# Why Americans and French drive on the right. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476 "2012-01-14T03:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zep\_Tepi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@Zep\_Tepi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zep_Tepi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/1 "2012-01-14T03:51:29Z")
In the birthplace of civilization, gentlemen on horseback and drivers of carriages would pass one another on the left hand side so that they could stop and greet the other person and in the gentlemanly tradition, shake one another’s hands. The French used to have this tradition, but Napoleon decreed that as his sworn enemy, the English, rode on the left hand side of a pathway, the French people must from now on ride on the right hand side. The Americans, well they are just, well, American. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/2 "2012-01-14T03:53:50Z")
[I think Cecil answered this better.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/634/why-do-the-british-drive-on-the-left) 24 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/3 "2012-01-14T16:29:22Z")
Does anyone have a good cite for the suggestion, put forward by Cecil and many other people across the internet, that driving on the left originated because “you wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly”? It just sounds like made-up history to me. People didn’t really walk around with swords all the time back then, surely? I’m not convinced that we can know how these kind of arbitrary conventions became established. Wikipedia casts doubt on the Napoleon story too, btw. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/4 "2012-01-14T19:06:34Z")
Duh - if we drove on the left we would run head on into each other. : : what? : : ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/5 "2012-01-18T10:38:05Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Does anyone have a good cite for the suggestion, put forward by Cecil and many other people across the internet, that driving on the left originated because “you wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly”? > It just sounds like made-up history to me. People didn’t really walk around with swords all the time back then, surely? I’m not convinced that we can know how these kind of arbitrary conventions became established. Wikipedia casts doubt on the Napoleon story too, btw. Not only does it sound like fishy folk etymology, but it doesn’t make sense even from a knight errant’s point of view. Unfriendlies should be approached from the \*right \*so they’re on your left side, the shielded one. The right side should be clear so your weapon swings are unimpeded (which is also why the spiral staircases of most castles turn clockwise - that way the defender, who is up, can swing normally while the attacker, who is below, has got the central pillar in his way the whole time. Where there is no central pillar, [the stairs turns counter-clockwise](http://www.mediastorehouse.com/image/upnor_castle_staircase_k951095_451770.jpg) so that the climber has got a wall on his weapon side while the defender has open space). The reason the British drive on the left is that they’re bonkers. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/6 "2012-01-18T13:41:57Z")
In America we drive on the right side of the road because, if we did not, the cops would get mad at us.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-americans-and-french-drive-on-the-right/609476/7 "2012-01-19T00:19:05Z")
[We just did this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14475490&postcount=4) in November.