The US and Right hand drive

Many US vehicles were Right Hand drive, in fact most before the Model T.

American Steering Wheels Haven't Always Been On The Left

One of the many aspects of British life that Americans are so often interested in is the country's driving regulations. I have lost count of how many times I have been asked: "why do you guys drive on the left?" It is common, also, for Americans - in what is presumably intended as light-hearted banter - to talk about the relatively small size of British cars.


However, the jibes that really get me are the ones that pertain to Britain's use of right-hand steering wheels - a design that American cars themselves once employed.


The 1910 Zimmerman and 1908 Auburn were both right-hand-drive
Before the 1908 launch of the Ford Motor Company's Model T, virtually every car in the United States placed the steering wheel on the right. In fact, Ford only made the change to make it easier for people entering on the passenger side to avoid oncoming traffic.

Until this, though, long after a law was passed in 1792 mandating that vehicles - horse buggies and the like - must travel along the right-side of the road, it was widely accepted that steering should take place on the right. Evidence of this can still be seen today, in fact, in Amish communities, where horse buggies are steered in this manner.

When mass production of American cars began in the late 19th Century, it was widely viewed that right-hand steering was the preferred method, since it had evidently worked out just fine for the journeymen of yesteryear.

However, by the turn of the century, motor companies began looking for innovative new ways to sell their latest product. Cadillac introduced the first lever-operated headlights, while the Marmon Motor Company is believed to have pioneered the use of a rear-view mirror at the 1911 Indianapolis 500. And so it was that Ford introduced left-hand steering in 1908.

Because it was later seen that left-hand steering was conducive to safer driving (since it was easier for the driver to judge his or her proximity to oncoming traffic), this new way of steering became virtually standardised by the mid-1910s (it should be noted, though, that some automobiles - such as those from the Pierce Arrow line - only converted to left-hand in the early 1920s).

So what does all of this mean in regard to American perceptions of British cars? Well let's break this down into numbers: in the 221 years since the keep-right law was first introduced in the United States, right-hand steering was widely used for roughly 123 of those years. This means that for over half of that time, Americans - who, as stated above, get a good laugh out of mocking the British right-hand steering wheel - used the right-hand steering wheel.

Have heard this L/H -R/H entry/ drive position many times in the past.
In reality, because everything is reversed, i.e parking passenger side to kerb, passing oncoming vehicles driver to driver etc, it is really six of one half a dozen of the other. Driving practices are the same except a mirror image.
I prefer to believe it came about simply by which side do you mount a horse?? (or a bicycle)
From the year dot, worldwide most people would mount a horse from the NEAR side, that is if both you and the horse are facing forward, you are on his LEFT.
Just as an aside, ask anyone just how confusing whis was for the Anzac troops who served/drove in South Vietnam.
Within Nui Dat base, you drove as per std Oz practice. Drive out the compound drive a R/H drive vehicle on (our) wrong side.
If you were (un)lucky enough to have had a US Army truck or Jeep attached to your unit, drove the L/H/D vehicle on the wrong side within the base area, swapped over to the RIGHT side once outside. Tricky sometimes if you weren't switched on.
Dave

The Mack thread had a bit of a wander into the L/R discussion. Worthy of its own thread. This is really comprehensive and interesting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-_and_right-hand_traffic

The same goes for most tractors mount from the LH side except if you own a David Brown Cropmaster as we do. It is a 2 seater and if you mount it from the LH you then have to get passed the gear levers and gearbox to get to the drivers position. Similar happens on 9G Chamberlains.

There is one place (an Island) belonging to America where you drive on the left hand side of the road. Just like us and the Poms.

The US Virgin islands were originally British, until WWII (when they was swapped for some worn out Destroyers) and the Yanks never changed which side of the road they drive on.

Almost all of the vehicles on the Island are left hand drive so they have the worst of it.

Zuffen wrote: There is one place (an Island) belonging to America where you drive on the left hand side of the road. Just like us and the Poms.

The US Virgin islands were originally British, until WWII (when they was swapped for some worn out Destroyers) and the Yanks never changed which side of the road they drive on.

Almost all of the vehicles on the Island are left hand drive so they have the worst of it.

The US bought their Island off the Danish in 1917 who had owned it for a few hundred years, getting it off the French in the 1700's. The British have their own island for Virgins further north.

In 1970 British Leyland built cars in Australia to import to the US Virgin Islands and were built Left hand drive but the deal fell through and they were converted back to RHD and sold locally. Most of the cars on the US VI are left and drive because they buy them from the US.

Terry

In both Switzerland and Italy (both driving on the right) it was the norm for busses/coaches and lorries to be RH drive, certainly until recent times if not still so. The reason was that for the combination of narrower roads on cliff-edge mountain passes, with the driver being on the right he/she could judge where the side of the road was better.

While Europe is now all driving on the right, it wasn't always so. Czechoslovakia drove on the left (with RH driving) until Adolf Hitler invaded in 1939 when driving on the right was imposed, but has remained that way since. There are older Czech vehicles surviving still - even some Skoda-built Sentinel steam waggons - that retain RHD.

Sweden used the drive on the left, but changed to the right, I believe, at some time in the 1950s.

I've heard this yarn about being RH steer so the driver was closer to the edge of the road for years for years. Tell me, what happens on the return journey? Do they convert the vehicle to LH steer or perhaps drive in reverse.

wee-allis wrote: I've heard this yarn about being RH steer so the driver was closer to the edge of the road for years for years. Tell me, what happens on the return journey? Do they convert the vehicle to LH steer or perhaps drive in reverse.

I've often wondered the exact same thing.......???

Did hear
eye did
many many moons ago
the timber trucks cartin into Marysville to the mill would use the part of the rd closest to the bank n not the drop side
din matter wot side of the rd they drove providin they had the inside lane
also
the greasy plate turn tables with a bolt thru the middle never had a nut on bolt
as they would rather lose a load & trailer n not the truck
cya