Early model Ts were right hand drive, so it took Ford a while to decide, it seems.
I caught this on the show and I was really disappointed of the level of Booooogosity. I am really surprised because the answer is well documented in a 5 year MIT (Tom and Ray’s alma mater) study on the automotive industry. The study is summarized in a a book, “The Machine That Changed the World” by Womack, et al.
I had occassion to drive on the left when I had an opportunity to spend 6 months in New Zealand. The first thing I noticed is that it’s surprisingly difficult to adjust. When faced with driving on the left the first time, right off the bat, it’s very hard to actually do it. Everything in your brain is telling you to stay to the right (from your USA driving), but your eyes are saying “no, there’s oncoming traffic on the right”. Talk about cognitive dissonance!
I decided the best bet was to remain a pedestrian for a few days and just watch the traffic flow from the sidewalk. (Being a pedestrian is probably more dangerous than a driver, if you assume the immediate traffic to worry about is coming from the left when you cross the street, whack, you’d laying in the street dead, because the traffic, it comes from the right.
Once I learned which direction to watch for traffic as a pedestrian, then I thought it would be easier to drive, so I rented a car, and as a driver I adjusted quickly. After a week driving on the left, it became built-in. Everything is just a mirror image sort of, so you get used to it. The only thing that remained a little confusing was that the gear shift pattern (the car was a manual xmission). Everything else was mirror imaged, but the gear shift pattern isn’t reversed. So I was constantly shifting into 3rd when I should have been shifting into 1st to get going. I stalled the car all over both islands of New Zealand!
You might thing coming back to the USA wouldn’t be a problem. But no. Driving in the USA on the right was as difficult, or maybe even more so, as my first experience driving in NZ on the left. It was a nightmare for a day or two.
@Chieftain I just located a copy of that book. What chapter is the section on which side on the road to drive on?
Wikipedia has this to say:
@docnick I found it on page 21 and 22 in the narrative describing the Panhard and Levassor configuration and Evelyn Ellis importing the technology into England.
@chieftain Thanks, the book has an error in it stating that US based manufacturers do not offer cars with the steering on the right. They do but they are usually manufactured by smaller plants with greater flexibility. Canada used to make most of the right hand drive Fords for sale in left drive countries. Australia does as well. The extra cost is substantial however.
Once upon a time long ago when wagon and horse traffic was light and it was rare to meet someone coming from the opposite direction, agreement was needed on how to get past the oncoming party. “Keep to the right is right” could have been a memorable thing to say for such a situation. A person could call this out on a narrow road or bridge to an errant or indecisive oncoming party without being aggressive or offensive.
Perhaps another language would not lend itself to such a slogan and the Brits’ history with their road use as described previously got them committed to keeping left.
Driving on the right here in the US could possibly have been a way to thumb our noses at the British as was said about the French vs the Brits.
In his book “Made in America - An Informal History of the English Language in the United States” author Bill Bryson says that driving on the right side if the road started with the Conestoga wagon drivers along the “Great Road” which connected Phildelphia with the mouth of the Conestoga River. The Conestoga wagons, made in Pennsylvania, were constructed with their brakes and “lazy boards” - a kind of extendable running board - on the left-hand side. With the drivers effectively compelled to sit on the left, they tended to drive on the right so that they had an unimpeded view of the road, which is why, it appears, Americans abandoned the long standing BRitish tradition of driving on the left.
@Linda Good observation. The driver had to hold the reins in his right hand and apply the brake with his left hand, hence the location on the left.
Unlike Europe under Napolean, this was not an anti-British revolutionary act!
But many US autos were made with the driver on the right pre-1914 or so.
Back in 2002, I visited my sister in Royal Wootten Basset, Wiltshire. Never did get use to RHD. I would even have trouble crossing the street on foot. Kept looking the wrong way. No way was I going to drive her brand new BMW 320 diesel estate.
Les
Whatever theory is correct, driving on the left side of the road is the reason we yield to drivers on the right at a 4 way stop. After driving from London to Edinburg and back, and just missing and accident in one of those silly circles, me-the driver-has to yield to the traffic at my right because people in the circle have the right of way. The flow of traffic is clockwise. It is pretty simple once you get used to it. Now if we can just get the traffic engineers in Arizona to build these correctly (instead of having all the traffic narrow into one lane).
Ok, I think the jousting thing is wrong. In a fight, most people would want to stay to the right. Because most people are right-handed, the weapon (sword, lance, mace or whatever) would be in the right hand. The shield would be on the left arm. You want your shield between you and your opponent, or it would be pretty worthless. Therefore, you would also want to keep your opponent on your left side.
My question is related, but one I never heard anybody ask. I know that if the wheel is on the right, and you drive with a stick, you’re shifting with your left hand. But what about the rest of the controls. If the gear lever is on the steering column, is it on the left? Are the turn signal and wiper controls reversed? What about the pedals? Do people in England accelerate and brake with their left feet, and clutch with their right? I mean, a mirror image car would make some sense. But if their controls are the same as ours, and the steering and transmission are reversed - well that’s just plain weird.
As a former middle ages re-enactor who participated in full contact combat activities I will guarantee you that a knight would not pass to the left exposing his vulnerable right side to his opponent. This is also why stairs ascend clockwise, allowing defenders to keep their shields to their opponents while exposing the open side of attackers. Also why we salute and shake with the right to show there is no weapon in hand.
Driving left vs. right is related to the fact that women button their shirts on the left side. Since the man drives more often then woman when both are in the car, he can peep inside her shirt. The British are too stodgy for this sort of behavior, so they switch sides. That’s my theory. As Professor Erwin Corey said, “This may not be the truth, but let’s use it as a fact.”
I stand corrected about the jousting. Even the wikipedia article on jousting shows each participant staysto the right, shield in left hand, stick in right.
There is some excellent merit to don2135’s idea though … lol
@mlmann … as I recall from my New Zealand left hand side driving experience, the floor pedals are not mirror imaged. They remain the same, the right foot on the accelerator, left on the clutch. The turn signals and other control signals like the windshield wipers and lights seemed to vary car to car.
The hardest thing for me to get used to was the gear shift pattern. It is the same, not mirror imaged. Most cars in America, to shift to a higher (faster) gear, you move the gear shift away from you. But w/the right hand drive car I drove, you had to pull the gear shift toward you to shift to a higher gear, which I found confusing. It would be better if the gear shift pattern was mirror imaged.
Either way, right or left, is perfectly do-able, but if I had my druthers, I think driving on the right is a little easier, because you can hold the gear shift lever with your right hand.
Duncan S is right. The Romans chariots were better defended by being on the left side. The Guard could swing his sword with his right hand. The passenger on the left is better protected. Remember the Romans built those roads.
Last I heard, Canada was a British Colony and they drive on the right side of the road.