The history of driving on the right and the left

Thanks for this! The history is interesting. One reason we take Rick Steve’s’ guided tours is we do not fancy driving overseas, left side or right side.

This is very interesting, explains a lot. I can imagine why Sweden switched to right-side in 1967, but I'd love to know more about the day they made the transition, especially in the cities.

My boat, like most other boats I know, has the controls on the right side, like a British car. I don't know why that is, maybe CNN or another poster will enlighten me!

FYI, here’s a video showing Sweden changing from left to right in 1967. There’s a few others on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/Y8DqAIyuR0Q?si=k5qQqVFkafsp_1Fk

You can find similar, far more recent examples, when Samoa changed from right to left.

Very interesting, Mustlovedogs!

I lived in Okinawa in 1978 when they had "the changeover." It started after WWII when America took control of Okinawa, and so everyone drove on the right. In 1972, control shifted back to Japan and eventually, 6 years later in 1978 (about 2-3 months after I got there), they changed it so that everyone drove on the left.

On the night in question, all the roads were shut down at 10pm. All motor vehicles were ordered off the road (except emergency vehicles) and from 10pm until 6am the next morning, workers spend all night changing traffic signs and signals. And then beginning at 6am, we all got out on the road and starting driving on the left.

As you can imagine, everyone was very nervous about getting on the road that next morning. It was pretty frenetic at first, although I considered myself lucky that I only met one car driving towards me in the same lane, and that driver realized it early on. It was also a bit difficult, because I had a Suzuki mini-car that had controls on the left. It would be like us driving our American cars on the left hand side of the road over here. Hard to do. At any rate, we all soon got used to it, but I will never forget that changeover day!

Regarding switching from left to right:
The year 1924 saw three countries switch to the right-hand side of the road, Canada, Poland, and Spain. In 1928, Brazil and Portugal made the change. Austria completed their change in 1938. More recently, in 1967 Sweden switched over, as well as Iceland in 1968, Burma in 1970, and Ghana in 1974.

The last country to switch sides was Samoa, which in 2009 became the only country in 40 years that switched from right-hand side to left-hand side road driving. They made this switch to cater to less costly car imports from countries such as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, instead of the more costly imports of American-made cars.

Buried in that article is a short explanation of why the left side was the original choice in Europe (and maybe Asia as well):

Horse riders preferred to stay to the left to keep their right hands toward oncoming traffic for greetings and, if needed, fighting.

When I took lessons in driving a horse, the instructor explained that we must carry the whip in our right hand and sit to the right side of the cart if sharing the seat with a passenger. She said that this “right hand carry” dates back to the afore-mentioned preference by horsemen (including knights on horseback) for keeping their right hand free for their sword or other weapon. The buggy whip, by the way, is not a weapon. It is only used to cue the horse on turns, by tapping him on the side of the hip; never as a punishment or a cue to move forward.

When we advanced to taking our horse and cart on the roads, we had to drive on the right along with the traffic (this was in Canada), but still had to sit in the right-hand drive position, or maybe in the middle if driving solo. And we learned to signal our turns with the whip—-pointing it to the left or to the right as needed. No hand signal, because one needs those to hold the reins.

She had a funny story about that, as she once got a traffic ticket for failing to signal a left turn. She went to court to challenge the turn signal ticket bringing her instruction manual on carriage driving, and an obscure citation to the whip signal in the British Columbia traffic code. She won. But the officer got his revenge, as he subsequently ticketed her for speeding—-her horse, a Standardbred retired from racing, was going 28 mph in a 25 mph zone. She could not contest that one. (This was 1982, shortly after Canada switched to metric, but our instructor was still used to miles so reported the story that way).

Interesting article! Thank you, Mardee!

Horse riders preferred to stay to the left to keep their right hands toward oncoming traffic for greetings and, if >needed, fighting.

I have always read that it was because of jousting in medieval England that the riding on the left side of the road became popular there.
This explanation was given by historian Lucy Worsley in one of her programs.
The lance was always carried in the right hand during a joust.
If the two participants met on a road, both horses ran on their own left side of the road, running toward one another.

Hi all -

All very interesting and plausible, but my understanding is that the real culprits for the decisions that led to driving on the left were, as might be predicted, the church. At at time when Pilgrimages we increasingly de rigeur the church standardised the route of travel to the left hand side to avoid unnecessary congestion. The fact that this kept the right and usually sword hand free to tackle on comers should the need arise is coincidental but sensible. Thus the apocryphal stories about sword bearing nations (Japan for instance) always travelling on the left.

Ian

A boat crossing your bow from the right, has the "Right of Way." Its easier to see them from a starboard pilot station. I'm surprised that cars lost this convention. They should have red blinkers on the port side, and green blinkers on the starboard side. :)

So many interesting additional pieces of information in these posts. There needs to be a follow up article interviewing Rick Steves forum members!