Roads

Vehicles in Britain and Ireland travel on the left of the road, so the steering wheel is on the right. It is because when people travelled on horses, everybody travelled on the left, so your right arm was free to use a sword. You normally get on and off a horse on the left side, too, so your left side had to be close to the side of the road. However, in 18th century farmers in France started to use carts with teams of horses. The driver sat on the left-hand horse so that his right hand was free to control the other horses. He needed to travel on the right so that he was in the middle of the road and could make sure that he didn't hit other carts. Slowly most countries changed to the right, but several European countries, including Portugal, Italy, Hungary and Czechoslovakia still travelled on the left until the 1920s and 1930s.

The most important roads in Britain are the motorways. In some countries you have to pay a toll to use the motorways, but in Britain and Ireland most of them are free.