MSGID: 1:153/716.0 fc5cff00   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 5fb4db92   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  When it really mattered which side of a horse a knight   
    AH>  mounted on & what the chances were of meeting up with   
    AH>  an enemy who was approaching from the opposite direction,   
    AH>  it made sense to keep to the left.   
      
    AK>  I also want to note, that women also were road traffic   
    AK>  participants, and during those times they sat on their   
    AK>  horses sidelong with their both legs hung on the left   
    AK>  side of horse.   
      
      
              Yes... we call it "riding sidesaddle".  Years ago I saw a picture   
   of Queen Elizabeth II mounted that way on a formal occasion when she was   
   wearing a full-length skirt.  In less formal situations she & other female   
   members of the royal family evidently wear jodhpurs (riding breeches).  Until   
   the 20th century it would have been unthinkable, however, for a female to wear   
   trousers....  :-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  So, if the traffic on roads had been right-sided women   
    AK>  could have gone under the horse approaching from the   
    AK>  opposite direction, in case they fell from their own   
    AK>  horses. It case of left-side movement they could get   
    AK>  safely into the road ditch, the worst scenario. ;-)   
      
      
              Good point.  I am told right-handed people generally prefer to   
   mount from the left & horses generally learn to expect that.  It would be   
   safer, both for males & females, to mount/dismount at the edge of the road   
   than to walk out into the traffic... and when we were in England I didn't see   
   wide, deep ditches like some of the ones I've noticed in rural areas around   
   here.  On flood plains & river deltas these may be filled with stagnant water   
   more often than not.   
      
              At any rate, the thought has occurred to me too that a person who   
   is riding sidesaddle may be in great danger of falling... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
    AK>  So, returning to our horses, the women used to dismount   
    AK>  from both horses and carriages from the left -- and a   
    AK>  universal rule, as we know, is a good and easy rule.   
      
      
              I hadn't thought about carriages, but I get the drift.  :-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  You should not rake your brains and think which variant   
    AK>  is better. That's why they still follow the rule in   
    AK>  England. ;-)   
      
      
              Dallas has driven in England with me as a passenger & navigator.    
   We both thought the roundabouts there were a great idea because they don't   
   take up a lot of space... and if you're not sure which exit to use you can   
   drive around in circles until you've figured it out.  On North American   
   freeways you may not get a second chance to read the signage, and if you take   
   the wrong exit you can easily waste half an hour getting to wherever you   
   should have been.   
      
              Why don't we use roundabouts here?  Theoretically they ought to   
   work if all the directions are reversed... but, as often happens when somebody   
   comes up with what they consider to be an improvement on the traditional way   
   of doing things, a few details were overlooked.  We've kept the rule that the   
   vehicle on the right has "right of way" although we drive on the opposite side   
   of the road   
   ... and usually we make it work.  But in some intersections it doesn't....  :-)   
      
      
      
    AH>  Meanwhile, folks here in BC drove on the left until   
    AH>  it became problematic that our neighbours to the south   
    AH>  didn't.  Not all provinces changed at the same time...   
    AH>  but BC did it about a century ago.   
      
    AK>  It's interesting to look at how the road with left-driving   
    AK>  rules is passing into the right-driving road, especially   
    AK>  if the road have a good traffic. ;-)   
      
      
              Yes, I reckon it must have been quite a challenge to switch from   
   one to the other upon crossing the border.  I don't know how it was done, but   
   I see that as the population increases the volume of traffic increases as   
   well.  :-))   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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