Comments on: Why Don’t We All Drive on the Same Side of the Road?

By: Shurik

Shurik — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:25:24 +0000

I can’t recall Napoleon ever conquering Russia…

By: pwscott

pwscott — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:02:03 +0000

After a visit to Malaysia and sitting in a passenger seat of a car that is my usual driving seat I became disoriented when I arrived back in the States. Luckily a friend drove me most of the way home from the airport, because when I got in to drive I almost immediately veered to the left lane to drive. I still don’t know what influenced that country to drive in the left lane, but after observing the numerous roudabouts and the number of bikes on the road, the Malaysians seem to have it under control.

By: seenondv

seenondv — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:02:54 +0000

I heard it was because of back in the days of yore….when people traveled by horse around the countryside, they would pass on the left so that they could easily draw their swords and defend themselves from attack. The reason the WEST never did this was because by that time, it really wasn’t about swords as much as guns by that time and since most are right handed you would want to pass on the right and draw your gun across your body.

By: Skipweasel

Skipweasel — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:28:32 +0000

Varun – large bits of the US already use metric – NASA, for a start.

By: Varun

Varun — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:54:31 +0000

2 billion people drive on the Left side,mostly due to India [and former British colonies]
Rest of the 4+ billion on the right.
I think we should just ride on the right in exchange for the 2 remaining Countries [including the US] to switch to Metric system.
How about it,hey?

By: Skipweasel

Skipweasel — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:45:16 +0000

Clearly driving on the left is correct, otherwise you have to go widdershins round roundabouts, with all the attendant bad karma.

By: Lady Helena Handbasket

Lady Helena Handbasket — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:09:06 +0000

I think Shadowfirebird has hit the nail on the proverbial

By: shadowfirebird

shadowfirebird — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:36:23 +0000

“Why don’t we all drive on the same side of the road?”

Because of the inevitable head-on collisions, obviously.

By: Foreigner1

Foreigner1 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:31:28 +0000

Correction Angstrom- In the US- right side driving was already in use from the late 1700′s.
By the time Henry Ford and his cars came along there were still no rules on how to build cars. So where to put the steering wheel was entirely up to the ideas of the builders. His marketing-trick was exactly that, because other auto-makers could put the steering wheel in the centre or on the other side for arguments of luxury, fashion, exclusiveness or because the side of the steering wheel better matched the position of the clutch-lever and the spare-tire.

By: angstrom

angstrom — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:54:47 +0000

the article says :
“One of the final moves to firmly standardize traffic directions in the U.S. occurred in the 20th century, when Henry Ford decided to mass-produce his cars with controls on the left (one reason, stated in a 1908 catalog: the convenience for passengers exiting directly onto the curb”

EH?
So, the supposed reason was that passengers could exit to the pavement. It’s the same in Left-hand drive countries. Remember : everything is reversed, passenger seat side included, therefore the passenger always exits to the kerb (UK spelling there).

So, that’s either hilarious early 20thC marketing, or a bit of bad modern journalism by Time.

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:27:09 +0000

Oops. Fixed now.

By: nuts

nuts — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:25:27 +0000

They started driving on the left side of the road mainly because they can now import cars from Australia and New-Zealand, Please fix this.

By: rogerp

rogerp — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:20:52 +0000

No no no. Samoa began driving on the “left-hand” side of the road.
They were driving on the right hand side – but changed mainly to match the rest of us in this part of the world. (less problems for car sales, tourists, immigrants etc)