Where the driver sits and on which side of the road the cars
drive on are related, but actually two different developments.
Driver on the right was a hold-over from horse and carriage.
Most of cars in the U.S. prior to 1908 were configured driver-
right. The book and PBS TV series "America on Wheels"
mentioned driver-left as a consumer preference included on the
list of Ford Model T "innovations". As covered in an earlier
post, the fact that by 1920 half the cars in the world were
Model Ts, U.S. manufacturers had little choice but to follow
Ford's lead.
What I'm not as certain of is if driving on the right was the
already the norm for most of the U.S. during the horse and
carriage days. I suspect it was for a number of reasons. It
would also explain the consumer preference for the driver-left
automobile configuration due its better visibility of on-coming
traffic and passenger convenience for right-side driving.
I remember the news photos of masses of cars crossing the
median during the Swedish changeover from left-side to
right-side diving in 1965. It was scheduled on a workday
during peak traffic hours so that everyone would be aware of
the change. They apparently didn't want as many people to
forget which lane to drive in as forget to reset their clocks
at the early morning daylight savings transitions. If I
recall correctly, the special problem in Sweden was that while
they drove on the left as the U.K., most of their cars were
configured driver-left as France, Germany, N. America... The
switch was a safety issue for them.
Though the Swedes have converted to the "right" lane, Japan and
Britain still have a lot of company. There's a map and
listings at: http://www.ferrari-forsale.com/RHDorLHDCountries
Regards, Bob Douglas
---- On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, Louis & Laila (bwana@c2i2.com) wrote:
> Well, If the Japanese and the Swedes do it, then it must be
right! You
> got
> me Russ, it is the Americans who are wrong!
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