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I have encountered characters written horizontally right to left on signs (at the top of a gate) and on vehicles.
In the past Chinese characters were written from top to bottom and from right to left. Horizontal right to left is not that common even in ancient times. The top scroll in a couplet is one case which might be the one you see at the top of a gate. The one you see on vehicles may not be the case. I think it's just on the right side from head to tail of the vehicle which makes it right to left.
Of course not, or else it would confuse the reader.
Not for most adults, you just need to get used to it.
?right .either English in readers confuse won't it think I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_and_vertical_writing_in_East_Asian_scripts
Vertical writing is still used in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Countries like Singapore, Malaysia and China, on the other hand, are using right-to-left horizontal writing.
One popular saying of the difference is countries using vertical writing are still practicing traditional Chinese. The complexity of characters strokes make it hard to read if printed in horizontal.
To add on to existing answers, right-to-left writing is still commonly seen in Japanese and Taiwanese comics and novels, which is how I became familiar with it. Given time it is not terribly confusing (at least not more than recognizing traditional characters).
Interestingly enough, this is not always the case for other media, if you watch Taiwanese shows, the subtitles are in left-to-right, but many years ago it used to be in right-to-left as well.
