Why in Britain

Do we drive on the Left ?



About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies.



Japan also drive on the left.



This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason.



Up to the late 1700's, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right-handed people.



Jousting knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him.

Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon.The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent.



From then on, any part of the world which was at some time part of the British Empire was thus left hand and any part colonised by the French was right hand.



In America, the French colonised the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec). The Dutch colonised New York (or New Amsterdam).

The Spanish and Portugese colonised the southern Americas. So The British were a minority in shaping the 'traffic'.





The drive-on-the-right policy was adopted by the USA, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past.



Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed.

If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American, for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars.



From then on many countries changed out of necessity.



Today, the EC would like Britain to fall into line with the rest of Europe, but this is no longer possible. It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round.

The last European country to convert to driving on the right was Sweden in 1967. While everyone was getting used to the new system, they paid more attention and took more care, resulting in a reduction of the number of road accident casualties.



Since September 2009 Samoa drives on the left instead of the right.

The main reason for this is that they want to use right-hand-drive cars, for instance from Japan and New Zealand, which both drive on the left.

Countries that drive on the LEFT include:-



Anguilla

Antigua & Barbuda

Australia

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Barbados

Bermuda

Bhutan

Botswana

British Virgin Islands

Brunei

Cayman Islands Channel Islands

Cyprus

Dominica

Eire-Ireland

England

Falkland Islands

Fiji

Grenada

Guyana

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Isle of Man Jamaica

Japan

Kenya

Lesotho

Macau

Malawi

Malaysia

Malta

Mauritius

Montserrat

Mozambique

Namibia

Nepal

New Zealand

Northern Ireland Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

Seychelles

Scotland

Singapore

Solomon Islands

South Africa

Sri Lanka

St Kitts & Nevis

St. Helena

St. Lucia

Surinam

Swaziland Tanzania

Thailand

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Turks and Caicos Islands

Uganda

US Virgin Islands

Zambia

Zimbabwe

St. Vincent & Grenadines

Wales