On 16/08/2014 13:50, Thomas de Groot wrote:
> On 16-8-2014 10:53, Stephen wrote:
> 
>> That makes sense to me too. Look at fighters, swordsmen lead with their
>> dominant side unless they have a shield. Then that is the side they lead
>> with. Boxers lead with their "shield" side for protection. If they lead
>> with their right hand forward they have a special name, southpaw. In
>> judo it is the opposite way. So I think that this has to do with the
>> discipline.
> 
> I have been told that the origin of left-hand driving came from medieval
> sword fighting and tournaments, like also the winding sense of stairs.
> 
> Thomas

I heard that the winding sense of stairs is for defence of the building,
assuming the main hand for the sword is the right one.
So defendants get full movement range and assaulting get problems.
So, the rotation is not the same when going to the vault or going to the
roof, from the outside.

The English driving on the left side is due to the sheath being on the
left side (once again for the majority with a right hand for the sword),
and horsed-armed-men should not collide the sheaths when crossing. It
went to road and railway (and so far, trains on railway still "drive on
left" even in France), because most trains first came from the island
west of Brussels (but the spacing between the rails is due to the wide
of the roman empire's horse's ass). Due to the large influences of the
English Empire, many countries sticks to that convention.
Napoleon might have hated that convention for Europe, but how do you
explain that the continental north America also drives on the right ?

Last note: trains run on left, but tramways is a different story, and
metro/tube too, they run on right (like car) in Paris.

-- 
IQ of crossposters with FU: 100 / (number of groups)
IQ of crossposters without FU: 100 / (1 + number of groups)
IQ of multiposters: 100 / ( (number of groups) * (number of groups))

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