h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of my housemates asked me this yesterday and I had no idea. So, going back as far as we can, which side of the road did the ancients favour?

It's hard to tell, as most of the ancient roads have been relaid or built over umpteen times. However, Bryn Walters of the Association for Roman Archaeology reckons they drove on the left. His reasoning is as follows: In 1999, Walters found the track into the old Roman quarry at Blunsdon Ridge. The track was only used for bringing stone from the quarry to a major Roman temple being built on the nearby ridge (near Swindon in England), and then fell out of use, so it is very well preserved. And since the carts went in empty and came out laden with stone, the ruts on one side of the road are much deeper than they are on the other. The conclusion: Romans drove on the left.

The Romans probably drove on the left because most travellers on horseback preferred to keep left - it kept their sword arm free (most people are right-handed). As the Romans ruled most of Europe, this probably means that, for many years, everybody everywhere drove on the left. Not that it mattered much. Most roads were narrow tracks compared to what we know today. It only became an issue when traffic got heavier.

The fact that so much of the world drives on the right is probably down to Napoleon, who wanted to be 'revolutionary' and therefore was against driving on the left because it was the standard thing (and, anyway, the hated British did it). Napoleon took over much of Europe and was influential in the Middle-East, so Europe (with the exception of Sweden) ended up driving on the right. The USA probably went for driving on the right because the British drove on the left. Canada went for driving on the right because it was stupid to drive on different sides of the road when you share the longest land border in the world. Japan probably drives on the right because of the American influence.

Sorry about the information overload, but I suspect your question would raise the old "Why do we drive on different sides of the road?"

Sounds about right, apart from the fact I was pretty sure the Japanese drove on the left?

However the legions marched down the middle (based on written evidence of someone or other, quoted in something I learned about in GCSE latin.)

I thought the Japanese drove on the left too!

At least it means that we were originally right!

I should imagine the Legions, and indeed most of the Roman Empire Officialdom, rode on whatever side of the road they d*mn well pleased! I mean, who was gonna tell them they were wrong?

"...the Japanese drove on the left?"

Unless they've changed since 1965 they certainly do!

Thanks all. For my part, I think it's pretty likely there was no overall system, but I wondered if anyone knew. By the way, when I said "the ancients" I meant all ancient peoples, so if anyone knows the Athenian system I'm still interested.

Knowing the passion of beuraucracies (sp?) for making officious decrees, I should think they did have an official system.

That's a point, and I'd be interested to know what it was, but would it have been widely obeyed away from Rome and possibly some other major cities?