Eli5: Why is a cars drivers seat not positioned in the middle?
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Back in the early days of roads, you had wagons pulled by horses or oxen. If you needed more power, you added more animals. It was convenient to have them pull side-by-side instead of one in front of the other, less reign length, no tripping over each other, can hear commands equally, etc.
The driver of the wagon controlled the animals up front with commands and a whip, typically held in the dominant right hand. To reach each animal equally with the right hand, they sat on the left side of the wagon, and directly behind the animal on the left. This wasn’t a rule, but a pretty common arrangement as there are typically more right-handed people in a population than left-handed.
Now, if you’ve got two wagons approaching each other on the same road, and the road is kind of narrow, you’ve got to watch out that the wagons don’t hit each other. If you’ve got yourself seated on the left side of your wagon, you’ll be able to look at the left side much easier. Same as the wagon that’s approaching. Without any other rules, you’ll probably each want to keep to the right side of the road so you can both make sure you don’t hit each other.
The above situation happened time and time again, until it was codified into regulations as more and more people were using the roads. Manufacturers then built their vehicles to best accommodate the flow of traffic in a region, with vehicles passing you on one side of the road while yourself travel on the other.
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