Why are postal mailboxes always put on the opposite side of the street from the driver?

Question

Why are postal mailboxes always put on the opposite side of the street from the driver?

Answer 1

Most drivers sit toward the center of the road,  no matter which side you put the vehicle on.    To put mailboxes where the driver could reach out the window easily would mean the driver has to cross the oncoming flow of traffic.   So the choice is......  pull into the drive and walk to the mailbox,  or pull across the traffic and get knocked into the undertaker's hands.    

Your call!

Or.......    the government bureaucracy had their hand in the planning and this was screwed up just to keep from disappointing the public.

Answer 2

Very simple so the mailman does not have to get out his truck to put the mail in your box and for the people with cluster mailboxes, the same he can pull right up to the boxes and step onto the sidewalk.........safety.

Answer 3

I'm not sure where you live, but here in SC the mailboxes are on the side of the mail man driving the mail vehicle.......

Answer 4

Well, most postal trucks have the steering wheel on the right side, but I'm assuming that you mean if the driver were in a regular car. Well, that's the fault of the US -- we have our steering wheels on the left side, and you can't put mailboxes there because it would force people to cross the street to check their mail. And the postal worker would have to cross in front of oncoming traffic to deliver it.