« Can you afford your car? | Main | Does your engine have a personality? »
June 21, 2005Driving on the left side of the roadThose wacky British, they drive on the wrong side of the road. The driver of a car in Britain sits on the right side of the car and drives on the left side of the road. And the British have convinced all of their former colonies to drive on that crazy left-hand side of the road... with the notable exception of the Canadians. The Canadians may have emotional have ties to Dear Old Blighty, but know that their financial bread is buttered on the US side of the Atlantic Ocean. We know why the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, the first cars built in Japan during the 1920's were reverse engineered British cars. Why did the Japanese copy the British cars rather than French, German or American cars? Because as the Japanese emerged from their self imposed world isolation in the mid-19th century, they chose to follow the industrial and military example of the British who were arguably the most important and influential economic and military of the period. The Japanese navy that soundly defeated the Tsar's navy of Imperial Russia in 1906 was nearly entirely composed of British build warships and the officer corps was trained by the British Navy. The Swedes used to drive on the left hand side of the road and decided to switch in the mid-1960's. But the Swedes realized that their best export market for their cars was the rest of Europe and the United States and that it was in their best interest to drive on the right side of the road. The Brits like to explain their choice of driving on the left side of the road dates back to ancient times when a knight on horse back would keep his weapon hand (the right) toward approaching travelers so that he could defend himself in an instant. And this sounds convincing on the surface. But if you have ever traveled on the old roads of the English countryside that have not been widened or otherwise modernized you know that they are terribly narrow. Back in the day of knights and the such, everyone rode down the middle of those narrow lanes and moved to one side or another as the situation permitted. It was not until the English Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century and the rise of commerce that traffic patterns became a problem. Horse-drawn wagons were soon crowding the roads as good were being brought to market. It became apparent that a system was necessary to insure the orderly flow of traffic. But what side of the road should all traffic stick to? Imagine a horse drawn wagon. The driver sits up front with the reigns in his hands with which he steers the wagon. And the only means to slow or stop the wagon was a long lever by the driver's leg that could exert some muscle-powered friction on one of the wagon wheels. Aha! What leg is strongest for most people? Their right. So for the driver of a wagon to use his strong right leg to slow his wagon, he would have to sit on the right side of the wagon's front seat. And if two wagon drivers met on a narrow road and they wanted to insure that there was no collision, they would each have to travel on the left side of the road as they traveled so that their seated position could afford the best view of the passage. So while it is romantic and exciting to think of dashing knights on the road challenging each other to a duel on the narrow roads of the English countryside, it is really the rather mundane world of 18th century business and commerce that dictated the rules of the road that the British have kept to this day. Posted by Scott at June 21, 2005 7:24 AM Comments> And the British have convinced all of their former Well, Canada, and a collection of thirteen other "former" colonies. ;) --DD Posted by: Dave Darling at June 21, 2005 10:20 AM Interesting read, and the wagon explanation makes a lot of sense, but you haven't discussed why the rest of the world chose to drive on the right? I mean, I can see the French using the opposite side to the British as a point of course, but is there actually a good reason? Posted by: kristoo at June 22, 2005 6:41 AM Hi, I thought this may be on interest, Driving on the left is correct for right-handed people the great majority, here is why: When changing gear in a UK car with the steering wheel on the right , this is of course correct in the UK etc for driving on the left--------your left hand changes gear and your right hand stays on the steering wheel, (this is safer for right handed people.) The reverse is the case in countries where one must drive on the right.-- in other words if you live in the USA you hold the steering wheel with your left hand and change gear with your right hand because of course the steering wheel is on the left in the USA--------this is dangerous if you are right handed. Bicycles: Bike riders are in real danger in countries where driving on the right is mandatory again assuming you are right handed----Try mounting a bike in the USA and you will find yourself in the stream of traffic when getting on the bike---- try it yourself---------: Mounting a bike in the UK is done from the sidewalk by right handed people who find it easier to put their right leg over the bike. , Much safer and this must have saved many lives. Reversing up a steep drive: My drive in the UK is very steep----------when I reverse out I hold the steering wheel with my right hand and look over my left shoulder to the rear window. In a USA car you must hold the steering wheel with your left hand and look over your right shoulder to look out of the rear window.. So you must reverse with your left hand on the steering wheel.. Or stick your head out of the window if you want to use your right hand on the steering wheel. ---Dangerous for the 82% right handed majority. Right handed people who are also "right eyed" have the traffic coming toward them on their right in left hand driving areas , which is the way "right eyed" people are able to react better. When overtaking on a right hand driving USA road the right eyed/handed driver looks in the mirror with the left eye and also views the oncoming traffic with the left eye. A change of gear is sometimes needed to overtake so he/she is driving left handed while changing gear with the right hand and looking in the mirror and oncoming traffic with the left eye. Of course the gear change should in theory be completed before pulling out but this in practice is not always the case. The prevalence of automatic gear change in the USA may not be just luxury after all but necessity Perhaps a billion cyclists in right hand driving areas around the world are all risking their lives mounting their bike in traffic. Also In right hand driving areas a greater number of people reverse with their heads out of the window and hundreds of millions of right handed drivers hold the steering wheel at speed with their left hand. There are over 6 billion people in the world today and billions of people using road transport. Driving on the left is safer and provably safer for right handed drivers; however I concede that because over 60% of the world drives on the right there is no prospect of a global change to driving on the left. Christopher (Chris) Davison London UK Recent research shows 5 out of 6 people naturally use the right hand: "A systematic study * of the distribution of manipulative skill has been carried out by Marian Annett and colleagues from the Department of Psychology at Leicester University. Annett and Kilshaw (1983) found that in a group of 1480 adolescents and adults, using a simple peg-moving task apparatus to assay hand skill, 82 % were more skilled with the right hand, 3% were equally skilled with each hand, and 15 % were more skilled with the left hand. When the disparity of skill between the two hands is plotted as a histogram, it becomes apparent that skill asymmetry is normally distributed: there is no clear separation into the two conventional handedness groups" "A natural preference for the left hand in skilled tasks develops in as many as one individual in six. " Meaning of course that 5 out of 6 naturally use the right hand. (* Reproduced with permission of Leicester University UK ). Posted by: Chris Davison at February 10, 2006 1:28 PM Post a comment |
|