Why do other countries drive on the different side of the road?

Answer 1

Well the British used to ride on the left so that if they met someone coming the other way, they could show that they were not about to use their sword and could shake hands with their sword hand. Other countries probably followed the code Napoleon. That code is far from dead and decimalisation and metrication are part of it.

Answer 2

here we go again...


In the Middle Ages you kept to the left for the simple reason that you never knew who you'd meet on the road in those days. You wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly.
This custom was given official sanction in 1300 AD, when Pope Boniface VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left.

The papal system prevailed until the late 1700s, when teamsters in the United States and France 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 you were sitting on the left, naturally you wanted everybody to pass on the left so you could look down and make sure you kept clear of the other guy's wheels. Ergo, you kept to the right side of the road. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and in the ensuing years many states and Canadian provinces followed suit.

In France the keep-right custom was established in much the same way. An added impetus was that, this being the era of the French Revolution and all, people figured, hey, no pope gonna tell ME what to do. (See above.) Later Napoleon enforced the keep-right rule in all countries occupied by his armies. The custom endured even after the empire was destroyed.

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.

Nonetheless, the power of the right has been growing steadily. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, it brutally suppressed the latter's keep-left rights, and much the same happened in Czechoslovakia in 1939. The last holdouts in mainland Europe, the Swedes, finally switched to the right in 1967 because most of the countries they sold Saabs and Volvos to were righties and they got tired of having to make different versions for domestic use and export.

The current battleground is the island of Timor. The Indonesians, who own west Timor, have been whiling away the hours exterminating the native culture of the east Timorese. The issue? Some say it's religion, some say it's language, but I know the truth: in east Timor they drive on the right, in west Timor they drive on the left.

Answer 3

John M has the answer - in fact it is said that all of Western Europe (and i believe Japan and China) used to have rules that made mounted knights pass to the left of each other to keep their swords from entanglement - this developed into a general rule but the French Revolution wanted to abolish the concept of nobility and chivalry so they reversed it to show that citizens didn't need to carry swords. Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain all followed as they were conquered by France.

Answer 4

I heard different, because the world was mostly ruled by the British (72% actually, amazing fact eh!), other countries obviously didn't like this and changed to the other side just to have a sort of "dig" at the British.

Answer 5

Nice to see a few correct answers on this subject.

In the UK it is related to the days of jousting on horse back and the customs of old that carried on until the days of the horseless carriage or automobile.

Good Luck!

Answer 6

far as I am aware this was because of Napoleon's hatred of all things English. He made it law to drive on the opposite side of the road to the English road rules apparently.

Answer 7

It's because other countries have no respect for the authority of the Queen.

Answer 8

It is all to do with the eye, its field of vision and how the eye and brain process the data it receives.

If your on the Left, you get to see in enough time anything coming from the right and as we all see left to right, any left field is also seen quicker/

If your on the Right, you get to see any left field before Right field, so your prone to have an accident.

Answer 9

it's because the british wore their swords on the left it's a mounting stone and horse thing long time before cars

Answer 10

In France due to the nobility and revolution,
http://www.amphicars.com/acleft.htm