Eli5 why driving on one side of a car is more practical than driving in the middle of one. Surely, the middle gives you better spacial awareness but things like the Monza SP1 exist and you still sit on one side of the vehicle
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Sitting on the right side of the car made sense if you were driving a carriage or wagon. Most people are right handed, so you hold the whip in your right hand, and by sitting on the right of the vehicle you don’t tangle your whip with the passengers or vehicle. Also if there are trees or hedges then you want the whip in the middle of the road to avoid tangling in these too.
However emperor Napoleon of France had to be different to the British, so everywhere he conquered had to drive on the opposite side to the obvious way. Which was pretty inconvenient, but also petty
There are a lot of good answers here. I’d like to add that the idea of sitting on one side is actually older than automobiles, and that the preference for sitting on the left is based on the fact that most people are right-handed.
A carriage driver cracked a whip with his strong hand, which was usually the right hand. If he’s sitting on the left, his right hand is close to the center of the carriage, and he can reach any horse on either side with equal ease. If he was sitting in the middle, he’d have to reach extra far across his body to crack the whip over the front left horse, which would get exhausting on long drives.
Occasionally, you’d see carriage drivers sitting on the right in old photos. In almost all cases, they’ll be cracking the whip with their left hand.
There is a level of truth to most of the answers here but imo, the only actual answer is that road cars have always been made to seat passengers comfortably and a seat in the middle isn’t comfortable to get in and out for the driver and any passenger seats that may exist are comfortable at all
There is a level of truth to most of the answers here but imo, the only actual answer is that road cars have always been made to seat passengers comfortably and a seat in the middle isn’t comfortable to get in and out for the driver and any passenger seats that may exist are comfortable at all
Not gonna lie, it feels like everyone here is trying to come up with reasons to give an answer… but really they all just come across as “well, because we’ve always done it that way and it wouldnt make sense to do it any other way”. Any argument for positives about “inside” turns or “visibility” has an equal and opposite negative on the other side! Lol. Just admit that we damn well could put the seat in the middle, but then we couldn’t fit a passenger to ride shotgun (like in the good ol days with wagons and carriages). It turns out it also prevents reducing the amount of people you can fit in the car. Literally the only benefit I can see it providing from a pure driving standpoint is the increased visibility when driving on a two lane road. It’s probably better to have as much visibility as possible closest to the object going 45mph *past* you only a few feet away from your car.
The real ELI5 answer is that it’s wildly impractical. Imagine you have a typical 4 or 5 seater car but instead the driver is put in the middle. You’re losing either 20 or 25 percent of your seating capacity (because now you can’t have two seats in the front) for no real discernible advantage.
Imagine anyone with a significant other. Literally no one is going to buy a car with one seat in the front and make their spouse/SO sit in the back.
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