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My belief is that driving on the left dates back to jousting, where the lance was held by the stronger, for a right-hander, arm.
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Nigeria made the changeover from driving on the left to driving on the right - to fit in with the francophone countries surrounding it and use lhd Peugeots - in the late sixties or early seventies. I seem to remember there was a 24-hour driving ban ostensibly to give time for the road signs to be changed (fortunately there weren't all that many), followed by a cautious resumption on the right with low speed limits for a few days. Caused a lot of anxiety but not much mayhem I think.
Of course head-on crashes on heavily potholed two-lane rural blacktop continued as proud drivers tried to stare each other out on the relatively undamaged crown of the road...
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There was a thread last year on this - didn't that unelected EU apparatchik Kinnock suggest that the UK should go that way (or was it Kilometers ?) ? The infrastructure cost in this country would be huge.
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Up until 1914, the US drove on the left, check any US car pre-1914. Also, look at any Western movie, you will see the stagecoach/wagon driver sitting on the right side of the vehicle. I think it has something to do with a tradition of ships passing each other by keeping left??? I don't know why they changed, but they do like to do/spell things differently. Perhaps they seek an identity of their own.
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Its to do with horses and how they were led on a road. Continental Europe changed this when Napoleon wanted them to be "different" to the UK. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuary there were moves in the US to move from Englishness one of these moves was to Americanize spelling (color etc) I may be mistaken but this is this w hy they moved to LHD ?
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That is also pretty much my understanding of it PU.
I probably favour an eventual standardisation of the convention. Don't think I care which one wins out but it would make some sense to me for all sorts of reasons to have all countries driving on an agreed side.
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So in a revolt the left handers in most of the world will be at an advantage. Not that I have a sword ;-) Well not here. Jolly good.
Edited by rtj70 on 24/05/2009 at 00:26
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one of these moves was to Americanize spelling (color etc)
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My understanding is that, 'color' etc, is the way that we - the Brits - used to spell these words. Over the centuries we have changed the spelling to include a 'u'.
So we have changed, the Yanks haven't.
Edited by drbe on 25/05/2009 at 19:37
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Something to do with a tradition of ships passing each other by keeping left?
All the ships I have had anything to do with, keep to the right - i.e. pass port-side to port-side.
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Driving on the right is a more recent "invention" than we may think! Many European countries drove on the left until "international events" unfolded: Anschluss (Austria - Captain von Trapp's car in The Sound of Music was RHD!) or invasion (Hungary, Czechoslovakia)
Up to the 1920s the Netherlands and Portugal drove on the left, as their ex colonies (Indonesia, Surinam, Mozambique, Macao) and colonies of ex colonies (East Timor) continue to do today.
Spain, Italy, Belgium and China had different rules for different areas (Madrid drove on the left, Barcelona on the right; rural Italy on the left, urban areas on the right and so on); It seems clear that mass production and subsequently export of mostly LHD cars, especially from the USA, had a large bearing on the decision to drive on the right, but proximity to neighbours driving on the right (Canada, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana) and newly independent countries making a symbolic break with a colonial past (Bahrain, Burma) influenced other countries.
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I don't think there's any safety difference between driving on the left or right among people who are used to driving on those sides.
I don't think many countries will change which side of the road they drive on now - the upheaval and confusion would be too great. I believe there was a proposal put forward that all EU countries would have to drive on the right, meaning that the UK and Eire would have to change, but that was defeated.
It might have made sense for us to change to driving on the right just after World war 2, when traffic was very light because of fuel rationing, but it the stakes would be too high now.
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I remember a conversation with someone in the construction industry who told me quite reliably that up to a certain date (1984 IIRC) all new roundabouts were built to a perfectly symmetrical design (seen from above) which would have enabled an easier switchover to driving on the right if that ever happened in Britain. Which of course it didn't.
Whenever I am back in Britain and driving around I do notice a difference in roundabout layouts from area to area, and the "symmetrical/non symmetrical" theory seems to ring true. I also notice that more and more councils seem to delight in stacking up vegetation, fences and other obstacles on the approach roads which force drivers down to a dead crawl or complete stop as they join a roundabout, which rather defeats the point of having them in the first place. (Only in Britain!)
And I can't help but notice the fact that we seem to have almost as many roundabouts as CCTV cameras in Britain! And don't get me started on speed humps.....
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Stacking up vegetation, fences and other obstacles on the approach roads
... and in the centre of large roundabouts too, which is even worse IMHO. One is meant to be travelling slowly when approaching, but it can be really difficult entering an opaque roundabout which is large enough for cars to be moving quite fast.
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>> And I can't help but notice the fact that we seem to have almost as many roundabouts as CCTV cameras in Britain!
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If you are fond of roundabouts, perhaps you would like to try the roundabout(s) at Hatton Cross on the approach to Heathrow, just off the A30.
This consists of a large dual carriageway roundabout (you can drive round it clockwise or anti-clockwise) on this large roundabout there are five mini roundabouts, these mini roundabouts must be taken in a clockwise direction.
It's quite good fun really!
Edited by drbe on 25/05/2009 at 19:48
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Bilboman has given the full picture.
My father in law recalled living in Brno the day the Germans invaded. One day everyone drove on the left, the next day he woke up to loudspeaker vans touring the city telling everyone (in German) to drive on the right. That's when he decided it was time to get out.
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I thought driving (riding) on the left, traces its origins back to the Romans. Roman soldiers were all trained to fight right handed. When on horse back they would approach an oncoming rider on the left, so if the approaching rider were an enemy they could draw their sword from its scabbard (on his belt on his left)with their right hand and engage their enemy to their right, rather than trying to swipe off the other guys head to their left hand side leaning across his horses neck. May be a load of bull, but I like the explanation.
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Let us just take comfort from the fact that quite a few continental railways still drive on the left because Brits showed them how things should be done.
All of mainland Europe does! I don't think that it'd be feasable for one country to travel on the right and the rest the left unless there was a gauge change and everyone had to change trains anyhow!
Thinking about it, it would be the same for cars... can you imagine if say Germany and Switzerland drove on the left and the rest on the right.... gettting across Europe could prove interesting, to say the least!
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>> Thinking about it it would be the same for cars... can you imagine if say Germany and Switzerland drove on the left and the rest on the right.... gettting across Europe could prove interesting to say the least!
But as Bilboman has pointed out, that's exactly how it was before the war. As you crossed from Germany into Czechoslovakia you switched from right to left.
Savoy Court is said to be the only street in England where traffic drives on the right.
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nless there was a gauge change and everyone had to change trains anyhow!
Trains leaving France for Spain (which had a different gauge) had special boggies that adapted to the different gauge that the Spaniards ran (thanks to a British Engineer) so that the same coaches could travel across the border.
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Yes, I was waiting until someone spotted that! Also was (or is?) the case on the Orient Express. Just talking in general, though, the cost of such stock is pretty prohibitive, so most stations where there is a gauge change rely on Shanks's Pony to get people from one train to the other!
(You a closet spotter, PU?!) :-)
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I've never spotted a closet though !
Nah, just one of things I "know"
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It's a wee bit more complex than that with trains. Being a former railway buff (I grew out of it) I asked about this on a railway forum, and got some rather interesting answers.
Railways in the UK largely conform to the rules of the road, as you'll all know.
The majority of British 20th century steam engines were left-hand drive, that is to say the driver sat on the left, for the very good reason that he was best placed to see the signals. The main exception to this rule was the Great Western, whose engines were right-hand drive, apparently for no other reason than they always were. This meant that the fireman had to be extra vigilant of course.
Link to the thread referred to above;
tinyurl.com/o9gbog
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The main exception to this rule was the Great Western - this meant that the fireman had to be extra vigilant of course.
The GWR always knew best (not without reason), at least until about 1920, when other railways caught up. But Western signals were often on the driver's side anyway; and don't forget that with the GW's Automatic Warning System express drivers didn't need to see them anyhow ...
No other railway adopted AWS, partly because the GW developed it, in about 1910.
Edited by Andrew-T on 26/05/2009 at 22:51
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Trains leaving France for Spain (which had a different gauge) had special boggies ..
Boggies eh? Yes, this is true if you cross on the east coast line, but not on the west near Biarritz, which we did last year. Still have to walk from one platform to another, at 10pm in our case. Then a change of engine at 4am, diesel to electric, at the Portuguese border.
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Franco ordered Spain's trains to have different gauges to the rest of Europe to prevent a foreign (rail bound) invasion; (Hitler was obviously more concerned with invading than being invaded...)
Trains generally drive on the left here, including RENFE and the local FEVE and EuskoTren narrow gauge lines and Bilbao's metro. But not so the trams, which drive on the right, which caused more than one British traveller (myself included!) a couple of near death experiences when the service first started running!
Anecdote time! The space shuttle's booster rockets (possibly the most sophisticated form of transport yet developed) have the same width as a pair of horse's rears (not quite so sophisticated). Why so?
Wheel spacing on Roman chariots was as wide as two horse's rears. Chariots gave way to stagecoaches (same ruts in the ground, same gauge) and railway lines were likewise set at a fairly consistent 4' 8 1/2" IIRC. British railway gauges went to the USA. Railway tunnels across the USA were therefore of a fairly standard size. When the rocket boosters for Challenger and the test were made, they had to be no wider than the railway tunnels through which they would eventually travel from factory to launch pad. Hence rocket boosters as wide as two horses' rears...
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Franco ordered Spain's trains to have different gauges ..
That must be a myth. Spain's rail system was built before Franco was invented. Even he couldn't afford to relay all the track and regauge the rolling stock to prevent invasion. And nearly every country built tunnels bigger than ours, which is why most foreign locos can be built larger than ...
I wonder why Ireland's broad gauge was wider than England's, though ...
And as for the motoring connection, where was I ...
Edited by Andrew-T on 27/05/2009 at 00:55
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>>>>That must be a myth.
Can't believe everything you read on the Internet, then, eh? :-)
One of the theories about Spain's broader gauge was the threat of French invasion - France occupied Spain from 1808 to 1813 - and when the railways were laid there was obviously no incentive to adopt the same gauge as the hostile neighbour. A better theory is the larger more powerful locomotives needed to work the sinuous mountain routes, which inevitably required wider tracks. During the dictatorship, it obviously suited the regime to force rail passengers coming in from France to disembark in Irun or Figueres and pass through customs.
Motoring link: www.harscotrack.com/hy-rail.htm
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Larger more powerful locomotives needed to work the sinuous mountain routes, which inevitably required wider tracks ...
But Bilboman, if your mountain routes are sinuous, your tracks have to be narrower to negotiate the curves. Have a look at the Darjeeling Himalaya, one of the classic mountain narrow-gauge lines, still running (some) steam.
But there are some pretty large locos on narrow gauge - just go to the Welsh Highland and see the giants from South Africa. Quite out of character.
Motoring connection - you'll have to drive to get there ...
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