Which side of the road did the Romans drive/ride/march on?

[Anonymous]

Don't know why this question popped in to my head on a particularly long dull journey today, but there must have been some rule of the road to prevent nasty chariot collisions!<br>
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Anyone got any idea? Anyone even care? <p></p><i></i>

[mcbishop]

This is an old one that has run and run for years in the letters pages of *Current Archaeology*. It is partly a product of trying to view ancient society from a modern standpoint. Somebody even claimed recently to have excavated 'evidence' that they drove on one side rather than the other (which is a bit like claiming to have dug up a cloud).<br>
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The question is in fact best answered laterally:<br>
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1. Why do they need to march on one particular side? Take a look at the way people walk on the pavement/sidewalk; whilst there are rules used on the road, there are few pedestrian areas where this is true (corridors and stairs in some parts of the London Underground are one such), but 'traffic' still manages to flow smoothly. In fact you will notice that there will be main streams flowing in either direction, and then individuals moving faster around the periphery. Why shouldn't Roman roads work in the same way?<br>
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2. In reality, the army took up the whole road when they marched, as well as either side of it, so everybody else just got out of the way.<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>

[JRSCline]

"Dug up a cloud" -- E EM Love it! <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

OK I'll rephrase my question (Should have known not to include marching on ROMANARMY!).<br>
<br>
Which side of the road did the Romans drive/ride on?<br>
<br>
I just thought somekind of ancient road sign might have been unearthed like the ones in Pompei, or something may have been documented by a patrician in charge of the upkeep of one of the many roads.<br>
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<p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Personally, I should think the army would march right down the middle, can you see the Roman army doing anything else? As a side thought, I have read somewhere that in Japan it is customary to walk on the left, something about not allowing your sword to come in reach of passers by. <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Given the later social practices amongst the carters and assorted mule drivers, my bet is that the biggest one or the one with the loudest, foulest mouth would get the right of way..<br>
In french, the coined phrase "querelle de charretier" (carter's quarrel) means a particularly rude shouting match and scuffle.<br>
Of course we all know today that right of way or no right of way, you get stuck in traffic all the same...<br>
About left side/right side driving/riding: the same causes produced the same effects in Japan and Britain because I've heard when I was in England that if people drove on the left there it was because they had not changed the old habit of riding on the left, in order to offer their sword side (right side)when they met someone coming from the opposite direction, just in case...<br>
Seems logical.<br>
As for traffic jams it's hopeless. The Divine Julius himself couldn't solve that one: he forbid carts to enter Rome during daytime. That probably didn't have much effects on the traffic jams inside --your average street was about four meters wide-- but it had interesting effects at night. No one could sleep anymore because of the intense noise of the carts, not to mention the "carter's quarrels"..<br>
One of Caesar's biggest failures, after Gergovia...<br>
In the Paris Metro there used to be a side, same as for cars. You'd walk on the right and there were barriers in the middle of stairs and corridors to separate lanes. They removed the barriers about 20 years ago and soon realized that traffic flew faster that way. As Mike Bishop said, slower people tend to take the middle and those in a hurry weave their way through and around.<br>
And lastly, I hereby proclaim that the British are RIGHT to drive on the left!<br>
Why?<br>
Because the right of way is to the right, which gives you the whole width of the street to see a car coming from the right.<br>
Driving on the right, we should have the right of way from the left.. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showLocalUserPublicProfile?login=antoninuslucretius>Antoninus Lucretius</A> at: 1/24/02 1:08:04 pm<br></i>

[Catiline]

Right of way from the right? what does that mean? right of way in this country is dependent on which road you're on, not which direction you're coming onto the road from. Or have I misunderstood something <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

It's not that you've misunderstood something, it's that you live in a place where right of way from the right was slowly replaced by traffic lights, stop signs and yield signs until there was virtually no road where that rule applied.<br>
It's like the Constitution. People coming from right have the right of way. That's the basic principle.<br>
Then you have the amendments:Traffic lights, stop signs and so on.<br>
In Paris and several other european cities, for instance there are many crossroads where there is no traffic light, no stop sign or anything. In this case, right of way from the right applies and believe me, people will use that right fully... EM <p></p><i></i>