Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Romans may have driven their carts and chariots on the left, and the practice seems to have carried over into parts of medieval Europe. The reasons for this are not entirely certain, but some believe it arose as a matter of safety.
The majority of people are right handed, one theory goes, so driving or riding on the left would have allowed them to wield a weapon with their dominant hand if they crossed paths with an enemy. Until as recently as the s, horse and wagon traffic was so light that the decision to drive on the left or right often varied according to local custom. Left-hand traffic finally became the law of the land in Britain after the passage of government measures in and , but the opposite tradition prevailed in France, which favored the right as early as the 18th century.
Sitting on the left however made it difficult to judge the traffic coming the other way, as anyone who has driven a left-hand drive car along the winding lanes of Britain will agree! These huge wagons were best suited to the wide open spaces and large distances of Canada and the US, and the first keep-to-the-right law was passed in Pennsylvania in , with many Canadian and US states following suit later. As most people are right-handed, the driver would sit to the right of the seat so his whip hand was free.
Traffic congestion in 18th century London led to a law being passed to make all traffic on London Bridge keep to the left in order to reduce collisions. This rule was incorporated into the Highway Act of and was adopted throughout the British Empire. Please enter some message text. Handy Guides. And why do countries differ?
It's the right, if you didn't know. Virgin Islands St. Thomas, St.. John, St. Croix in the Caribbean do drive on the left side. Kitts, Nevis, Dominica etc.
The geographical information was correct, albeit lacking quite a few countries, the terms we swapped. Although that is the case. This article was rather informative indeed. Please Please make an entry.
The reason is to stop people falling asleep on long journeys. Driving in the UK is better than mainland Europe. People are courteous and give way politely. The left hand drive is just the British doing it their own way. We drive on left side of the road.
Please make an entry. So you people have it totally backwards. If the steering wheel is on the left hand side of a vehicle, then that vehicle drives on the right side of the road. Just simply Google it Drives on the left. Majority of cars appear to be left hand drive. Lay agreed with Rose that the Conestoga wagon provided a "major impetus for right-hand driving in the United States": The wagon was operated either by the postilion driver riding the left-hand near horse-called the wheel horse-or by the driver walking or sitting on a "lazy board" on the left-hand side of the vehicle.
He kept to the left in both cases in order to use the right hand to manage the horses and operate the brake lever mounted on the left-hand side. Passing therefore required moving to the right to give the driver forward vision. Lay also emphasized the ditches as an influence: With the growth of traffic, the roadside ditches also led to a growing tendency in the United States in the late nineteenth century for drivers of light horse-drawn vehicles to both drive on the right and sit on the right to avoid the greater evil of the ditch.
It was also common practice with bench-seated drivers of single-line horse drawn carriages, where the need to accommodate the whip in the right hand predominated. Lay points out that technical innovation created the configuration we are familiar with in the United States: However, with the introduction of the steering wheel in , a central location was no longer technically possible.
Car makers usually copied existing practice and placed the driver on the curbside. Thus, most American cars produced before were made with right-side driver seating, although intended for right-side driving.
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