Sydney retraining trolley bus
> : drivers on diesel buses. The trolley buses had the brake pedal where the
> : accelerator would normally be, and vice versa.
Some of the PCCs used in San Francisco before the arrival of the Boeing
Vertol junkheaps in the late 1970s had this feature too... the
accelerator and brake pedals transposed. It was VERY dangerous and
resulted in a fair few crashes, so these cars saw little use.
I understand that most if not all British-designed trolleybuses had the
pedals reversed. Certainly, all the trolleybuses that came to New Zealand
up to 1964 were like this.... the first trolleys with the pedals in the
right place were the Volvos delivered to Wellington from 1981 to 1986.
The brake pedal was on the right side of the steering column and the
accelerator pedal on the left of the steering column. This arrangement
was okay once you got used to it, as it meant you braked with your right
foot which you do driving a car anyway.
If the brake had been on the left side, you would have been braking with
your left foot (because of the steering column in the middle) which would
have been fairly dangerous.... to see what I mean, find a wide empty
street or supermarket carpark, accelerate to as little as 10kmh, then
apply the brake with your left foot.
Dave McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand