Why do people drive on different sides of the road??

Question

why do people in different countries like the u.s. and britain drive on opposite sides of the road? If the u.s. was the first nation with the automobile, don't you think everyone should of adopted driving on the right side of the road like here in the u.s.? I just read an article that Ireland is considering switching from the left side driving to right handed driving like here due to many accidents from foreign tourists.

Answer 1

really not sure id have to say they got the directions mixed up in translation

Answer 2

I thought they're driving RHD in Ireland all the time??? For me, I'm used to driving RHD all the time, unless somebody is willing to give me a manual transmission Ford F-150 to drive here in Malaysia, then I don't mind... British Colonies followed the Right-Hand Rule, so does Japan and most Southeast Asian Countries neighbouring to Malaysia (except Philippines). US established the LHD rule, then many other countries followed suit.

Answer 3

Which side of the road to drive on was decided long before the automobile.  In the past, almost everybody traveled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him.  In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.

Today, about 1/4 of the world drives on the left (mostly former British colonies).  With world travel, it would make sense to have everyone switch, however

Answer 4

Before automobiles, roads were meant for horse-drawn carriages. The coaches of these carriages have doors on the left side so they were driven on the left side so that alighting and embarking would be safer.They too have rules for ships where the left is call port side and passengers always embark/disembark on the left and land safely in port, if you go to the wrong side you may see the stars in the sky and they called it starboard side. That was in England. Whereas in the US they did not have this rule, so they thought the right side is the right side and they still do it today.

Answer 5

The most important factor seems to be the relative dominance of different types of animal-drawn carts and wagons from earlier days.

Most people are right-handed, which leads to a natural tendency to favour one side of the road or another depending on the means of transportation being used.

Answer 6

...to get to the other side?  Is this a chicken joke?

Answer 7

This makes very interesting reading, you'll find everything there's to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_dir...

If you are a good driver it doesn't really matter what side of the road you drive on or what side of a car you sit on... Look at the guys in BBC's Top Gear. I lived in Britain for for years and spent a lot of time driving on the Continent in a British car.

Just one thing, the US wasn't the first nation with an automobile, the first cars (with an internal combustion engine) were built in Germany and France.

But the US was the first nation that gave a car to the masses. Thank you, Mr. Ford:-)