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Hey, let the British drive on whichever side of the road they want. But they should understand that there are going to be problems if they come here and don't adapt to the local arrangement. (They should also think twice about the way they words like "colour," "favour," etc. But that could be another thread).
We may have had the first cars but we didn't have the first roads. In feudal days ( long before a USA) society was extremely violent and travelling on the left side of the road was the most sensible option as it meant your sword arm was nearer oncoming possible opponents. This became the norm in places like the UK and the roads were built to accomodate this.
In the late 1700s, the french and Americans too began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.
Real Americans drive on the RIGHT side of the road because early conservatives did not want anyone to think about the Left.
This standard does not seem to apply to Volvo, BMW or Hummer drivers that apparently believe the high price of their cars bought them the right to take their half out of the middle. I learned this from driving back roads in southern New Hampshire the right wing yuppie capital of the world.
I was trying for sarcasm. A soccor mom talking on the cell phone while driving a Volvo down the middle a tree lined narrow road can be a sight to see when you are going the other way. I have had to pull off the road to let them past. I do not think she even saw me because she did not pull back to the right side of the center.
And don't listen to all these yahoos who are trying to say, "Oh, no, America didn't invent the car, it was a Belgian named Jans Van Der Sacrebleu, he invented the car in 1729, no, I mean 1488, yeah 1488, which is, like a REALLY long time ago, longer time ago than 1729!"
Everyone knows that Henry Ford invented and mass produced the first REAL car in the US of A, and we gave it to the world, like just about everything else from soup (from NJ) to light bulbs (also from NJ) to movies (actually, also from NJ).
Everyone doesn't know that because it's not true. The first mass produced, standardized, gasoline-powered car was the Benz Velo made by Benz & Cie. from 1894-1901. The French companies Panhard & Levassor and Peugeot were also mass producing cars in the late 1880s.
The first car mass produced in the US was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile from 1901-1907. Ford started mass producing the Model T in 1908 (after 2 failed attempts at car manufacturing). What everyone does know, and is true, is that in 1913 Ford introduced the moving assembly line. That changed manufacturing forever.
This entire thread is typical American ignorance. I love this country and most of the people who share it with me but man are some people stupid. We didn't invent the automobile and have no right to dictate what side of the road others should drive on. We contributed a great deal to mass manufacturing and guess what, so did Toyota as many modern automobile plants are based on the streamlining and optimization of manufacture pioneered by Toyota. Does it everyone also owe it to us to use U.S. standard measurements instead of metric?
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