Glimpse of Yesteryear
Not long ago, I heard on the radio that England was considering changing to driving on the right side of the road,…
Not long ago, I heard on the radio that England was considering changing to driving on the right side of the road, as we do, and that made me wonder about this whole left side/right side thing.
The preponderance of evidence is that as far back as ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, the keep left rule was followed. For example, in 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon, England. The grooves in the road on the left side (viewed facing down the track away from the quarry) were much deeper than those on the right side. These grooves suggest that the Romans drove on the left, at least in this particular location, since carts would exit the quarry heavily loaded and enter it empty.
Many historians believe that ancient travelers on horseback generally rode on the left side of the road because more people are right-handed. A right-handed horseman would thus be able to hold the reins with his left hand and keep his right hand free to offer in friendship to passing riders or to defend himself with a sword, if necessary.
What started as custom eventually turned into law. For example, in England, keeping to the left was regarded as more a custom than a rule until the increase in horse traffic by the end of the 18th century. (The number of coaches rose from 300 in 1639 to 1,000 in 1771.) At that point, the British Parliament was urged to entrench the keep-left rule into a statute. Parliaments Highway Act 1773 contained a recommendation that horse traffic should remain on the left and this was further enshrined in the Highway Act 1835.
But in America, it was different. Evidence indicates that right-hand travel predominated from the time of the earliest settlements in Colonial America. The ox-team, the horseback rider, the handler of the lead horse and even the pedestrian all traveled to the right. Part of the reason is said to be the fact that travelers with handguns carried their weapons in the hollows of their left arms and traveled to the right, the better to be ready if an oncoming stranger proved dangerous.
Wagons were hauled by two, four or six horses, with the driver riding the left rear (wheel) horse, handling the reins or jerk line with the left hand and the long blacksnake whip with the right. These drivers traveled to the right so as to watch more closely the clearance at the left. The heavy Conestoga wagons introduced about 1750 in the vicinity of Lancaster, Pa., gave an added impetus to right-hand travel. Again, drivers rode the left wheel horse, or sat on the “lazy board” at the left side of the wagon, or walked along the road at the left side of the horses. He kept to the left in order to use the right hand to manage the horses and operate the brake lever mounted on the left-hand side.
Some historians also point to an opposition to customs of the Old World.” Americans saw no valid reason for transplanting the English left-hand rule. However, no formal rule of the road was adopted by the new country or any state until 1792. In that year, Pennsylvania adopted legislation to establish a turnpike from Lancaster to Philadelphia. The charter legislation provided that travel would be on the right-hand side of the turnpike. New York, in 1804, became the first state to prescribe right-hand travel on all public highways. By the Civil War, right-hand travel was followed in every state.
So why do we drive on the right and not on the left like England? Because driving on the right suits our needs. How American of us.
For information on the events at the Geauga County Historical Society’s Century Village Museum, call 440-834-1492 or visit www.geaugahistorical.org.
