Driving On The Left Side Of The Road

[Bob_Roller]

A question to those members in the UK, and OZ, where did the 'custom' of driving on the left side of the road get started ?

I'm sure it was well established, before the invention of motorized transportation .

We 'colonists' drive on the right side, as a symbol of civil disobedience to the King of England .

[Lucky_Lou]

Interesting article here
http://www.2pass.co.uk/goodluck.htm
seems it dates back to medieval times and makes perfect sense when you read it, also i believe Samoa converted from driving on the right to the left last month!!!!
Lou

[Bob_Roller]

Is there much problems with tourists that come from countries where right side of the road driving is the rule ?

[Lucky_Lou]

Is there much problems with tourists that come from countries where right side of the road driving is the rule ?

We have vehicles from allover the place without too many problems but i always give "foreign" trucks a wide berth the accident statistics for them are horrendous.
My friend's father was seriously injured a few years back on a country road when an American tourist came round a corner on the "wrong" side of the road in a hire car,
Ive driven all over Europe and some of the USA with out much of a
problem the only place that scared the pants off me was the Perifique round Paris they are all crazy and drive with a death wish give it a miss if your out that way
Lou

[Barry]

I've driven my own car in European countries while on holiday and you get used it very quickly. I ve never felt unduly stressed by having to concentrate all the time.

Driving on the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road is very much more difficult. When I've driven rental cars in the US and Canda Ive really had to think about what I'm doing especially as the cars are much bigger than I'm used to. What ever I book they always seem to give me a bigger car. Last time in Canada I swear I'd booked a small car and all they had to give me was a Chrysler 300C. It was awesome. 5 litre V8 with over 300 HP. I loved it. [smiley=cheesy.gif]

[steve_wicks]

Here in South Africa we are supposed to drive on the left, but there is a new breed of drivers who seem to think there is less risk of damaging tyres & wheels if one stays as close to the centre of the road as possible.

I hate, and never will get used to driving on the right hand side. I rather catch buses, trains taxis etc than drive a car when I'm in one of those places that drive on the wrong side.

[Altritter]

What I found to be a problem in the UK and Australia long ago was as a pedestrian. We Americans are conditioned to look "left-right-left" before crossing a road. In a left-side country, if a right-side visitor forgets to reverse the sequence, the result can be disaster.

[Motu]

Is there much problems with tourists that come from countries where right side of the road driving is the rule ?

Very much so in New Zealand,head on fatals with tourists on the wrong side of the road are common.Camper vans and rental cars have warning signs on the dash,but it seems to be getting more and more common - more tourists,or just more stupid tourists?

Planes are all left hand drive,and I believe locomotives are all right hand drive...is this really true??

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

And the wonderful motorcycle is middle-of-the-road!

[Darwin_R65]

I spent a month at Clarke Air Base in the Phillipines back when I was in the RAAF. They gave us 6.0 litre diesel powered chev pickups. Massive power from a diesel.

I thought to myself, "this is easy driving on the wrong side of the road" until I made a right hand turn and no other cars around. Then ti dawned on me the gutter was right outside my window, that was when I realised I had made an error. I was fine until turning a corner, after that one oops I never made the mistake again.

Hear about tourists doing it over here, especially on less trafficked roads. Lots of traffic sort of reminds you whats happening.

Although I saw an American driving along the highway and panicked when a wallaby leapt onto the road and he swerved right out of instinct, luckily no oncoming traffic.

John

[k_enn]

As a USA'ian, I found driving on the left when in the Caribbean not to be too bad.  The really strange part, where I had to really concentrate, was going through a traffic circle/roundabout.  

Also, I heard the main reason we drive on the right in the USA goes back to the western expansion and wagon trains.  Some styles of wagons did not have the driver sitting in the center of wagon, but on a seat that was on the side of the wagon.  For some reason, the seat happened to be on the left side of the wagon, so they drove on the right side of the road so they could seen any on-coming wagons without having their view blocked by their own wagon.  

k_enn

[alexznam357]

I found this info on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right#History

[Dizerens5]

Regarding driving on the left:
- if you change over, most people get used to it pretty quickly. I read that most crashes involving British drivers in France happen within a few miles of the ferry landing. I live 2 miles from the Channel Tunnel Terminal so cross over quite frequently, motorcycle or car. No problems.
- Why drive left or right? Apparently it's quite true that in the Middle Ages coaches and wagons went on the left, because they followed the armed horsemen who did it that way so that their right arm (sword arm) was on the correct side for battle if an enemy came the other way. Likewise it was correct for making a raised right hand well visible to an oncomer if you wanted to show you were not holding a weapon.
- In the French Revolution (1789) everything changed, to mark the difference with the old system. Some of the changes turned out to be permanent, like changing to right-side road use. Soon after, Napoleon temporarily conquered most of Europe and took that change with him - and it stayed. But he did not conquer Britain so we stayed on the left! Neither did he conquer Sweden and they kept to the left until about 1955. The French change would have been similar to that in the US - to mark the end of domination, whether by kings or by the Brits!
As for locomotives, the driver (engineer) sits on left or right mostly depending on whether in his country trains on double-track run on left or right. Left in Britain (of course!) and in many countries including France where the first railways were built by the British; right in the US, Germany and others. These days there is always good visibility of railway signals - it was not like that when they had steam locomotives - then the fireman had to look out as well.

[Bob_Roller]

The US Postal Service, has had, and still maintains a large fleet of Jeep type vehicles, that are right hand drive .

It's odd not to see a drive on the left side of the vehicle, makes you do a double take, as you think the vehicle is driver-less .

[Lucky_Lou]

The US Postal Service, has had, and still maintains a large fleet of Jeep type vehicles, that are right hand drive .

It's odd not to see a drive on the left side of the vehicle, makes you do a double take, as you think the vehicle is driver-less .

I think our post office shirkers are going on strike because they have to drive on the right...... any excuse.
Lou