Left or Right ? Road driving sides
Written by lara
Driving is a pretty stressful matter on its own; you must be constantly aware of your surroundings, know the road codes and be prepared for anything. Of course, at some point it all becomes muscle memory, so that’s neat and all. But then BAM! You’re in another country with another road system and you’re back to square one for a split-second, like a newbie driver all over again cause there’re cars driving on the “wrong” way of the road. So why on Earth don’t we all drive on the same side? What is the right way, really. If there’s one? Is driving on the right side of the road the way to do it? Or is it the left?
So, driving on the right or otherwise said RHT (Right-hand traffic) is commonly the more spread way in the world, one theory being that it so because about 890% of the population is right-handed. European countries, both North and South America (except Guyana and Suriname) as well as most of mainland Asia and most of Africa are RHT territories. Canada was initially driving on the left, but they changed “camps” to align with the US in 1920.
Most of the formally British colonies drive on the left today (LHT) but not only them. So, places like the United Kingdom, Irland, Cyprus and Malta in Europe but there’s many other lands across the globe like Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Sri-Lanka. As for the African continent LHT is used in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. To that growing list, we need to act some of the Caribbean islands: Barbados, St-Lucia and Jamaica. That seems like a lot, right? Well not really, only about 35% of the world population live in left hand side countries.
But why is that really? The difference goes back centuries: In Britain, men rode their horses on the left side of the road to keep ready for any eventual opponent, their right hand free to draw their swords, so they overtake obstacles by the left and thus came LHT driving.
In the USA they had their wagons drivers sit on the left horse too. Why? Because it had the advantage to keep their right hand free for the whip. BUT (because there had to be a but, otherwise North Americans would still drive on the left) they started riding the right horse to avoid collisions by having a better view of the approaching other wagons.
The theories are endless, like everything that build itself along the long passing of time. So, there you go folks. Be safe behind your wheels and don’t forget to take in the scenery.
