Chaos has descended this week on the tiny Pacific island of Samoa after government officials decided to force the entire nation to switch sides of the road on Monday. While Samoan officials insist there have been no accidents as a result of asking drivers to switch from driving on the right side of the road to driving on the left, many non-driving Samoans have been left stranded because the island’s buses now open to the middle of the road.
Samoa is the first nation since the 1970s to switch sides and did so, they say, to end their reliance on left-hand drive vehicles imported at great expense from America. All well and good, but the real question here is why do different nations drive on different sides of the roads? Here in England, where traffic comes from the right, it took me more than a few weeks to stop looking left every time I went to cross the street—training that was completely undone when I went to France for two weeks at the end of the summer.
So what is the deal with the “wrong” side of the road? How do countries decide which side they drive on?
Because The Pope Said So
According to some sources, about a quarter of the world drives on the left, as they do in Britain. This isn’t too surprising, since at one time Britain owned about a quarter of the world. Traveling on the left side of the road was a practice that started with the feudal societies of Western world, like the proto-British empire – back in the day, you never knew who’d you pass on the road, so best to keep your sword arm between you and them. In 1300 AD, Pope Boniface VIII codified the practice with a law that decreed that pilgrims headed for Rome should keep on the left.
The Birth of the Left-Hand Drivers’ Seat
Things were going fine until the advent of market-based agriculture on a grand scale. In the 1700s, farmers in the US and France began hauling their products to market in big rigs pulled by many horses. Because these wagons typically had no place to sit, drivers would sit on the rear left horse, with their right arm free to whip the team along – and the left-hand drivers’ seat was born. Drivers naturally tended to ride on the right side of the road now, because it was safer to meet oncoming vehicles from where you could see their wheels. In 1792, a Pennsylvania law required that vehicles keep right, other states following soon after.
Because Napoleon Said So
Another explanation blames Napoleon. Because Napoleon was left-handed, he demanded that everyone approach from the right, so he could keep his sword arm between himself and anyone he’d meet. That’s not exactly true; the custom of keeping to the right actually pre-dated Napoleon, but he did make sure his troops followed it whilst they spread their Empire, and from Napoleon’s lips to law. Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, which were all at one point under Napoleon’s either direct control or influence, subsequently drive on the right.
It’s an England/France Thing
So on two different continents, the “keep right” rule was becoming entrenched – while in England, keeping left remained the only way to go, especially after a 1756 city ordinance decreed that all traffic on the London Bridge must keep to the left. From there, it was all about influence.
Though not a hard and fast rule, places that were under French and US influence kept right, while those under the British Empire and its influence still kept left.
In Japan in 1859, for example, a British ambassador was able to convince the government there to keep left, a major coup for the lefties and Britain (this is what the Brits say; the Japanese, however, may disagree and claim that their decision to keep left had more to do with samurai warriors and their needs).
Because Hitler Said So
With the invention of the automobile, countries had good reason to pick a side and stick to it, although not all did. By 1938, there was another reason: Wherever Hitler invaded, he forced the native populations to drive on the right. Parts of Austria, including Vienna, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, that had historically driven on the left now had to drive on the right.
Ask Your Neighbors
Countries were still making “which side?” decisions well into the second half of the 20th century. Sweden, for example, switched to driving on the right in 1967 because by then, most of the countries their burgeoning car industry sold to were right-side countries. By this time, the clearest indicator of which side a country drives on became what its neighbors did, and with whom they traded.
Of course, some places, like the US Virgin Islands, confuse the issue even more by driving left-hand side cars on the left side of the road – it’s the only place under US purview that does so.
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I kid you not, my husband and I were just debating this yesterday, but we had no idea about Samoa…
posted by Ophelia on 9-10-2009 at 4:47 pm
Fascinating! I’ve always wondered where this came from.
posted by Erin on 9-10-2009 at 5:30 pm
The US Virgin Islands drive on the left side of the road. When asked why, it was explained to me that when the US bought the island from the Dutch, they couldn’t convince the donkeys (the islands main mode of transportation) to switch sides, so they have just kept it that way ever since.
posted by Bethany on 9-10-2009 at 6:19 pm
How is this handled in the channel tunnel between France and England. Left or right? how do they switch?
posted by Phil on 9-11-2009 at 8:14 am
@Phil
Maybe the road gets separated by a median, in which during the route, the two sides overlap into an over-under formation then flatten out to their respective sides. They would then be considered “corrected” for both England and France.
posted by Steven on 9-11-2009 at 8:21 am
@ Phil & Steven
You don’t drive through the Chunnel, you put your car on a train to carry it.
posted by It's Just Dave on 9-11-2009 at 8:39 am
@Phil – the Chunnel is a rail line only. If you’re bringing your car across, it gets loaded on the train and then you’re free to drive whichever way when you disembark.
posted by Anne on 9-11-2009 at 8:48 am
@Bethany – From what I understand about the US VIs, they actually do it because the roads are so narrow, that they need to see the edge of the road so that they don’t fall off cliffs and stuff (which is why they drive left hand driver seat cars on the left side of the road).
posted by Tim on 9-11-2009 at 9:51 am
really samoa? you couldn’t import your cars from somewhere other than the us? more than half the world drives on the right, the price diff can’t be that bad. i can only imagine the expense to change the traffic signals, markings, and existing public transportation of an entire island. just seems like a lot of hassle…
posted by tiffany on 9-11-2009 at 11:48 am
“Am I on the right side of the road? I can’t go on until I’m sure.”
posted by Stacy on 9-11-2009 at 1:47 pm
That’s funny because I just heard news that The United Kingdom was going to switch to driving on the side of the road. But they’re not going to do it all at once, they’re going to phase it in gradually.
posted by Tdave on 9-11-2009 at 2:13 pm
I didn’t have any problems switching to driving in England, although I grew up and learned to drive in the US. Interestingly enough, it was when I came back to the US that I would get confused. I would have to sit at a stop and really focus on where I needed to be when I turned so that I would do it right. More than once I almost freaked out thinking someone was driving on the wrong side.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-11-2009 at 2:15 pm
@Tdave, that’s funny! How do you phase it in gradually, I wonder? Okay, even days, people with birthdays in the first half of the year, drive on the right, and those with birthdays in months with an R drive on the left.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-11-2009 at 2:17 pm
Correction: The word [other] should be between “driving on the” and “side of the road.”
posted by Tdave on 9-11-2009 at 2:26 pm
Hyacinth: I had the same experience with adapting to driving back in the states after living in England – Had no problems driving over there, ever, during the three years I lived there, but when I returned to the states, I frequently found myself driving on the left side of the road. Usually realized it when I pulled up to stop at an intersection and saw “my” stop sign across the road to my right!
posted by JEs on 9-11-2009 at 2:53 pm
We moved to New Zealand 3 years ago, and while my husband is totally fine driving on the left side of the road, I have yet to attempt it! The weirdest thing is sitting on the other side of the car.
I still get confused when I see children sitting on what I consider to be the driver’s side (or when someone jumps out of the car on that side at a traffic light)!!
Wonder if Samoa is planning to import cars from OZ or NZ now? That would explain the switch.
posted by Logan on 9-13-2009 at 4:43 am
Logan – I have the same problem in London. I’ve lived here only since February, but it’s always so odd when I see a child or a dog riding in the passenger seat. My husband has driven here, in Wales no less, where it’s all winding roads and the distinct possibility of meeting sheep in a layby, but I’m too scared and uncoordinated.
posted by Linda on 9-14-2009 at 5:14 pm
As I understand it, even while a US colony the Philippines remained driving on the left until WW2 when it was switched because US military traffic couldn’t figure out how to drive on that side of the road.
posted by Bob Couttie on 11-24-2009 at 3:47 pm
It’s to do with horseback riding (strange that the americans wouldn’t understand.)
For most people the right hand is their lead hand.
So the right hand was their sword hand a few 100 years back.
So the Knights went into battle with their enemy on their right hand side on their sword side…
and drove/rode on the left.
Hence, right hand drive = wrong hand drive.
posted by Gavin on 1-19-2010 at 4:17 pm
Samoa has switched based on the nearest neighbor rule. Australia being the biggest nearest neighbor.
Bit of a nonsense, the edge cliff and somehow “rightness” of one way over the other. Which direction are you travelling? Are there cliffs on both sides? Same with it frees up the right hand for gearshifts etc. But not the steering wheel which is what you use ALL of the time.
They are all excuses for the 50/50 toss up.
All very hard it seems for Americans who especially get anxious at anything being different from what they know.
btw Wagon groves in Roman roads in a Welsh quarry show that they drove on the left. The loaded wagons leaving the quarry made deeper grooves. So I suppose the anarchy of the dark ages is to blame for the millennia or more of no rules.
Why America, an ex British colony, drives on the opposite side of the road, but RAILS on the left is interesting. As is why helicopter pilots sit on the right, but plane pilots on the left.
posted by PeterB on 2-12-2010 at 11:46 pm
it gives me the colliewobbles just thinking about driving on the left.
posted by dirk alan on 7-18-2010 at 4:35 pm
Great post – I’ve gotten used to both sides after years of practice but always a challenge when you have to swap!
posted by Andrew on 8-9-2010 at 3:25 am
I thought it made sense to be on the left because most people are right handed, and would therefore drive with their right hand on the wheel when their left hand is changing gears or manipulating other devices required in the driving of a car.
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 11-18-2010 at 3:49 pm
Mostly true…
Driving on the left goes back to Roman times – long before 1300AD.
The simple reason being that the Romans used to march while carrying their shields on their left arm. An enemy attacking from the left meant they only had to raise their shield quickly, while an enemy attacking from the right gave them time to draw their swords as the enemy crossed the road.
The nail in the coffin for drivers on the left came with Henry Ford and the Model-T. He made the car left-hand drive reasoning it was easier to shift gears with the right hand.
Oh, and Napoleon had his conquered countries drive on the right so his soldiers could tell who HAD been conquered. Those driving on the left still obviously hadn’t got the memo!
posted by Ian on 1-24-2011 at 2:47 pm