Why does Japan drive on the left, even though they have never been a part of the British Empire?
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They’ve never been part of the USA either. What are they supposed to do, add an extra lane and always drive in the middle? They had to pick a side, doesn’t matter which one as long as they commit to it.
Because driving on the left isn’t exclusively a choice made by the British, and driving on the right is not an adopted global standard.
Riding on the left side comes from horse riding (carriages). A man would have his sword (hilt) on the left side of the body to be drawn with the right hand towards the right side of the body. If you would be riding on the right side of the road, you would be drawing your sword towards the pavement (side walk) rather than towards your enemy on your right hand side.
Since then, riding on the left just didn’t change for some countries.
As an Australian, I love that we can import Japanese cars and get them registered with minimum fuss, since we also are RHD. Back when the Fast and Furious first came out there were sooo many Supras, Skylines, Evos and WRXs getting around.
Edit: RHD, we drive cars on the left side of the road.
Driving on the left isn’t a British thing, per se. Many of the countries of Europe drove on the left. The French had chosen the right and when Napoleon was conquering Europe he forced each conquered nation to change to the right.
Driving on the left was actually the default at first, since believe it or not it is a bit safer on average. I’m not an expert on that one but you can google it and find well explained answers.
From what I understand it was Napoleon who switched that to the right hand side – because he didn’t want his armies to become congested. However some say that it’s a class thing that was challenged during the French Revolution – the rich would stick to the left forcing the poor to the centre or right. So during the revolution they said f the rich and switched it. Also possibly as a middle finger to a previous papal decree to drive on the left, which dates back to ancient times. Or a combination of all those factors.
Napoleon ended up conquering a decent part of Europe and all his conquered territories switched to the right as a result. It become popular and spread to other parts of the world, but Japan stuck to the old ways since there was no real reason to change – but they were also quite isolationist until 1868.
I’m an armchair historian at best so please correct any of my post
Thailand, a country that has never been colonized also drives on the left.
The reasoning is similar to Japan as well. Many Thai elites in the early 19th century got a lot of influence from the British. There is a myth that the first car in Thailand was British, but really we don’t know. The more accurate reason is that the first Thai drivers were educated in Britain and simply learned how to drive the British way before bringing it back home.
I believe that it began not *because of* British influence, but rather for the same reason the British adopted it.
It harkens back to “ye olde sword and horseback” times.
Most riders were right hand dominant, so they would ride to the left incase they had to draw their weapon and wield it with their right hand while on the move (receiving the same in return, of course).
In the US, before motor cars, what was the convention of carriages on roads and cities?
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