Driving left or right???

I never really pay attention on which side of the road people around the world are driving on, and I don’t care. But after watching both edition of The Amazing Race (US and Asia), I wonder why the Americans find it hard to drive on the left side meanwhile the Asian (as TARA teams) also face with the same difficulties when driving on the right side. So I turn to the most powerful tools mankind ever made, the INTERNET to search for the real truth and nothing but the truth that I will get so help me God.

To my surprise, 66% of world populations from 164 countries are driving on the right side of the road while the rest of the world drive on the left side. I always thought that we ALL drive on the left side except US coz US always different like elevator and lift, soccer and football or…I can’t think of other example - fyi I learnt British English and my teacher always reminds us the differences between US English and British’s English. It turn out that I suck at world history and geography (and I live in a country used to be part of the British Empire)!

The reason why there is left and right side is base on the history of the world. Before horses and cars, people walk on the left side as they are carrying weapon (swords) on the left side and can be ready during attack. When there are a lot of horses being use as transportation, most country still use left until Americans use heavier, bigger and multiple horses with no right driver seat. So, the driver use left seat and therefore drive at the right side coz of safety. For other country, the occupation during war influences the traffic law and the decision on left or right. Road border also part of the reason to switch, for example Canada use to be left side but switch to right coz their road connected with US.

British and its ex-colonial empire (except Canada and some African country) plus Japan, Indonesia, Macau, Thailand and US Virgin Islands are left side country. Coz Malaysia was once part of British Empire, so we are driving on the left side. That’s basically the reason why we are driving on the left side of the road.

If you are a ‘geek’, busy body and always want to know about everything like me, you can go to these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right
http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/driving%20on%20the%20left.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/8414/drive-right.htm
http://www.amphicars.com/acleft.htm