For those that wonder why the UK drives on the left-hand side, I found out today. I get a "fact of the day" in my e-mail (I actually signed up for the list believe it or not) and this was the one today:
Fact of the Day: drive-on-the-left locations
No one knows for sure, but some suggest that left-side driving originated from the fact that carriage drivers liked to sit on the right to give their whip hands more freedom. In the Middle Ages, one kept to the left for the simple reason that one never knew when someone unfriendly would come along, and driving on the left kept the right arm free to hold a sword. This custom was given official sanction in 1300 AD, when Pope Boniface VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and the other states and Canadian provinces followed suit.
Who are we?
- Bridges
- Lakeland, Florida, United States
- We are Tim (Dad), Krisy (Mom), Delaney (7), Greyson (2), and Owen (1).
3 comments:
All of the other European countries I have seen drive on the right, though. Are we to believe that they adopted American driving conventions?
Joe,
An excellent question, my dear friend. The most "to the point" answer I have found came from Pandora. I quote the most germane section here:
In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.
In addition, the French Revolution of 1789 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 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793.
Later, Napoleon's conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Russia and many parts of Spain and Italy. The states that had resisted Napoleon kept left – Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Portugal. This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations would remain fixed for more than 100 years, until after the First World War.
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm#history
Wow. I had no idea people thought about this so much. Imagine what they could have accomplished with putting this much thought toward [the world problem of your choice].
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