Right Hand vs Left Hand Drive


@cgpgrey How about a video on Left Hand vs Right Hand drive, and why the US and most of Europe went with Right Hand Drive...

Figure most people are right handed. Early weapons, swords would be worn on the left hip to make it easier to draw. So you step up on the horse from it's left as the sword is in the way for getting up otherwise. Now as you ride your horse down the road, you'll ride on the left, as you want to keep approaching people on your right in case you need to respond to an attack, you are attacking them on your free side and not across the horse. So people get used to riding on the left of the road. This gives left hand drive a certain sense from a historical perspective.

Of course if you are driving a team of horses, then you are probably on the left rear horse, and for vision and control reasons, it's probably best to drive that team down the right side of the road. So a certain sense there too.

Then again, how often do you drive a team without a coach behind the horses? So why not drive from the right hand spot down the left of the road? Unless it has to do with the shotgun position, since then the person there has to shoot across the driver, in which case right hand drive once again makes sense.

None of which answers why some countries do right hand drive vs left. Did the US adopt right hand drive just to be different from the UK? Why did France adopt right hand drive? Did Napoleon's war efforts really lead to the rest of Europe adopting right hand drive? Sounds like an issue for you to tackle.

Reply · Report Post