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

my understanding is that prior to napoleon most of europe travelled on the side of the road the british still do. a result of roman norms. and that napoleon changed this for whatever reason in the parts over which he held sway.

it seems natural therefore to assume that in pre independence times the american colonists travelled on the lhs of the road.

my first question. is this so? if not...why?

my second question. if the americans did change sides...when?

my third question. if they did change sides..was this done in one go or gradually? how was it managed?

They trialled it, lorries/trucks first, for a month - and that was the cause of their civil war, on the A1A in Virginia.
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Without any grounds for thinking so, was it deliberate, like their spelling, to set themselves apart? (but that doesn't explain Europe).

too bad most americans have been alienated from this site or you might get your answer faster...

i think it is an interesting question though and hope someone can come up with a real answer.

the practice of driving on the left comes from driving a cart/ carrige and having the whip in your right hand away from the pedestrians

maybe the settlers needed thier guns easier to shoot and so by driving on the right they are not aiming across passengers, horses and traffic comming the other way etc. to shoot the natives at the side of the road.


Taff
agent of kaos

oh btw... our spelling is not deliberately different from the English... we just have so many nationalities represented in our population... don't forget americans all came from world stock... except of course for native americans...

and i say americans meaning people from the united states of america because believe it or not most people do know who is being talked about when you say 'american.' if someone means someone from a south american or central american country they usually say the country name... such as argentenian or chilean or mexican or... etc.... and of course up north its canadians...



however... i do believe that if, supposing for some obscure reason we still spelled everything in the english way up to now... i do believe that we WOULD start deliberately making sure we spelt everything different acause so many brits (at least on here) sooooo ask for it with their arrogance and snide snipes...



you know what totally blows me away? our rebels... the ones who rebelled against England ? they were mostly english... i do believe... correct me if i am wrong... as i am sure you will. and so whats the big deal? id a thot you all would be kinda proud of us... being as we came from you... kinda.



ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

you're mad because we DID rebel

ha ha

i do believe taff that the drivers had someone riding shotgun... passenger front seat next to the driver... so your theory doesnt hold water but DOES prove my point about snide snipes... cept that remember.. settlers all came from some other country and really werent americans yet...

This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right seems to give pretty complete coverage of the question although this http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/ is mildly more interesting.

wow anhaga excellent references! and you're right... the second is more interesting although the first is interesting!

thanks

if your knowlage of the world is sooooo good you would notice from my name that i am not english, but a member of a race who have been oppressed by the english for over a thousand years, we had our country stolen from us and been herded onto the least fertile land, we have had our laws destroyed and english laws forced upon us and our language was all but destroyed and outlawed and we were converted from our own religion.....sounds familiar

just what you did to the native americans

you realy did come from english stock

you must be soooo proud

yes that was a snipe but there was nothing snide about it just the gods honest truth


Taff
agent of kaos

Here's a little bit more:

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm

Very interesting stuff. Would make a good Edited Guide entry, incidentally.

Now, then, rant alert

"Without any grounds for thinking so, was it deliberate, like their spelling, to set themselves apart?"

Personally, I think that a new overhaul of the English dictionary is long overdue - the British English dictionary, the American English dictionary, Canadian dictionaries, whatever. Pronunciations change from place to place, it's only natural that spellings should also change. We can't really change the way that people pronounce things - it just develops over time, so it makes sense to conform spellings to modern pronunciations.

A lot (not all) of what Noah Webster did in changing British English into American English was to drop silent letters and change the spellings so that they were more in line with common pronunciation. I don't really see a reason why we spell 'tongue' with *any* of its vowels, when I (and everyone I've ever met) pronounce it 'tung' (Webster wanted to change 'tongue' into 'tung', incidentally). Is there any good reason why we do so? Americans aren't always trying to be different for no good reason (except concerning the metric system, perhaps... you've got us there).

many thanks guys. appreciated.

"the practice of driving on the left comes from driving a cart/ carrige and having the whip in your right hand away from the pedestrians"

unless of course they were left handed? Are there more left handed people on the American Continent? How about the Native American?

You have a good point, Jordan - 'ghoti' = 'fish' (George Bernard Shaw: lauGH, wOmen, naTIon)?
But don't ask me to vote for it.

Fluffy, it's been said before - your Independence day is viewed by some over here as Thanksgiving. (Perhaps, for international relations I should add ?)

I can remember (Sweden, was it?) changing sides, and wondering, at the time, how on earth... I can't imagine that happening here, now, although it's not a completely silly idea.

>>too bad most americans have been alienated from this site or you might get your answer faster... <<

blimey!

somone put his teddy back in the pram

Well said Sho

>>
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

you're mad because we DID rebel

ha ha
<<

Yes, I'm mad at something that happened centuries ago that neither me nor anyone I know had any part it. Nor did it really affect my life. Nor do I really care.

Y'know, for all your constantly whingeing about 'sniping' &c. FK, you do an awful lot of it yourself. And, in the case of this particular thread, for no apparent reason.

one of the more interesting things from those very good links was my discovery that most of the world has indicators on the lh side of the column regardless of whether the vehicle is rhd or lhd.

i have driven euro vehicles before and knew this was the case for lh driving and it does sort of makes sense for lh driver side i guess. but the british lh side indicator makes no sense at all. must be some serious hand juggling going on between stick and indicator especially in hilly places. is the natural consequence of this that brits indicate earlier and leave them on longer since the left hand will naturally be tied up in proximity to the corner with gear changing?

i once saw a doco on british police driver training and they were being taught to indicate BEFORE they checked mirrors etc which is absolutely the reverse of how it is done in oz. i wonder whether this is a consequence of the lh column indicator position and perhaps the reason why the brits changed to that configuration.

<>

Read an article yesterday about how anti-Americanism is the acceptable racism now. In general I've always liked the Americans I've met.

<>

Firstly, that sort of behaviour was par for the course in them days (just look at the history of ANY country. It was before PC, remember).

And secondly, well, we can hardly complain about what the government is doing now to support the Welsh language. I mean, together with English and Scots Gaelic, it's one of the choice of three languages which foreigners have to learn to become naturalised as a British citizen. Millions of pounds of English taxpayers' money are spent funding the language, although more people in the UK speak Urdu than Welsh!

If the English had adopted the French approach, there would be no Wales or Welsh language at all now.