MSGID: 2:221/6.0 5fb4db92   
   REPLY: 1:153/716.0 fb4279c3   
   PID: SmapiNNTPd/Linux/IPv6 1.3 20201107   
   CHRS: CP866 2   
   TZUTC: 0200   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2020-11-09   
   Hi, Ardith Hinton! -> Alexander Koryagin   
   I read your message from 17.11.2020 16:12   
      
    AH>> Various examples & historical anecdotes available on request. :-))   
    AK>> Oh, you are very welcome!   
      
    AH> Okay... here's one. As you probably know, Americans drive on the   
    AH> right side of the road & people in a majority of other countries do   
    AH> too. But things haven't always been that way. When it really   
    AH> mattered which side of a horse a knight mounted on & what the   
    AH> chances were of meeting up with an enemy who was approaching from   
    AH> the opposite direction, it made sense to keep to the left. The   
    AH> situation changed in the 18th century when teamsters began hauling   
    AH> farm produce from one place to another. Most preferred to drive on   
    AH> the right because, with a team of horses working in pairs, they'd   
    AH> sit on the left where they could simultaneously use their dominant   
    AH> hand to control the horses & see that their wheels didn't get   
    AH> tangled up with other people's wheels.   
      
   I also want to note, that women also were road traffic participants, and   
   during those times they sat on their horses sidelong with their both legs hung   
   on the left side of horse. So, if the traffic on roads had been right-sided   
   women could have gone under the horse approaching from the opposite direction,   
   in case they fell from their own horses. It case of left-side movement they   
   could get safely into the road ditch, the worst scenario. ;-)   
      
    AH> The aristocracy still wanted do things the way they were used to,   
    AH> and others sometimes resented being forced to the right when   
    AH> horsemen passed. But over time continental Europe, Russia, and the   
    AH> US all accepted the idea of driving on the right. From my POV as a   
    AH> student of language this is where the story gets a lot more   
    AH> interesting. I understand that when stage coaches were used in the   
    AH> US somebody would probably be "riding shotgun", and that in those   
    AH> days people were routinely told "don't fire until you see the   
    AH> whites of their eyes" because the firearms which were available at   
    AH> the time couldn't be aimed with the same degree of precision as   
    AH> modern weaponry. There had been highway robbers in England since   
    AH> medieval times at least... e.g. Robin Hood. I think they'd have   
    AH> found it advantageous to conceal themselves on a horseman's left.   
    AH> Later on, in SomePlace Else, it made sense to position whoever was   
    AH> guarding a coach on the driver's right... where assailants would be   
    AH> more likely to hide.   
      
   So, returning to our horses, the women used to dismount from both horses and   
   carriages from the left -- and a universal rule, as we know, is a good and   
   easy rule. You should not rake your brains and think which variant is better.   
   That's why they still follow the rule in England. ;-)   
      
    AH> AFAIC it doesn't matter which side of the road other folks prefer   
    AH> driving on as long as there is general agreement WRT how things are   
    AH> done. In Montreal there are two types of pedestrians... i.e. the   
    AH> quick & the dead. In LOndon the same applies, but you must   
    AH> look "right-left-right" before crossing the street despite what's   
    AH> been drilled into you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. I   
    AH> survived both. Meanwhile, folks here in BC drove on the left until   
    AH> it became problematic that our neighbours to the south didn't. Not   
    AH> all provinces changed at the same time... but BC did it about a   
    AH> century ago.   
      
   It's interesting to look at how the road with left-driving rules is passing   
   into the right-driving road, especially if the road have a good traffic. ;-)   
      
   Bye, Ardith Hinton!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
      
   english_tutor 2020   
      
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