Why do people drive on opposite sides of the road in England and the U.S.?

tented

It's historical. Most countries, certainly the old British Empire, drove on the left, a hangover from the days of horses. However on the continent Napoleon had problems when moving his armies about and decreed a code whereby each column of troops would keep to the right. This directly led to driving on the right which has now spread to most, but by no means all, other countries. England was never conquered by Napoleon and being great traditionalists still maintains driving on the left and measuring distance in miles. Feb 07 02, 4:54 AM

Fosse4

I've always been led to believe (that means it's heresay) that we drive on the left hand side of the road because Knights (who were mainly right handed) rode their horses on that side of the track so their sword arm was on the side to attack anyone coming the other way. Obviously the Americans drive on the opposite side of the road because they wanted to be different to the Brits. Feb 09 02, 12:21 PM

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Why do the English people drive on the left side of the road and why are the steering wheels in their cars on the right side of the car? Why do the English drive on the left? Why do we drive on the left hand side in Britain and in America they drive on the right? Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

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