Posted on 05/05/2025 12:05:07 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Australia drives on the left side of the road, and the reason for this is straightforward: historical influence from Great Britain. As a British colony until 1901, Australia adopted many British customs and laws, including the practice of driving on the left. This was not a unique decision; many other former British colonies also inherited this system, but let’s dive deeper into the history and the how’s and why’s of this driving norm.
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two roundabouts were installed here near us in USA and the number of accidents and near-miss accidents and road rage incidents skyrocketed
roundabouts are simply very confusing and usually don’t allow sufficient merging distances for safety, to begin with
I took a cab in England and I was hanging on for dear life. I couldn’t get used to them driving on the wrong side of the road.
They also drive on the left, in the US Virgin Islands.
Roundabouts are only useful for one reason, lessons injuries and virtually eliminate T-bones from running lights.
They are all over the place in Spain, and it’s very frustrating, because you aren’t sure which exit is the one you’re supposed to take, and the GPS just makes it even more confusing.
Japan was never part of the British Empire, but its traffic also drives on the left. Although this practice goes back to the Edo period (1603–1868), it was not until 1872 – the year Japan’s first railway was introduced, built with technical aid from the British – that this unwritten rule received official acknowledgment. Gradually, a massive network of railways and tram tracks was built, with all railway vehicles driven on the left-hand side. However, it took another half-century, until 1924, until left-hand traffic was legally mandated. Post-World War II Okinawa was ruled by the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands until 1972, and was RHT until 6 a.m. the morning of 30 July 1978, when it switched back to LHT.[42] The conversion operation was known as 730 (Nana-San-Maru, which refers to the date of the changeover). Okinawa is one of only a few places to have changed from RHT to LHT in the late 20th century. While Japan drives on the left and most Japanese vehicles are RHD, imported vehicles (e.g. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche) are generally bought as LHD since LHD cars are considered to be status symbols.[43]
The brits used Australia as a penal colony guess what side of the road they drive on.
It’s not the wrong side of the road it’s the other side of the road.
In the early days of the auto in the U.S. people drove on the left side of the road.
When steering wheels evolved on the left side of the car it changed.
Back in the day, the Samurai wore their swords on the left side of their body, so foot paths were on the left side of the road.
If the foot paths were on the right side, the Samurai would clunk their swords together as they passed by each other.
In the late-1800s, Britain helped Japan develop their train system. Naturally, they recommended to the Japanese to keep everything on the left.
Trump should fix this, they need to get right.
RHT is used in 165 countries and territories, mainly in the Americas, Continental Europe, most of Africa and mainland Asia (except South Asia and Thailand), while 75 countries use LHT,[2] which account for about a sixth of the world’s land area, a quarter of its roads, and about a third of its population.[3] In 1919, 104 of the world’s territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. Between 1919 and 1986, 34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT.
I remember driving on Tortola several times. The Roundabouts were always fun because your instinct is to turn right and go counter clockwise.
Whereas you have to turn left and go clockwise around.
The problem was the cars still were US imports so they all had the steering wheel on the left side. I always found out it best to wait for someone else to come around and follow them.
I had a Ford minivan one time. It only had 16K miles. Yet the van was beat to crap. The steering wheel was about 1/3 play. It didn’t help that the RUM was cheaper than the coke to mix it with. Somehow we made it back to the villa at Cane Garden Bay though.
The best time to drive on the left side in a country where you are not used to it - is during higher traffic periods. You simply follow the traffic. It’s when the roadways are empty the ‘normal’ tendency to go right kicks in and you get into trouble.
Roundabouts are great at intersections where they are appropriate. We have several near us in Florida and at first people were overly cautious. But as more and more figured it out it is a great way to move traffic. It automatically gives priority to the more heavily trafficked direction. Accidents, when they do occur, are ‘safer’ since no vehicles are going at higher speeds.
And bonus... when the power goes out they are unaffected since there are no lights.
Because their horses decided to.
The government does a very poor job of teaching drivers unfamiliar with roundabouts on how they work. Back in the day I don’t think we knew anything about them in Driver’s Training.
To just spring them on drivers without some basic education (TV PSAs, GenPop mailings, News pieces) is bad policy.
In fact, they are quite simple. If there’s a car in the circle he/she has the right of way. Otherwise, just pull right in and go!
Don’t fly Qantas Airlines if you need to travel, and want to see something outside of the airport terminal.
There are “roundabouts” and there are traffic circles.
The local government decided that one particularly pain-in-the-ass intersection around here would get a traffic circle. During morning commuter hours and school let-out times, traffic and wait times (at a 4-way stop) were intolerable. I was thinking one of those utterly chaotic circular areas like in Rome, Italy, where cars are moving around randomly in every direction, and I objected. Additionally, we have a giant eldercare facility around here and there are almost always badly goobered elderly drivers who can disrupt virtually any traffic condition.
I was informed that what they were planning was a “traffic circle”. This is a single-lane circle with exactly one rule: When someone is in or clearly approaching being in the circle, they own it. Period.
It works beautifully, I must say!
Spent a few months working there.
After I got my drivers license I practiced left-hand driving for hours around Kadena Airbase before I went out on public roads.
By the time I got back to the states had to unlearn those odd habits.
roundabouts just about may eliminate T-bone accidents but they appear to greatly increase the number of side-impact accidents
at least on the two round-abouts we’re familiar with that have provide short merging space. Maybe if the roundabouts were 3 or 4 times greater in diameter, the merging would be safer
Roundabouts used to be called traffic circles, until some smarmy yuppy made roundabout popular.
If you are familiar with a roundabout, and which exit to take that’s one thing.
If you are unfamiliar with the roundabout, taking the right exit is tricky.
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