Why do the english drive on the left and the americans on the right?

sendjosemanuel

I honestly do not know!

I am from south Africa, and there we drive on the left. i currently live in Portugal and we drive on right.

I do not know why!

sldolphins

I don't know for sure, but we in America do things different from England, such as using feet and gallons instead of the metric system as an extended way of showing our independance from England after the Revolutionary War. Maybe people decided not to drive their carriages on the same side of the road as in England, and it just stuck.

Apparently, the first two aircraft carriers were built with the control towers on the left (relative to the landing pilots), but because(for some reason - I don't why)there is a tendency for crashing pilots to veer to the left, both carriers had their contol towers destroyed. All aircraft carriers built since have their control towers on the right (relative to landing pilots). By extension, if you drive on the left hand side of the road, in the event of an accident you would tend to steer off the road, and not into the path of the oncoming traffic, perhaps.

adviseforeverything

Because America wanted to be different. The church says that it is wrong to use your left hand, so when they used swords the right arm was the sword arm. English roads are designed so that you always had your sword arm facing the road in case of attack.

Walter Ridgeley

Because that's the law - otherwise people would be driving all over the road!

The regular guy

I really don't know but knew a guy from New Zealand that moved to US. He forgot about the difference one morning headed out the drive down the road around a curve and head on into another car. Thank goodness everyone survived.

ss4_ll

Up to the late 1700s, everybody traveled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right handed people. Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him. Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon. The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed; his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. From then on, any part colonized by the French was right hand.

In America, the French colonized the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec, also the Maritimes -formerly known as Acadia). The Dutch colonized New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portuguese colonies the southern Americas. So the British were a minority in shaping the "traffic". USA adopted the drive-on-the-right policy, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past. Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed. If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American; for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars. From then on many countries changed out of necessity.

Just Ashu

In the olden days, people passed each other on the road they should be in the best possible position to use their sword to protect themselves. As most people are right handed they therefore keep to their left. This practice was formalised in a Papal Edict by Pope Benefice around 1300AD who told all his pilgrims to keep to the left.

Nothing much changed until 1773 when an increase in horse traffic forced the UK Government to introduce the General Highways Act of 1773 which contained a keep left recommendation. This became a law as part of the Highways Bill in 1835.

Reasons to travel on the right are less clear but the generally accepted version of history is as follows: The French, being Catholics, followed Pope Boneface's edict but in the build up to the French Revolution in 1790 the French Aristocracy drove their carriages at great speed on the left hand side of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right side for their own safety. Come the Revolution, instincts of self preservation resulted in the remains of the Aristocracy joining the peasants on the right hand side of the road. The first official record of this was a keep right rule introduced in Paris in 1794

OK, that explains the UK and France but what about the rest of the world ?

organickid10

they're stupid

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