Why does gb drive on the left

Driving on the left meant that people leading horses could hold the reins in their right hand and walk at the edge of the road, which was least likely to be a sea of mud. Most people find it easier to mount a horse from its left, too. Why do most countries drive on the right? And one of the things you get to do when you conquer most of Europe is make people drive how you want them to. This seems to be a bit of a myth, however. Some stories actually credit a revolutionary proclamation that argued that, because the aristocrats had ridden on the left, the revolutionary thing to do would be to drive on the right.

No one seems to know for certain. And the US switched from left- to right-hand driving without any help from Napoleon — though again, whether this came about because of the mechanics of driving wagons that required several horses, or whether it was the work of standardisation-fan Henry Ford, is just as contested. How do you switch sides? As a visitor, one of the most disorienting parts of being in the UK is crossing the street. While traffic in almost all of the world passes on the right side, cars in Britain and many of its former colonies drive on the left.

Just why do Brits drive on the opposite side of the road from most other countries? The practice far predates cars, according to The Telegraph. In fact, it goes back to the Middle Ages. This continued until the late s when large wagons became popular for transporting goods. Instead, in order to control the horses, the driver sat on the horse at the back left, thus keeping his whip hand free. Sitting on the left however made it difficult to judge the traffic coming the other way, as anyone who has driven a left-hand drive car along the winding lanes of Britain will agree!

These huge wagons were best suited to the wide open spaces and large distances of Canada and the US, and the first keep-to-the-right law was passed in Pennsylvania in , with many Canadian and US states following suit later.

As most people are right-handed, the driver would sit to the right of the seat so his whip hand was free. Click here for a world map and a full list of all countries of the world and the side of the road on which they drive. In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him.

Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard worn on the left hitting other people. Right-handed knights preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent.

Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword which would be worn on the left.

It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road. In the late s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses.

Therefore he kept to the right side of the road. In Russia, in , the Danish envoy under Tsar Peter the Great noted the widespread custom for traffic in Russia to pass on the right, but it was only in that Empress Elizabeth Elizaveta Petrovna officially issued an edict for traffic to keep to the right. In addition, the French Revolution of gave a huge impetus to right-hand travel in Europe. The fact is, before the Revolution, the aristocracy travelled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right.

An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in , more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations would remain fixed for more than years, until after the First World War. Although left-driving Sweden ceded Finland to right-driving Russia after the Finnish War , Swedish law — including traffic regulations — remained valid in Finland for another 50 years.

The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global homogenisation. With the expansion of travel and road building in the s, traffic regulations were made in every country. Left-hand driving was made mandatory in Britain in Countries which were part of the British Empire followed suit. This is why to this very day, India, Australasia and the former British colonies in Africa go left.

An exception to the rule, however, is Egypt, which had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency. Japan was never part of the British Empire, but its traffic also goes to the left. Gradually, a massive network of railways and tram tracks was built, and of course all trains and trams rode on the left-hand side.