Question about Right-hand drive

peter3hg2 said:
Blind_Io said:
MadCow809 said:
maybe u are just too uptight about it, it was meant to be a small harmless joke :( yanks have a lousy sense of humour......

Sorry, I should have made use of the Emoticons. That was not meant to be a uptight, I just thought it was interesting how you worded your post, since Britons tend to be as elitist as Americans are egotistical and humorless. 8)
Obviously everthing we Brits do is correct. We speak the right language, drive on the correct side of the and we slowly allowed the colonials more control of their land to keep them happy. :D

Wait, what? "slowly allowed more control" my achin' ass. We made it so damned expensive for you to try to hold on to the American Colonies that you packed it in and went home crying about how we weren't playing fair by wearing dark clothing and shooting the officers. :lol:
 
It'd be awesome if the internet was around during the revolutionary war. Imagine the flame fests.
 
I can see it now...

British: REDCOAT RUSH KEKEKEKEKE
Americans: PH34R MY RIFLE H4X

..and so and so forth.
 
British: No fair! The rebels are using aimbots and NoClipping! Damned hackers!
 
Blind_Io said:
MadCow809 said:
maybe u are just too uptight about it, it was meant to be a small harmless joke :( yanks have a lousy sense of humour......

Sorry, I should have made use of the Emoticons. That was not meant to be a uptight, I just thought it was interesting how you worded your post, since Britons tend to be as elitist as Americans are egotistical and humorless. 8)

lol no problem mate, just a misunderstanding :D
 
According to that Wiki page it's safer to drive on the left and the Romans drove on the left so there. :D
 
I believe which side of the road we drive on originates from the days of horseback riding and coaching. As right handedness was considered the correct way round (using your left hand was considered to be evil!) it was advantageous to ride on the left hand side of the bridleway meaning anyone approaching would be ot the right of your sword hand. This meant that should the person attack, the right hand was on the correct side to fight with.

This querk can also be seen in the direction of spiral staircases in castles. They nearly always spiral upwards in a clockwise direction as it makes easier for someone to prevent an attacker climbing the stairs. The defending party can reach round the corner with his right hand to fight whereas the attacker has to lean round and expose his body to fight with his right hand or be hugely disadvantaged by fighting with his left hand.

The main reason why Europe drive on the right hand side of the road is because this was all reversed due to Napoleon being left handed. Evidently he wanted people to be approaching on his left hand side so passed a law stipulating that people should ride on the right hand side of the road. All this stuck and just became engrained in cluture until obviously roads became more substantial. Those that had no significant prefrence chose a system similar to their neighbouring countries, which obviously in Europe was France. England obviously have no bordering countries so stuck with the 'correct' side of the road as did Sweden who until the 1970s. Virtually every right hand drive country in the World is an ex collony of Great Britain (or was heavily influenced by it) so Australia, Japan, Souther Africa etc are all included in rhd.

If you want to read more on it this is a great arctilce: http://www.starimage.co.uk/scda/reference/drive_on_the_left.htm
 
also partly explains why napoleon was so successfull.

he learned all his soldiers to fight with their left hand, and to approach the enemy from the right, the opposition didn't stand a chance
 
bone said:
also partly explains why napoleon was so successfull.

he learned all his soldiers to fight with their left hand, and to approach the enemy from the right, the opposition didn't stand a chance

Er what was that ABBA song? Er. ... Waterloo - that's it.
 
Cobol74 said:
bone said:
also partly explains why napoleon was so successfull.

he learned all his soldiers to fight with their left hand, and to approach the enemy from the right, the opposition didn't stand a chance

Er what was that ABBA song? Er. ... Waterloo - that's it.
woah woah woah waterloo i was defeated, you won the war...
 
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