Why do I drive on the left and not the middle?

Factual Questions
1

So im sitting in traffic today (damn I hate DC traffic) and a Toyota, I think Corolla, is beside me. As their is not much else to do in traffic I look over at the car beside me and notice that the typical dashboard(speedomter, tach, fuel gage etc…)is not in front of the driver, but in the middle of the console. Looked kinda neat actually.

So as I begin musing over the benefits of having the console display in the middle…I wonder why im driving on the left side of my car and not the middle as well? Is their some particular reason why I have to drive on the side of my car? Some mechanical reason maybe? Do I just see better?

I mean, yes, having me to the side means I can have a front seat passenger. But having me in the middle only means my backseat passenger would have a hell of alot more leg room. Has any car maker ever looked at this before? Im really curious on this one, so any info would be helpful!

2

In a country that drives on the right side of the road, having the driver on the left side of the vehicle allows the driver to see oncoming traffic when in traffic.

3

McLaren F1 is a car where the driver sits in the center.

4

I think the biggest reason you drive on the side of your car is because the engine is in the middle. The steering linkage has to go somewhere and the only place for it would be on the sides of the engine. Also theres a transmission extending into the seating area down the middle of the car. The McLaren can have middle seating because its rear engined. BTW, the car you saw was the Toyota Echo.

5

I’ve driven a LHD (left-hand drive) car in Japan, which is the “wrong” configuration. Based on that experience, the “wrong” configuration has the following disadvantages:
[ul]
[li]Difficult to judge separation with oncoming cars. (My father wrecked the LHD car by driving it straight into an oncoming car on a very narrow street)[/li][li]Difficult to overtake a parked vehicle (especially a bus) because you cannot look beyond it to check for oncoming traffic.[/li][li]Difficult to position the car relative to the centerline[/li][li]Toll booths![/li][/ul]
Middle steering wouldn’t be quite as bad as the wrong side, but it would still have some of the same disadvantages.

6

Maybe I should clairfied and asked why any care under a million doesnt drive in the middle.