[MR] What side of the road

[Girard de Bourgogne]

The way I've heard it goes like this.

Everyone used to drive on the right (or keep right).  The position of the
driver was either towards the center, or on the right as well.  This kept
people from falling off the road.

However, eventually, it ran to the point where there were crashes.  So,
rather than retrofitting all their carts and such, everyone moved to the
left side of the road, leaving the driver's position on the right.  (like
England Today).

That was all well and good until Napoleon conquered lots of Europe.  He
built roads that were domed and had ditches on the sides, so that they would
drain and not fill up with mud after every rain.  However, you were now back
to the old problem of falling off into a ditch.  So again, they swapped the
sides, making everyone keep right again.  England is excluded from this
part, because as any Brit will tell you, Napoleon never beat the British.

So now, you have folks driving on the right, and sitting on the right,
again.  Crashes started to pile up as these roads sank in the middle,
loosing their cap.  So, a while after Napoleon, they moved the driving
position back to where it is today.

I think I heard this on The Straight Dope, and it was quite a while ago.
Hence, I may be wrong.

In your service,
Girard de Bourgogne


> Click and Clack were wondering about why th English drive on the left side
> of the road, and posited this was a hangover from when knights road
around.
> They wanted to be on the left so they could get the sword arm into action.
> Sounds spcious to me, but it got me to wondreing.
>
> WHY do the english drive on the left? What side of the road did
> cart/foot/horse traffic travel in other places and times?
>
> Phillip Jones
> Triplette Competition Arms
> 101 East Main Street
> Elkin, NC 28621
> 336-835-7774
> Phillip at mindless.com
>
>
>
>
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