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Wake Up With A "Did You Know?". Why Britain Drives On The Left Side Of The Road

Why did I include the opening battle scene from Gladiator in this blog? 1) because it’s sweet and 2) I wanted you all to be able to visualize people riding on horses and fucking people up with swords because that is what this is all about.

Back in the day when roads were basically first invented people were riding horses. And traveling by horse was dangerous because there was a lot of riff raff at every turn. People who would rob you blind and leave you for dead. Peasants, savages, the general assholes of the day were lurking everywhere and you had to be ready to fuck them up at a moments notice. And if you’re approaching potentially dangerous people on the road ahead you want your sword in your dominant hand on the open side of the road. Meaning, you’re going to keep to the left side of the road so you can swing your sword and the riff raff with your right hand and then continue on your way.

By the time America came around, people weren’t really traveling with swords anymore. Roads were better and wagon travel was more common. And when you’re traveling by wagon and using a whip to motivate your horse/mule/donkey/oxen you want to use your dominant hand for that as well. And if you’re sitting in a cart and whipping animals you want keep that away from on-coming traffic to avoid a ruckus by accidentally hitting someone or their animal as they approach. Carts and wagons naturally moved to the right side and that became the standard for the majority of the world. Britain, being ones for tradition put a law in place in 1773 that said people had to drive on the left and they just stayed that way forever while the rest of the world switched to the right. Now the only places that drive on the left side of the world are former colonies of the British Empire and Japan. Japan had similar samurai sword reasoning for driving on the left that just stayed in place. And there you go. That’s your Wednesday wake up fact.