Why do some countries (like the US) drive on the right side of the street while others (european countries) drive on the left?
Did the US change direction at some point? If so, why?
Which came first? Which is better?
Thanks
Saluton, and welcome to the Straight Dope!
The Great One (Cecil, not Gretzky or Elvis*) has already looked at this question:
“Why do the British drive on the left?”
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_021b.html
“When happens when you drive between two countries that drive on opposite sides of the road?”
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_242.html
My theory on this was that only island countries (Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Bermuda, etc) continue to drive on the left (the others having switched for compatibility), but this was disproven whan I found out about India. For example, Nova Scotia used to drive on the left, but switched in 1923.
*Stojko, of course. Who did you expect?
I would like to add that the only European countries where one drives on the left, are the United Kingdom and Ireland. Ad far as I know, anyway. I believe Sweden used to drive on the left, but they switched 30 years ago.
And welcome aboard, of course!
For brevity: LHS = left hand side (as in the UK & Japan), RHS = right hand side (as in the USA).
Most countries that drive on the left side of the road were once part of the British Commonwealth. Britain colonised those parts of the world, and imposed (recreated) its traffic system. (For instance, South Africa also has LHS driving. I’m not sure if Zimbabwe still has.)
The same thing holds true for train tracks. If you have a train track crossing with two tracks, the first track you cross in RHS driving countries is the track where trains go from left to right, just as it would be crossing a normal road with cars. In the UK that’s the other way around.
And because the Belgians used English engineers to set up their train system for them, the Belgian trains also ride on the LHS of a double track (even though cars in Belgium drive RHS). The town I live in in the Netherlands has a direct train connection with Belgium, and you wouldn’t believe the shunting area at the train station. When trains travel south from my town, they go LHS of the double track. When they go west/north/east they go RHS of the double track.
OK, I can’t resist putting in a real life story.
When vacationing in London England the tour guide spoke about Americans driving on the right side of the road and the British drive on the “correct” side of the road. She proceeded to go on that the reason behind this was because Napoleon ordered carriages to drive on the right side. To thumb their nose at the French, the British choose the opposite side. The tour guide then quipped, “I don’t know WHY you Americans chose the right side?”
My Mom, being a history education major, responded, “There was a little disagreement at the time called the American Revolution in which England was in denial and we were siding with the French”
There’s a funny story behind this. Sweden scheduled the switch-over to take place on, IIRC, something like 5:30 on a Sunday morning, so as to minimize traffic problems. But everyone set their alarms early and got out on the road before the appointed time so they could be part of this epochal change!
A funny story, all right, but it’s not true. Sweden did make the change on the night between a Saturday and a Sunday, because that’s when they expected the least traffic on the roads. But they didn’t take chances - all non-emergency vehicles were ordered off the roads for several hours, during which time road workers ran around like crazy getting the final preparations done. Choosing a night with little anticipated traffic was a matter of courtesy, not safety.
I understand that Swedish cars already had the drivers’ seats on the left, even though they drove on the left, too. Why, who knows, but it made the switch practical as well as in keeping with pan-Europeanism etc.
That’s true. Here’s a photo of how it looked like at one of Stockholm’s major streets at 5 am on September 3rd 1967: http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/expressen/feature/1967bsl.gif
The place where I borrowed the link also had a small resumé of what was done “3 september. Klockan 5 på söndagmorgonen går Sverige över till högertrafik. Sidbytet övervakas av 8000 poliser och värnpliktiga. Omkring 150 000 frivillga hjälper också till och hela natten har 20 000 personer arbetat med att anpassa vägmärken till högertrafik.” Roughly translated: “September 3rd. At 5 am on a Sunday morning Sweden changes from LSD to RSD. The changover is supervised by 8000 policemen and soldiers. Around 150 000 volunteers also help out and the whole night 20 000 people have been busy adapting road signs to RSD”.
BTW: An English friend once pointed out that a majority of the World’s population live in countries with LSD, although I have no idea if it’s true or not.
Yes. And I think that Austria had the same situation when they changed a couple of years earlier.
How many folks here are bi-sided drivers? When I moved from the US to the UK I brought my American car with me. Driving a left drive car (LDC) on LSD roads isn’t too bad except when attempting to pass on narrow roads since you can’t just move out a little to see if its clear. I found it harder switching to the wrong side of the car than switching to the wrong side of the road. I kept wanting to keep my body in the same relative position in the lane and kept drifting off to the left. Luckily I never hit anything worse than a curb. Now that I’ve driven a RDC for a few years, its pretty easy to switch back and forth.
I’ve driven an RHD car in South Africa, and of course numerous LHD’s in Europe. It took me about ten minutes getting used to the road situation. The only time you make mistakes is when you drive onto a road with no traffic. Sometimes, you just automatically take the right lane! The fact that you, as a driver, are then closest to the side of the road does not seem to matter. In fact, I’ve driven an LHD car to the UK (through the Channel Tunnel), and the awkwardness of driving a car with the steering wheel on the “wrong” side makes it impossible to make a mistake like mentioned above, IMHO. You’re just constantly aware of the fact your car is ill-equiped. Especially when you’re moving your girlfriend to London, it’s a stationcar, it’s packed to the ROOF with junk, and you have to merge onto the M25 at 17:00 hours on a friday, with no visibility other than your right side mirror and a girlfriend that says “Yes, you can merge now… no, wait… oh, yeah, you could have. NO! Hang on… GO!”, etc. 
So, in short: driving a “local” car in a RHD country is no problem. Driving an LHD car is, to some extend. When the car was empty, everything went a lot better, by the way…
China drives on the right, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t that kind of settle the question?
I found the whole drive-on-the-left thing the most disorienting thing about my visit to London, UK, last summer.
Fortunately, most of the crosswalks had LOOK LEFT or LOOK RIGHT stenciled on the ground to aid the pedestrian–although partly this was due to the truly amazing number of one-way streets in the city. You never could be certain which direction traffic would be coming from.
To me, the second most disorienting thing about London streets was the lack of a high-level grid system to the city.
In Toronto one gives general location by naming the nearest intersection of two of the major east-west and north-south streets that, with few exceptions, divide the city into squares approximately two kilometres on a side. The streets within these squares may be of a completely different pattern (and in some of the 1960s suburbs, they seem designed to trap the unwary).
In general, naming the nearby major intersection and its direction from your location establishes what neighbourhood you’re in to a surprisingly-accurate degree. The street grid also provides a reference for direction: the streets are labelled north/south and east/west (although these do not correspond exactly to the compass). And buildings are numbered with reference to this grid as well.
Then I got to London and discovered an entire vast city with streets joining at every angle, streets changing names every couple of blocks, one-way streets joining at odd angles… and everyone driving of the other side of the road. It was quite an eye-opener. I want to go back.
If the English have spread LSD so far and wide, blame it on the Beatles!