Yesterday, the residents of Samoa began driving on the left side of the road instead of the right. This is the first major switch since the 1970s, when Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone made the change. Randy James of Time magazine has an article exploring how different nations came to use different sides of the road:
Link via Outside the Beltway
Image by flickr user multitrack used under creative commons license.
Theories differ, but there's no doubt Napoleon was a major influence. The French have used the right since at least the late 18th century (there's evidence of a Parisian "keep-right" law dating to 1794). Some say that before the French Revolution, aristocrats drove their carriages on the left, forcing the peasantry to the right. Amid the upheaval, fearful aristocrats sought to blend in with the proletariat by traveling on the right as well. Regardless of the origin, Napoleon brought right-hand traffic to the nations he conquered, including Russia, Switzerland and Germany. Hitler, in turn, ordered right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Austria in the 1930s. Nations that escaped right-handed conquest, like Great Britain, preserved their left-handed tradition.
Link via Outside the Beltway
Image by flickr user multitrack used under creative commons license.
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)
"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 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.
Because of the inevitable head-on collisions, obviously.
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? :)