American Design: Why is the gas cap on the driver’s side?

Design can reveal something subtle about a culture. In small, everyday decisions that designers make without much discussion.

Take the humble gas cap on a car. On most American cars, the fuel door sits on the driver’s side. You pull up to the pump, open the lid, fill the tank, and you’re done. No walking around the car. No extra steps.

Many European cars do the opposite. The fuel door is often placed on the passenger side, which means the driver usually has to walk around the car to refuel. At first glance this seems inconvenient. But perhaps there's an interesting logic behind it. If a driver ever has to fill a jerrycan on the roadside, standing on the passenger side places them away from traffic. The design adds a small inconvenience in everyday life but increases safety in a rare situation.

Two different design philosophies are quietly at work: remove friction versus anticipate risk. Neither approach is right or wrong.

American cars famously added cup holders long before European cars did. Drive-throughs exist for coffee, pharmacies, banking, and just about anything else that can be ordered through a window without leaving your car. If an action takes two steps, someone will try to make it take one.

I was reminded of this while walking through Vancouver International Airport, where I took the photo above. Between two moving walkways stands a sign with arrows pointing left and right. Under the arrows are two flags: the United States and Canada. The United States arrow points toward the moving walkway, while Canada points toward the regular floor.

The photo isn’t doctored, it really looks like that! Whether intentional or not, the sign feels like a perfect little metaphor.