Better proof
I was playing with my Great Smith set, and noticed a bit of logic or evidence that I hadn't taken into account before.



In the first decade of autos, American cars continued our French-influenced habit of driving on the right side of the street, and the steering wheel was also on the right. The Ford T started the transition to left steering, but the transition was slow. Some expensive cars were still right-wheeled in 1920.

Earlier I had tried to think about our road chirality, but missed this point.

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[The cited article] quotes a Wikipedia explanation for America's right-hand driving habit. The explanation seems to have appeared first in Popular Science in 1925.

Then the balance of power shifted. In the United States, wagons were increasingly common on the roads. Drawn by up to 20 animals, they were a popular way of transporting goods over long distances – and the men helming these vehicles liked to drive on the right. They’d sit on the rear leftmost horse, so it was easier to make sure oncoming traffic didn’t get too close if it was also on the left.

There wasn’t any arguing with the momentum of 20 1,000-pound (453kg) horses. Other road traffic quickly got used to driving on the right and the rule stuck. Hundreds of years on, right-side driving is irreversibly embedded in US street design.

Supposedly some drivers of Conestoga wagons formed a national habit. I can't prove this one wrong, but a tendency among some long-distance freighters seems unlikely to set a habit for city streets.

More likely:

In France, traditionally foot traffic had kept right, while carriage traffic kept left. Following the French Revolution, all traffic kept right.

The first keep-right law for driving in the United States was passed in 1792 and applied to the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. New York formalized RHT in 1804, New Jersey in 1813 and Massachusetts in 1821.

Note the dates. We were consciously following French trends and erasing British tendencies after the Revolution.

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I was using the pre-existing French habit to disprove the Popular Science logic. Our first automobiles were a much more decisive disproof. If we had formed our habits from the left-horse drivers of Conestogas, we would have placed the steering wheel on the left horse immediately and consistently. But we didn't. We began with the driver on the right horse, and gradually changed to the left horse over 20 years.

More broadly, the driving position doesn't seem to matter much. There are advantages both ways, and the outside position has more advantages. Driving near the centerline makes it easier to pull out for a pass. Driving on the outside makes it easier to see pedestrians and parked cars, and easier to see the edge of the road. We think of driving on the outside as strange, but we do it all the time in the left lane of one-way streets and divided highways.

Labels: 1901, Answered better than asked

  ¶ 1:52 AM