Britain is imposing a £900 on-the-spot-fine for foreign motorists who “cause disruption on British roads.” This means that if a foreign driver is cruising the British roadways and causes a disruption (a car accident, for instance), the officer on the scene can hit the driver up for £900 right then and there. And if you don’t have the money, they’ll impound your car and charge you another £80 to get it out again. Why such a harsh crackdown?
a number of different sources have corroborated London Councils’ findings that foreign drivers are 30% more likely to be involved in an accident than those traveling in a vehicle registered in the UK.
Let’s pause for a history lesson. The first automobile on record to move under its own power was invented in France. (Arguably, the first self-propelled vehicle was invented in China as a toy for an emperor’s son, but A. it’s not on record and B. this still will not dispute my point) France drives on the right side of the road. Then the Germans came along with their combustion engine (dare I say it? Right. Side. Drivers.), and from that moment on, Americans went nuts designing all sorts of vehicles that were self-propelled combustion engine contraptions.
There are lots of testimonies out there who say that everyone used to drive on the left, because it left the right hand free to hold a sword and defend against robbers. But then comes a story that the French preferred the right while driving carriages because the reigns went in the left hand, the whip in the right, thus drivers sat on the left and watched for passing traffic on the left hand side. Much like most right-siders drive manual cars today. There’s lots of finger pointing from countless sources. Some blame Napoleon for starting the right-side trend. Some say the French did it long before Napoleon and that other countries preferred the right, too. The arguments can go back and forth all day. In my opinion, this still does not override the point I’m trying to make, because the hard facts still support me. Where am I going with all of this?
Since all of the major developments in automobiles came from right-driving countries, and since the vast majority of early cars were produced by right-driving countries, resulting in official laws in each country that applied to right-driving…
This is England’s own damned fault for not getting on the bandwagon, saving auto-designers tons of time and money, and switching from left to right with the rest of the automobile-powered world when they had the chance. If they weren’t so stubborn by insisting on special cars for left-side-driving, thus forcing the majority of the world to adjust to the minority every time they come and visit, there probably wouldn’t be so many damned accidents today. There. I said it.
