Re: Driving on the left -- British Empire

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Date Posted: 12:49:32 05/11/09 Mon
Author: Stephen Luscombe
Author Host/IP: NoHost / 87.115.71.202
Subject: Re: Driving on the left
In reply to: Jack 's message, "Driving on the left" on 13:32:11 05/10/09 Sun

>Every1 should its safe! more people are right eyed
>dominant... its one of those legacys that hasnt stuck
>aswell as others....

And it has a nice imperial connection too. The Americans and the French (under Napoleon) deliberately chose to drive on the right to mark their difference from the British. Previously, everyone had driven on the left - although it was more to do with mounting a horse with a sword hanging to your left (everyone was right handed - or they would burn you at the stake!) Therefore, every Knight had his sheath on his left. This made it virtually impossible to mount a horse from any direction other than the Knight's right hand side. This then meant that the horse always started its journey on the left hand side of the road. It was ever thus until the American and French revolutions came along! Napoleon conquered lots of Europe and made them all ride on the right and it stuck! The world is actually pretty evenly divided to this day between left hand and right hand drive countries.

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Replies:

Re: Driving on the left -- Lord Buckland, 08:41:25 05/18/09 Mon
- Re: Driving on the left -- Jack, 07:23:32 06/07/09 Sun
  - Re: Driving on the left -- RMW Stanford, 09:03:20 06/08/09 Mon

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>>Every1 should its safe! more people are right eyed >>dominant... its one of those legacys that hasnt stuck >>aswell as others.... > >And it has a nice imperial connection too. The >Americans and the French (under Napoleon) deliberately >chose to drive on the right to mark their difference >from the British. Previously, everyone had driven on >the left - although it was more to do with mounting a >horse with a sword hanging to your left (everyone was >right handed - or they would burn you at the stake!) >Therefore, every Knight had his sheath on his left. >This made it virtually impossible to mount a horse >from any direction other than the Knight's right hand >side. This then meant that the horse always started >its journey on the left hand side of the road. It was >ever thus until the American and French revolutions >came along! Napoleon conquered lots of Europe and made >them all ride on the right and it stuck! The world is >actually pretty evenly divided to this day between >left hand and right hand drive countries.
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