58 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



passing to the fact that the early drivers walked on the left of the 

 horses, and consequently they passed to the left to avoid being ground 

 between the two sets of wheels. King Arthur and Tristram and their 

 fellows had settled that, one judges, a thousand years previously. 



Why did the American colonists from England reverse the rule 

 of the mother country as to vehicles passing to the left ? That is the 

 remaining riddle which has perplexed every writer upon the subject. 

 There seems to be no exception, the Virginia colonists, who were so 

 largely horseback-riders, developed the rule of passing to the right as 

 spontaneously as the New Englanders. In Canada there appears to 

 have been a noteworthy indecision in earlier days; in some places, as 

 Toronto and St. John, New Brunswick, the English custom prevailed. 

 My reports are that to-day the American custom, if we may so name 

 it (passing to the right) is being increasingly adopted. 



The change of the colonists to the American practise has been 

 credited to the necessity of keeping to the right in snow-drifted road- 

 ways — surely an invalid argument from evident reasons. The use of 

 ox-teams is also said to have brought the change about. This was 

 perhaps a minor contributory cause, but, like the preceding, will not 

 explain the spontaneity and universality of the American habit. An- 

 other explanation that has been offered for our passing to the right is 

 that in early days of narrow and depressed roads the driver could the 

 better judge of the danger from the bank or " lift " of the roadway 

 on the right. Lastly, it has been suggested that lurking savages in 

 the woods at the sides (both sides) of the road made the change of 

 practise. But just how either cause compelled the colonial wagoners 

 to pass to the right, or how they bettered their condition by doing so, 

 one vainly tries to discover. 



The real explanation of the change comes to light in a more careful 

 observation and history of the actual facts and conditions of the 

 colonial immigrants. In the first place, they were not in the beginning 

 even preponderatingly English. We appear prone to forget that the 

 first Puritan settlers were mostly Dutch, to which France quickly 

 added her complement, both of continental or right-passing people. 

 Then it must be remembered that the long first period of settlement 

 was not only wagonless, but even horseless, and even English folk when 

 afoot had never ceased to be right-passers. The ox-team, the ridden 

 horse and the led horse were the first means of transportation, and 

 all these methods would insure the beginnings of the customs of right- 

 passing and soon establish it as the rule. It must have been a long 

 and fashion-fixing period before the wheeled vehicle could have come 

 into any general use to meddle with the already established custom of 

 right passing. Most powerful too must have been the dominating 



