Why do the English drive on the left?

bloomsby

It's said that in the Roman Empire VIPs drove on the left in order to be able to fight an oncoming opponent conveniently with the right hand ... Of course this could be an urban legend. It's said that it was the French who started that nonsense about driving on the right and then most other countries copied them though in fairness some may have had the habit forced on them by Napoleon's armies. :) In 20th century Europe, Austria-Hungary (and most of the "successor states") and Sweden also drove on the left. Nov 24 05, 6:06 PM

satguru

I believe many reasons, and it's still around half the world- India, Japan, Australia as well as Cyprus and Malta in Europe. As most people are right handed, our dominant side is focused towards oncoming traffic. If we change gear our dominant hand remains on the wheel while the other changes gear. Secondly (something I've never heard anyone else notice) we read from left to right here, as in all who use the Roman alphabet. That means driving on the left we work our way across a road to the right in our visual field, and as we read from right to left are far more used to pointing our heads in that direction whether left or right handed. In fact if Napoleon hadn't hated us so much no country would ever have even considered driving on the right. Because (just as adopting metric) Napoleon changed over (if I remember correctly) and unlike Britain was connected to a continent, it was just easier to follow the country next door than change over every time you entered and left France. Like the domino effect, Sweden finally followed some years ago completing the 100 year plus changeover except for the islands. Even poor Gibraltar had little choice despite remaining British territory and having spent much of their history with a relatively closed border. So the question should really be 'Why does any country drive on the right' as the left was the norm until Napoleon did his own thing. Nov 24 05, 6:32 PM

gmackematix

This has been covered in Q1562, in Q38527 and others. For the record, about 50 nations drive on the left including India. Population-wise, more of the world's population lives in left driving countries. Like much of Europe, the US went along with the French system. Nov 24 05, 6:40 PM

Flem-ish

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm#leftdriving shows a world map of left vs. right driving countries and mentions a total of 34% of the world-population driving on the left vs. 66% right-drivers. A newspaper story on April Fool's Day seems to have suggested that to further European integration the UK is to convert to driving on the right. It was added that, to smoothen the transition, the regulation will at first only apply to buses and taxis. Nov 24 05, 10:45 PM

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