Why do people drive on the right side of the road in some countries and on the left side of the road in other countries? I mean, if cars were built in the United States first, did England and other countries special order them just to be different? Did they make them over there instead? I know there has to be a better reason than just being different.

If you live in a country where you drive on the left side of the road, can you take a "left on red" at stoplights?

Here's a thorough web page, including a world map of left/right driving: http://www.travel-library.com/general/driving/drive_which_side.html

Some of it has to do with the history of horse-drawn carts in different countries. America (Ford) used to make right-side-driver autos but switched to left-side driver (right side of road):

"it was decided that it was more practical to have the driver seated near the centreline of the road, both to judge the space available when passing oncoming cars, and to allow passengers to get out of the car onto the sidewalk instead of into the middle of the street." (I don't know why right-side drivers weren't also in the center of the road, with their--usually dominant--right eye there.)

Maybe also because:
"a chauffer-driven car driven on the right-hand side of the road should have the driver seated on the right in order to be on the same side as the passenger in the back seat."


Japan came to cars a little later, so they could choose. I've heard that the manufacturers chose right-side driver (left side of road) because they preferred dominant right hand (for most people) on the steering wheel/non-dominant hand on the clutch (which is fairly irrelevant now with automatic transmissions).

What would confuse me to no end, would be if I were a rural mail person in the US. They have their steering wheel on the right side of the car as in European cars.

Boy would that take some getting used to!

A friend who has travelled extensively in Italy and the like, cautioned me:

If you were raised in the US and decide to travel to Europe, be very careful, and hire a driver whenever possible...driving on the left side of the road for someone who is used to the right can be VERY disorienting!

Apparently, many accidents that occur in Europeon countries do so because of American drivers trying to handle it!

Down here in New Zealand, we also drive on the left and have right hand drive vehicles. We would have adopted this system from the British.

If a left hand drive is imported into the country, then it must now be converted, which is a very costly exercise, unless the vehicle is either a classic, or has been imported for a special purpose.

To answer your question, we cannot turn left on a red light, unless we are in a special area that has been marked off and is what we call a free turn. This area will actually separte the vehicle from the main flow of traffic and away from the traffic light. But the driver still needs to be aware of traffic coming from the right.

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Originally posted by gizmogram:

Apparently, many accidents that occur in Europeon countries do so because of American drivers trying to handle it!

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I had a high school teacher (American) who also lead animal-watching safaris in Africa. He was driving in a country that drives on the left. He was on the left but going around a corner, he automatically went over to the right side and ran a local driver off the road.

He apologized. To which the local replied, "That's o.k.; Americans do it to me all the time."

At least he wasn't like Kevin Kline's "Otto" in "A Fish Called Wanda," who drove on the right in England the whole time and yelled at all the British drivers.

As the map shows in the excellent link given by Referenth, the British Isles (which includes both halves of Ireland) is the only part of Europe where we drive on the left. Reason? Napoleon never got the chance to make the rules!

Some people do have left-hand-drive imported vehicles and seem to cope all right, although there are times when the driver cannot see too well, being on the wrong side of the vehicle.

What confuses foreigners most is our 'roundabouts', which I think do not exist in North America. Giving way to traffic from the right before entering the roundabout, going round clockwise, and exiting still driving on the left has proved to be too much on numerous occasions!

In the UK we don't have the 'left turn' equivalent of the US 'right turn on red' system. I wish we did. Some junctions have a separate lane feeding up alongside the lights where you can turn left (with due care) without going through any lights. There are also junctions with separate sets of lights for different exit directions.

They all automatically change to red when my car approaches!

The one time I drove in the US, I had to concentrate hard all the time - the whole driving ethos was different. The hardest thing, and the one that nearly led me into an accident, was looking for the rear view mirror above my left shoulder when it was of course above my right.

The United States has what are usually referred to as traffic circles, the equivalent of a roundabout in the U.K., though they are not nearly so common. My biggest problem at a traffic circle is remembering which leg to turn onto!

Right on red in the US, I think, has been a good idea. There was a time when the District of Columbia and Massachusetts were the only holdouts - does anyone know if this has changed?

I visited a friend in Florida years ago, where "straight on red" was permitted in the far lane on the far side of a "T" intersection (lane farthest from the "T"). Is this still true? It seemed to work well, but I could see a greater possibility for accidents.

I drive all over the road, anyway, so I suppose the switch to driving on the other side wouldn't affect my skill!

With all the gang asking about Driving in foreign lands.Have a look at this site: Highway Code UKoff the British (Driving Standards Agency (& Others)) which tell you almost everything about Driving in the UK (rules and regulations(Highway Code))plus a link through to the "Mock" Driving test Theory test.(It's a "Big" read!)
Note: In (I think?) France you have to "Give Way" on a roundabout to anybody entering it.In the Uk the opposite is the rule(Give way to anything on the roundabout)
Anyone got any links for Driving tests In the Us or Canada (and Highway codes if possible ?)
Best practice For driving on the "wrong side" is to drive on a one way road (on the "Wrong side") in a borrowed foreign car. Ps Hire cars with Automatic transmission are not common, and are sometimes have to be reserved well in advance( Sometimes Surcharged!) So be prepared if travelling to Europe /hiring a car to be given one with a manual gearbox ,
Ps the most confusing vehicle I know of is some Council Gulley sweepers which have 2! steering wheels and 2 sets of pedals the driving position is such that the driver can keep an eye on where he is in relation to the kerb when sweeping up at 5 mph.Can also drive at full speed in that position if needed.

[This message was edited by bedstor on 06-19-02 at 10:34 AM.]

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Originally posted by gizmogram:
What would confuse me to no end, would be if I were a rural mail person in the US. They have their steering wheel on the right side of the car as in European cars.
If you were raised in the US and decide to travel to Europe, be very careful, and hire a driver whenever possible...driving on the left side of the road for someone who is used to the right can be VERY disorienting!
Apparently, many accidents that occur in Europeon countries do so because of American drivers trying to handle it!

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There are a few errors in your post which I would like to address. First of all, very few countries actually drive on the left side of the road. This is a common misconception among Americans who feel that all of Europe is England (much like many Europeans think that all of the US is New York City). In fact, Britain and its islands is the only country in Europe where they drive on the left side. Therefore yes, you have to be very careful when driving (or even just crossing the street!) in Britain, but it is the same in the rest of Europe as it is in the US.
Also, all USPS trucks have their steering wheels on the right side if the car, not only rural ones. It is so the mail carrier can more easily reach mailboxes, and can exit the vehicle away from traffic. However, urban mail trucks are also constructed like this.

And to answer the original question: tradition. Countries that drove on the left (whether it was horses or wagons or whatever) continued to do so and those that drove on the right continued to do that. In fact, as the excellent website provided by Referenth will point out, there was even left side driving in America in its early days of colonization.

We drive of the left hand side of the road, this comes from being a part of the British Empire.
We can turn left on a red light if a sign says we can or on a green left arrow. If there are no lights then you always have to give way to the right.
If no ones around, especially cops, then we look left, we look right and we do what we want!!!

In Sweden they used to drive on the left until, I think, sometime in the 1960s, but then the whole country changed over one night. That must have been interesting for a while! I was in Sweden not too long ago, and I saw an old Saab with the steering wheel on the right.

I once heard an explanation of why it is we drive on the left here in the UK, while continental Europe drives on the right. I have no idea if it is true, but I like it very much. I think Ewood27 was hinting at the same tale, but didn’t give the details:

Apparently it started in the “olden days” long before cars had been invented, and when Europe was a wild and lawless place. When travelling on horseback, if you spied a stranger riding towards you on the road, you would have no idea whether they would be hostile or friendly. So a sensible precaution widely adopted was to pass with your sword-arm side towards the stranger. That way, if called upon to defend yourself, you would have a greater and more comfortable reach with your sword. The other side would require an awkward crossing of the arms. Since most people are right handed, this meant that it was normal to pass oncoming riders on the left.

Now, Napoleon was left handed, so he was severely disadvantaged by this arrangement. He therefore issued an edict that everybody in his empire should keep to the right. Napoleon never conquered Britain, so we ignored the silly foreigners, and continued passing each other on the sensible side!

Which side of a horse do you mount from? Odds are that in your country, whatever it is, the rider stands on the horse's left and mounts from that side. So, which rule of the road is the horse set up for? Riding/driving on the left. Otherwise you have to get on when standing in the middle of the roadway, in the dirt and traffic (very dirty in the days of horses!) or mount at the roadside and swing the horse right round ,or cross over to be on the right. Riders, even U.S. ones, conventionally mount from the left because it reems easier for most. Wearing a sword would remove any doubt! (It hangs on the wearer's left and would get in the way otherwise). A right- handed coach driver using a long whip would hit passengers or cargo behind him if he sat on the left, too,but finds it easier to sit near the middle of the road.So, given a choice , it's drive on the left for him, anyway. The right- hand only rule seems to have come in with Napoleon, who standardised everything (e,g, weights, codified law etc).Before him local rules for most everything applied. And the Japanese? When the country became open to the West one of the Emperor's advisers is said to have asked a foreign diplomat what the rule of the road should be, so as to conform with the world. The diplomat was British, at the height of the British Empire. You may guess the answer!