Why does some countries drive on left and some on right?

[panzermahn]

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blo ... 34094.html

Part from the link above:

Because Hitler Said So

With the invention of the automobile, countries had good reason to pick a side and stick to it, although not all did. By 1938, there was another reason: Wherever Hitler invaded, he forced the native populations to drive on the right. Parts of Austria, including Vienna, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, that had historically driven on the left now had to drive on the right.

Not sure if that is true or not

Panzermahn

[phylo_roadking]

P-man - there's two very general rules; everywhere that the french under Napoleon ever rulled, now drives on the right, for he mandated that it be so, to be different from the UK; until then, Europe had been a real mismash...

The vast majority of former British Imperial possessions still drive on the left....unless they've come under a more general influence from being close to the mainland U.S.A - IIRC a few Carribean former colonies changed.

It would be worth checking if the embryonic U.S. changed again JUST to be different to the Tyrant...

Japan still rives on the left - civilised people! Which causes HELL with MOT testing (yearly vehicle tests in the UK, like U.S. DOT testing) - because they often nowadays export their cars and bikes with their OWN headlights to the UK...and they are lensed to throw their beam in the MIDDLE of the road, rather than into the "nearside" which is the normal rule here. It's still legal....it's just most Testers get confused SO easily, poor chaps...

[Paulus II]

Wherever Hitler invaded, he forced the native populations to drive on the right

I've met Austrians who assured that that is indeed true, ever since the Anschluss in 1938 they drive on the right.

It makes sense that all countries that were incorporated into the Reich had to adopt the rules of the Reich.
For countries that were 'merely' occupied that formerly drove on the left it also makes sense, why have the Wehrmacht switching roadsides when crossing a border when you can easily force the locals to do that?

Other, smaller, changes in traffic rules were adopted here and there. Here in Holland foe example cyclists always had right of way over motorized vehicles when coming from the right. Why have German (military) motorized vehicles stop for a mere bicycle on an intersection when you can order a change of rules taking the right of way from the cyclists?
It took us until 2001 to set that one straight!