inky:
Only about 28% of the world’s total road distance carries traffic on the left (blue), with 72% on the right (red), according to Wikipedia. I had no idea we left-siders were so outnumbered.
I wonder if this is merely a coincidence:
Today, only four European countries drive on the left: Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom. None shares a physical border with a country that drives on the right and all were once part of the British Empire.
I’ve always thought there was something odd about right-hand traffic, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I read this:
Research in 1969 by J. J. Leeming showed countries driving on the left have a lower collision rate than countries driving on the right. It has been suggested this is partly because humans are more commonly right-eye dominant than left-eye dominant.
Interesting. Sweden also had left-side driving from 1736 until 1955. The country shares several physical borders with countries that drive on the right, Norway for example, and this did lead to some confusion. :)
The changeover took place on a Sunday morning at 5am on September 3, 1967, which was known in Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the ‘H’ standing for Högertrafik or right-hand traffic.
Since Swedish cars were left-hand drive, experts had suggested that changing to driving on the right would reduce accidents, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents did drop sharply as a result. This was likely due to drivers initially being more careful since accident rates soon returned to nearly the same as earlier.
I would also think that, if one is sitting on the left, head-on collisions would be less fatal, since one is further away from the point of impact.
