what is the story, in england, about driving on the left?

Question

what is the history of this concept?

Answer 1

It's an old tradition .

Answer 2

In small-is-beautiful England, though, they didn't use monster wagons that required the driver to ride a horse. Instead the guy sat on a seat mounted on the wagon. What's more, he usually sat on the right side of the seat so the whip wouldn't hang up on the load behind him when he flogged the horses. (Then as now, most people did their flogging right-handed.) So the English continued to drive on the left, not realizing that the tide of history was running against them and they would wind up being ridiculed by folks like you with no appreciation of life's little ironies. Keeping left first entered English law in 1756, with the enactment of an ordinance governing traffic on the London Bridge, and ultimately became the rule throughout the British Empire.

The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global homogenization. Its former colony India remains a hotbed of leftist sentiment, as does Indonesia, which was occupied by the British in the early 19th century. The English minister to Japan achieved the coup of his career in 1859 when he persuaded his hosts to make keep-left the law in the future home of Toyota and Mitsubishi.



Driving on the left isn't a myth or folklore by the way. You could have posted this in the travel section or something related to driving or commuting in England.

Answer 3

It goes back further.

Most jousters would hold their sword/jousting staff thingy in their right hands. Therefore, to allow the two swords/staffs to meet in the middle, the two guys would have to go to their individual left. This continued with carriages/wagons/cars.

This changed in many countries over time, but 71 countries still drive on the left.