Originally
posted by
Tiny Turtle:
Morg,
Yeah, but at least your guys are driving on the right side of the road...
I have always found it strange where countries pass left to left (IE. driving on the right). Historically passing right to right (driving on the left) comes from people on horseback (or carts etc.) holding reins in the left hand and leaving the right hand free for greeting or weapons to defend yourself from an attack as you pass on a trail/track.
The vast majority of the world drives on the right (66%) and most roads are right driven (72%) there is only one country that does both, china, only because of Hong-Kong though.
The USA used to pass to pass on the left until the late 1700's when huge teamsters freight waggons were introduced (with no seat, the driver sat on rear left horse with whip in right hand) making passing on the right easier, the UK had smaller waggons driven from the right hand seat.
Research in 1969 showed countries driving on the left have a lower collision rate than countries driving on the right. Some countries that have switched to driving on the right, (such as Sweden), have seen their long-term accident rates increase by more than any increase in traffic volume. It has been suggested, but not proven, that this is partly because it is more common to be right-eye dominant.
The romans in Britain are known to have driven on the left (archeological evidence in and out of quaries deep ruts in the road going out with heavy load, shollow ruts coming in empty).