Why in Britain do we drive on the left hand side of the road?

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href="residential.htm">Residential Courses</a></li> <li><a href="scotland.htm">Scotland</a></li> <li><a href="northengland.htm">Northern England</a></li> <li><a href="middleengland.htm">Middle England</a></li> <li><a href="southengland.htm">Southern England</a></li> <li><a href="wales.htm">Wales</a></li> <li><a href="nireland.htm">N.Ireland</a></li> </ul> <li><a href="biker.htm">Riding a motorcycle</a></li> <li><a href="lgv.htm">Driving a Lorry or Bus</a></li> <li><a href="adi.htm">Becoming an ADI</a></li> <li><a href="links.php">More Links</a></li> </ul> <br> <a href="young-car-insurance-quotes.htm" target="_blank"> <img src="img/quotezone1.gif" border="0" width="160" height="600"></a> </div> <div class="column_central"> <h1 class="fontface">Why in Britain<br> <FONT COLOR="#CC0000">Do we drive on the Left ?</FONT></h1> <p><font size="+1"> <br>About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. <br><br> <img src="startlarrow.gif" border="0" height=13 width=18 alt="2pass" align="absmiddle"><a href="japan.htm"><B>Japan </B></a>also drive on the left. <br><br> This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason. <br><br> 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. <br><br> 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. </font></p> <p><font size="+1"> 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. <br><br> 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. <br><br> 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). <br>The Spanish and Portugese colonised the southern Americas. So The British were a minority in shaping the 'traffic'. <br><br> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-client="ca-pub-4110339233674045" data-ad-slot="6024013145"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br> 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. <br><br> Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed.<br> If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American, for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars. <br><br> From then on many countries changed out of necessity. <br><br> 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. </font></p> <p><font size="+1"> 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. <br><br> Since September 2009 Samoa drives on the left instead of the right.<br> 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. </font></p> <p><font size="+1"> Countries that drive on the<B> LEFT </B> include:- <br><br> <DIV align="center"><TABLE WIDTH="90%" BORDER=1 style="border: 2px solid #CC0000"><TR><TD> <CENTER>Anguilla<BR> Antigua & Barbuda<BR> Australia<BR> Bahamas<BR> Bangladesh<BR> Barbados<BR>Bermuda<BR> Bhutan<BR> Botswana<BR> British Virgin Islands<BR> Brunei<BR>Cayman Islands </CENTER> </TD> <TD> <CENTER> Channel Islands<BR> Cyprus<BR> Dominica<BR> Eire-Ireland<BR>England<BR> Falkland Islands<BR> Fiji<BR> Grenada<BR> Guyana<BR> Hong Kong<BR> India<BR> Indonesia<BR> Isle of Man </CENTER> </TD> <TD> <CENTER>Jamaica<BR> <a href="japan.htm"> Japan</a><BR> Kenya<BR> Lesotho<BR> Macau<BR> Malawi<BR> Malaysia<BR> Malta<BR> Mauritius<BR> Montserrat<BR> Mozambique<BR> Namibia<BR> Nepal<BR> New Zealand<BR> Northern Ireland </CENTER> </TD> <TD> <CENTER>Pakistan<BR> Papua New Guinea<BR> Samoa<br>Seychelles<BR> Scotland<BR> Singapore<BR> Solomon Islands<BR> South Africa<BR> Sri Lanka<BR> St Kitts & Nevis<BR> St. Helena<BR> St. Lucia<BR> Surinam<BR> Swaziland </CENTER> </TD> <TD> <CENTER> Tanzania<BR> Thailand<BR> Tonga<BR> Trinidad and Tobago<BR> Turks and Caicos Islands<BR>Uganda<BR> US Virgin Islands <BR>Zambia<BR> Zimbabwe<BR> St. Vincent & Grenadines<BR> Wales </CENTER></TD></TR></TABLE></DIV> </font></p> <hr> </div> <div class="column_right"> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>  <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:160px;height:600px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-4110339233674045" data-ad-slot="5809188640"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br><br> <a href="https://www.collingwood.co.uk/learner-driver-insurance?refid=2passcld" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.collingwood.co.uk/images/banner/instructors/banner_160x600.jpg" alt="Collingwood Learner Driver Insurance" border="0"></a> </div>  <br style="clear:both" />  </div> <div class="advert_block"> <div class="advert_inner_full_width"> <a href="https://www.2pass.co.uk/dts-online-test.html"><img src="img/anytimefree.png" border="1" width="970" height="250" alt="Driving Test Success Anytime free trial" /></a> </div> </div> <footer> <div class="l-footer_inner"> <div class="l-footer-col"> <h2 class="fontface">Navigation</h2> <ul class="footer-nav"> <li><a href="index.htm">Home</a></li> <li><a href="start.htm">Starting Out</a></li> <li><a href="theory.htm">Theory Test</a></li> <li><a href="pract.htm">Practical Test</a></li> <li><a href="passed.htm">Passed</a></li> <li><a href="software.htm">Training Aids</a></li> <li><a href="page3.htm">News</a></li> <li><a href="site-search.htm">Site Search</a></li> <li><a href="mail.htm">Contact</a></li> <li><a href="in.htm">Privacy Policy/About Us</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="l-footer-col"> <h2 class="fontface">Advertisement</h2> <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4110339233674045" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>  <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-4110339233674045" data-ad-slot="2542193441"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div> <div class="l-footer-col last"> <h2 class="fontface">Join us on Facebook!</h2> <div class="fb-like-box" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/www2passcouk" data-width="300" data-height="370" data-show-faces="true" data-stream="false" data-header="false"></div> </div> </div> <div class="disclaimer"> <p align="right"> © 1996-2023 </div> </footer>   <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=113437838748987"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="js/libs/jquery-1.7.1.min.js"><\/script>')</script>  <script src="js/plugins.js"></script> <script src="js/libs/slider.js"></script> <script src="js/script.js"></script>  <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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Why in Britain do we drive on the left hand side of the road?