It is hard to find a place on the earth where the British have not impacted societies in a fundamental way. The English language is the most obvious. But if you consider fundamental societal concepts, like parliamentary rules or their contributions to the worlds maritime standards, I find it ironic that the British drive their cars on the opposite side of the road to the majority of the world… Is right side driving possibly a victory for the French? On what basis did the Americans adopt the right hand side of the road?
Well with the simplest of google searches I found a great article on http://www.worldstandards.eu/ . The article is not attributed to anyone, but it explains the reasons why societies drive on the sides they do. It also explains some more contemporary situations, and countries that have changed the side they drive on. The URL to the article is listed at the bottom of my article. I recommend it.
So of course the sides of the road we drive on has it’s basis on some very practical reasons. My hypothesis about the French was a complete guess. But my spider senses knew that if the British were contrary to the world then it must in some way involve the French, and it does. And also, as suspected, it is still a victory of sorts for the French… I promise that I did not know any of this this before I wrote my opening paragraph. The subject was a complete whim that I decided upon. I was working on my web site and needed something to post to test my blog site…
ChooseFreeWill.net
So in a nutshell, the countries that the British colonized; India, South Africa and Australia and Japan all drive on the left side of the road. According to the article which I referenced as my soul source of research, is 35% of the driving population. If every country owes some degree of societal adaption to the influence to the British Empire, why does the entire rest of the world drive on the right side of the road? How did it this all evolve? How did it all happen?
Think of Mid-evil times, Castles, Knights on horses, Robin Hood… the first thing I think of is Monty Pythons “The Holy Grail”, but i’m weird that way. The second thing that comes to mind is senior year English class, and our study of Macbeth. I guess that’s a sidebar disclaimer that i’m a prewired Anglo saxon. So, back in the days of Arthur, and jousting, the Knights held their weapons to their right as they were mostly right handed. As they traveled through the country side it was advisable to hold your weapon facing any approaching passer by. So being right handed most knights traveled on the left side of the path. In addition, it was easier to mount their horse from the left side of the left side. Fast forward to today. The precedent that was set hundreds of years ago has faced no reason compelling enough to change change.
But how did right hand driving evolve? It was the “French and American teamsters” who started driving on the right side of the path. This started back in the late 1700’s.
Teamsters have their roots in horse and ox carts. Early carts made no accommodation for a driver. The Teamster would ride on the horse or ox closest to the cart, but on the left side horse. Since the driver had to move off to the side for faster traffic it made sense to ride on the right side of the path. As a result of riding on the left, the teamsters choose to travel on the right side of the path so they could look back at their load as others passed. Here’s the kicker. In 1974, after the fall of the Bastille, the French legislated driving on the right side.
So what? What does this mean? What is my point?
The long term impact on strategic decisions can sometimes be impossible to change and this is probably the classic example of a short term decision impacting long term strategic possibilities. I am sure the world automakers cursed the day when left hand drive ever took hold. Can you imagine the life time of cost for manufacturing cars for both right hand market? It may not be seeming likely that the same can be said for information technology., but it can. Early strategic decisions with technical implementations can seriously impact an organizations long term effectiveness, especially the more dependent the business becomes upon that technology. The long term effectiveness of computer system design start with critical “foothold decisions”. When these decisions are made by isolated individuals with limited business and technical experience they will severely impact exploitable potential. Many companies spend more time jumping through lateral loops with their IT systems just to climb one rung on the business peocess ladder. After a while companies can become conditioned to these dysfunction as normaland are psychologically unable to change without the influence of an outside force.
I’ve digressed away from my point about a Victory for the French…
but indeed… the French are on the books as having set the precedent for right hand drive; beating the British 65% to 35%. But we come to the 800 pound gorilla in the room……..
Perhaps only the British would agrue that Paris is a beautiful city in the world. As William Penn’s design of Philadelphia still works 300 years later, Napoleon’s design of Paris has also proven effective for some of the same reasons. Napoleons use of wide boulevards allowed for long range views across the city. I believe it is this sense of openness in the city that inspired the Eiffel Tower. As the central landmark of Paris, the Eiffel Tower can be viewed from all over the city. Narrow side streets feed to wider main boulevards whose final logic ends at the Arch of Triumph. But as the views open up from the side streets, the visual frame of reference is ever vigilant.
Upon my first visit to Paris in 1980 I was surprised to learn that the Eiffel Tower is actually a dark shade of green. Standing directly under it is almost as cool as the third observation deck, almost. Watching sunset over Paris on New Years Eve 1983, from the Eiffel Tower, was magical for me. I can fill paragraphs of incredible experiences in Paris, and probably will in future posts. But King Kong is taking Paris, Skyscrapers……
A first Skyscraper tower is being proposed for Paris, following the building of the glass pyramid at The Louvre. The opinion of many Parisians towards the construction of the pyramid was was expressed in the movie The Da Vinci Code”, “a scar on the face of Paris”. The idea of a skyscraper shadowing the landscape of Paris is… inconceivable to me. If the skyline of Paris becomes scared by King Kong, the French faithful will be ready to “storm the Bastille”!
France should leave well enough alone, and stick with what works. You can always build new high rises and takes trains from Paris… but putting the Skyscraper Genie back in the bottle would be like… asking the Brits to drive on the right side of the road. Once it’s happened there is no going back!
http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/