International communities LHT/RHT

[and1969]

Myanmar drove on the left until 1970.

I did wonder why Japan chose to drive on the left.

The story for Myanmar is supposedly the dictator got told by a voice in a dream he should switch the country to RHT so ordered it the next day, but they never banned the import of RHD vehicles, so most Burmese import from Thailand or India.

The story for Japan is that the British won the contract for the railways, and built them for LHT, so when cars came to Japan, the Japanese kept to the left.

I was thinking it was maybe because early cars imported to Japan were British, same with Thailand.

I was looking at WIkipedia a few days ago and apparently left hand traffic became the norm in the Edo dynasty (1603 to 1868), but the same article says the arrival of the railways caused the Japanese to formalise the arrangement. If the Shogun miniseries is to be believed, in the period when the series was set, only the Emperor was allowed to use wheeled vehicles. In those times, the handedness of the road would probably have been less critical.

[Vierwielen]

The story for Myanmar is supposedly the dictator got told by a voice in a dream he should switch the country to RHT so ordered it the next day, but they never banned the import of RHD vehicles, so most Burmese import from Thailand or India.

The story for Japan is that the British won the contract for the railways, and built them for LHT, so when cars came to Japan, the Japanese kept to the left.

I was thinking it was maybe because early cars imported to Japan were British, same with Thailand.

I was looking at WIkipedia a few days ago and apparently left hand traffic became the norm in the Edo dynasty (1603 to 1868), but the same article says the arrival of the railways caused the Japanese to formalise the arrangement. If the Shogun miniseries is to be believed, in the period when the series was set, only the Emperor was allowed to use wheeled vehicles. In those times, the handedness of the road would probably have been less critical.

It is interesting that Indonesia (formerly a Dutch colony) drives on the left (much like Mocambique, formerly a Portuguese colony). In teh case of Mocambique, the driver was probably the fact that their neighbous - South Africa, Swaziland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Tanganika (post 1916) all drove on the left, and none of their neighbours drove on the right, so they followed suite. (Note, I have used the colonial names as that was when Mocambique made their decision).

[and1969]

It is interesting that Indonesia (formerly a Dutch colony) drives on the left (much like Mocambique, formerly a Portuguese colony). In teh case of Mocambique, the driver was probably the fact that their neighbous - South Africa, Swaziland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Tanganika (post 1916) all drove on the left, and none of their neighbours drove on the right, so they followed suite. (Note, I have used the colonial names as that was when Mocambique made their decision).

I agree with your assessment of Mozambique. In west Africa there is a similar situation - the ex-British colonies changed to right hand traffic because the surrounding countries had been in the French empire and many were quite big (Mali, Niger etc). I worked with someone whose father was from Nigeria, and my colleague had been sent to school in Nigeria during the 70s - a harsh experience from what he recounted, not unlike old British public schools - but he refused point blank to believe Nigeria had ever driven on the left.

As for Indonesia is their left side driving based on Dutch practice from whenever? Malaysia and Brunei are left hand traffic which might be why they continue the practice.

The most puzzling paradox is probably the US Virgin Islands which retains left side driving from when they were a Danish colony. It could be changed by a stroke of the pen in the Oval Office. Probably it is to stay in line with neighouring islands.

[RichardA626]

It is interesting that Indonesia (formerly a Dutch colony) drives on the left (much like Mocambique, formerly a Portuguese colony). In teh case of Mocambique, the driver was probably the fact that their neighbous - South Africa, Swaziland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Tanganika (post 1916) all drove on the left, and none of their neighbours drove on the right, so they followed suite. (Note, I have used the colonial names as that was when Mocambique made their decision).

I agree with your assessment of Mozambique. In west Africa there is a similar situation - the ex-British colonies changed to right hand traffic because the surrounding countries had been in the French empire and many were quite big (Mali, Niger etc). I worked with someone whose father was from Nigeria, and my colleague had been sent to school in Nigeria during the 70s - a harsh experience from what he recounted, not unlike old British public schools - but he refused point blank to believe Nigeria had ever driven on the left.

As for Indonesia is their left side driving based on Dutch practice from whenever? Malaysia and Brunei are left hand traffic which might be why they continue the practice.

The most puzzling paradox is probably the US Virgin Islands which retains left side driving from when they were a Danish colony. It could be changed by a stroke of the pen in the Oval Office. Probably it is to stay in line with neighouring islands.

Oddly East Timor changed the side of the road for driving from left to right when Portugal did in the 1920s, until it's hostile takeover by Indonesia in 1976.

All the Commonwealth countries in West Africa drove on the left, but each changed to the right in the 1960s - 70s as they were surrounded by countries that drove on the right.

Ethiopia drove on the left until the mid 1960s, I presume because of British influence & because the countries to the south also did so. I'm not sure if it changed sides during the Italian occupation.

[Vierwielen]

As for Indonesia is their left side driving based on Dutch practice from whenever? Malaysia and Brunei are left hand traffic which might be why they continue the practice.

This map shows changes since 1856 as to which side of the road one drove on. According to the map, the Netherlands has always (at any rate since 1856) driven on the right. Since they were incorporated into France by Napoleon, it is probable that they were obliged to change to driving on the right then. Possibly the rule was never enforced on the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) who are shown as having always driven on the left.

[wallmeerkat]

I also recall another car (can't remember which) that had the handbrake on what clearly seemed to be the 'wrong' i.e. far side of the centre console/transmission tunnel, which made it much more awkward to operate. I assumed this was down to a lazy conversion to RHD and they hadn't bothered to swap it over. I later tried an LHD version of the same car, and that had a set-up that completely mirrored the RHD, i.e. the handbrake was on the 'wrong' side in that too.

I noticed it on the Xantia, the handbrake you were near enough touching the passenger seat as the suspension controls were closest to you.

[Vierwielen]

I also recall another car (can't remember which) that had the handbrake on what clearly seemed to be the 'wrong' i.e. far side of the centre console/transmission tunnel, which made it much more awkward to operate. I assumed this was down to a lazy conversion to RHD and they hadn't bothered to swap it over. I later tried an LHD version of the same car, and that had a set-up that completely mirrored the RHD, i.e. the handbrake was on the 'wrong' side in that too.

I noticed it on the Xantia, the handbrake you were near enough touching the passenger seat as the suspension controls were closest to you.

Possibly embarrassing for a male driver who has a female passenger.

[exiled]

I also recall another car (can't remember which) that had the handbrake on what clearly seemed to be the 'wrong' i.e. far side of the centre console/transmission tunnel, which made it much more awkward to operate. I assumed this was down to a lazy conversion to RHD and they hadn't bothered to swap it over. I later tried an LHD version of the same car, and that had a set-up that completely mirrored the RHD, i.e. the handbrake was on the 'wrong' side in that too.

I noticed it on the Xantia, the handbrake you were near enough touching the passenger seat as the suspension controls were closest to you.

Possibly embarrassing for a male driver who has a female passenger.

Is there a single driver who has not tried to change gear with their passenger's knee?

[booshank]

In China the Special Administrative Regions Macao and Hong Kong drive on the left, where mainland China is on the right. The only country to have both sides.

I did wonder why Japan chose to drive on the left.

True of several Far East countries without UK colonial connections. Japan, Thailand, Indonesia all on the left.

The most common reason dates back to pre-motor days, for how the locals drove horses and other animals, and is generally associated with human normal right-handedness. Some places sat on the cart and controlled the horses from there, other places sat on one of the horses. Both whipped with their right hand, but then found it natural to pass oncomers on different sides.

I'm inclined to believe that chance plays a larger part than most people like to admit. People tend to prefer fanciful explanations involving knights etc but I think the explanation is more banal. When there was little traffic and that which there was was slow moving, it wouldn't have mattered much which side of the road you were on or which side you passed on. Pedestrian traffic still works like that except in more disciplined societies. Later, when road traffic becomes heavier you only have two choices, left or right and both are workable, so LHT or RHT doesn't require any special explanation. If place A and place B are both LHT, it doesn't require any particular connection between them beyond chance. It seems in earlier days LHT or RHT developed as local custom and often different parts of the same country or empire would travel on different sides, and that didn't matter so much either in the days when most people didn't travel far from home and vehicles were slow by today's standards.

[Vierwielen]

In China the Special Administrative Regions Macao and Hong Kong drive on the left, where mainland China is on the right. The only country to have both sides.

I did wonder why Japan chose to drive on the left.

True of several Far East countries without UK colonial connections. Japan, Thailand, Indonesia all on the left.

The most common reason dates back to pre-motor days, for how the locals drove horses and other animals, and is generally associated with human normal right-handedness. Some places sat on the cart and controlled the horses from there, other places sat on one of the horses. Both whipped with their right hand, but then found it natural to pass oncomers on different sides.

I'm inclined to believe that chance plays a larger part than most people like to admit. People tend to prefer fanciful explanations involving knights etc but I think the explanation is more banal. When there was little traffic and that which there was was slow moving, it wouldn't have mattered much which side of the road you were on or which side you passed on. Pedestrian traffic still works like that except in more disciplined societies. Later, when road traffic becomes heavier you only have two choices, left or right and both are workable, so LHT or RHT doesn't require any special explanation. If place A and place B are both LHT, it doesn't require any particular connection between them beyond chance. It seems in earlier days LHT or RHT developed as local custom and often different parts of the same country or empire would travel on different sides, and that didn't matter so much either in the days when most people didn't travel far from home and vehicles were slow by today's standards.

I am inclined to believe the knights n horseback theory. Horses are mounted from th eleft for the very reason that if you are carring a sword (or knife), mounting from the right is difficult and although not many people carried swords, those who did were those in authority. In 1789 the French had a spot of rioting against those who carried swords and they changed the rules in order to say "up yours too" (or whatever the French equivalent was) to those in authority.

[booshank]

In China the Special Administrative Regions Macao and Hong Kong drive on the left, where mainland China is on the right. The only country to have both sides.

True of several Far East countries without UK colonial connections. Japan, Thailand, Indonesia all on the left.

The most common reason dates back to pre-motor days, for how the locals drove horses and other animals, and is generally associated with human normal right-handedness. Some places sat on the cart and controlled the horses from there, other places sat on one of the horses. Both whipped with their right hand, but then found it natural to pass oncomers on different sides.

I'm inclined to believe that chance plays a larger part than most people like to admit. People tend to prefer fanciful explanations involving knights etc but I think the explanation is more banal. When there was little traffic and that which there was was slow moving, it wouldn't have mattered much which side of the road you were on or which side you passed on. Pedestrian traffic still works like that except in more disciplined societies. Later, when road traffic becomes heavier you only have two choices, left or right and both are workable, so LHT or RHT doesn't require any special explanation. If place A and place B are both LHT, it doesn't require any particular connection between them beyond chance. It seems in earlier days LHT or RHT developed as local custom and often different parts of the same country or empire would travel on different sides, and that didn't matter so much either in the days when most people didn't travel far from home and vehicles were slow by today's standards.

I am inclined to believe the knights n horseback theory. Horses are mounted from th eleft for the very reason that if you are carring a sword (or knife), mounting from the right is difficult and although not many people carried swords, those who did were those in authority. In 1789 the French had a spot of rioting against those who carried swords and they changed the rules in order to say "up yours too" (or whatever the French equivalent was) to those in authority.

The reason I'm dubious of that is because in the past there was much more of a mixture of LHT and RHT, even in the same country. Even as late as the 1930s for example some parts of Austria had LHT and some had RHT. If there was a strong reason for choosing a particular side, I don't think you'd have seen that mixed pattern.

[RichardA626]

I'm inclined to believe that chance plays a larger part than most people like to admit. People tend to prefer fanciful explanations involving knights etc but I think the explanation is more banal. When there was little traffic and that which there was was slow moving, it wouldn't have mattered much which side of the road you were on or which side you passed on. Pedestrian traffic still works like that except in more disciplined societies. Later, when road traffic becomes heavier you only have two choices, left or right and both are workable, so LHT or RHT doesn't require any special explanation. If place A and place B are both LHT, it doesn't require any particular connection between them beyond chance. It seems in earlier days LHT or RHT developed as local custom and often different parts of the same country or empire would travel on different sides, and that didn't matter so much either in the days when most people didn't travel far from home and vehicles were slow by today's standards.

I am inclined to believe the knights n horseback theory. Horses are mounted from th eleft for the very reason that if you are carring a sword (or knife), mounting from the right is difficult and although not many people carried swords, those who did were those in authority. In 1789 the French had a spot of rioting against those who carried swords and they changed the rules in order to say "up yours too" (or whatever the French equivalent was) to those in authority.

The reason I'm dubious of that is because in the past there was much more of a mixture of LHT and RHT, even in the same country. Even as late as the 1930s for example some parts of Austria had LHT and some had RHT. If there was a strong reason for choosing a particular side, I don't think you'd have seen that mixed pattern.

I heard the parts of Austria bordering Germany often had better roads to the border than the other parts of Austria, which led to them adopting driving on the right earlier.

[booshank]

I am inclined to believe the knights n horseback theory. Horses are mounted from th eleft for the very reason that if you are carring a sword (or knife), mounting from the right is difficult and although not many people carried swords, those who did were those in authority. In 1789 the French had a spot of rioting against those who carried swords and they changed the rules in order to say "up yours too" (or whatever the French equivalent was) to those in authority.

The reason I'm dubious of that is because in the past there was much more of a mixture of LHT and RHT, even in the same country. Even as late as the 1930s for example some parts of Austria had LHT and some had RHT. If there was a strong reason for choosing a particular side, I don't think you'd have seen that mixed pattern.

I heard the parts of Austria bordering Germany often had better roads to the border than the other parts of Austria, which led to them adopting driving on the right earlier.

Could well be, but Austria is only one example. Many countries had LHT and RHT in different parts. Sweden had LHT and RHT in different regions in the past before settling on LHT for the whole country, then switching to RHT in 1967. The idea that a country or empire must have a standardised side of the road for traffic is relatively new, which I think often catches people out. Ie people see evidence of LHT or RHT in a particular place at a particular time and assume that everywhere in that country must have been the same when it was actually local custom that could vary from region to region.

[xnx]

Think Canada except Newfoundland switched around 1920s from left to right side of road because of USA. Newfoundland was about 1947 left to right before joining Canada in 1947.

One interesting thing here for a few people (without causing a pothole in this forum) is the cost of new/used cars in Canada like many places has gone throught the roof since Covid and there has been more interest in getting 15 year old RHD cars from Japan (15 year or older import rules).It will not be enough to switch back to LHD roads!

[WhiteBlueRed]

The story for Japan is that the British won the contract for the railways, and built them for LHT, so when cars came to Japan, the Japanese kept to the left.

Speaking of that, there's a similar case here in Russia. Unlike the rest of railways, the Moscow to Ryazan railway line is LHT.
This has to do with the fact that it was one of the first railways, built in 1862 by English engineers.

[WHBM]

Think Canada except Newfoundland switched around 1920s from left to right side of road because of USA. Newfoundland was about 1947 left to right before joining Canada in 1947.

Canadian change was early 1920s. I believe different Provinces did it at different times, and Quebec and Ontario had always driven on the right, which was not as much of an issue as it sounds, as there were no real cross-boundary roads at that time.

Cars would be a nuisance, both before and after, but a real issue was buses, which unlike tramcars in the street never had mirrored doors on both sides, and all needed to be replaced. Exactly the same happened in Sweden in 1968, when the whole country's bus fleet got changed over in one day, an exercise which had cleared out the bus production of not only Volvo for the year, but also imports from Britain and Germany. It is surprising that the more recent LHD buses did not then turn up here in the UK secondhand.

[wallmeerkat]

Wrightbus at one point supplied a handful of RHD buses to Monterrey Mexico (LHD/RHT), as they were running a busway with central stop islands.

https://www.keybuses.com/article/street ... eys-ecovia

[rhyds]

Interestingly in the "Ferrari" film that's currently showing in (not many) cinemas 50s Italy has LHD cars for the most part, however many of the Lancias shown are RHD. Apparently despite Italy being an RHT country, early cars would often be RHD so that "keen" drivers could better judge how much clearance they had before hitting the edge of the road

[wallmeerkat]

Interestingly in the "Ferrari" film that's currently showing in (not many) cinemas 50s Italy has LHD cars for the most part, however many of the Lancias shown are RHD. Apparently despite Italy being an RHT country, early cars would often be RHD so that "keen" drivers could better judge how much clearance they had before hitting the edge of the road

Might this be an advantage on Alpine roads?

[Vierwielen]

Interestingly in the "Ferrari" film that's currently showing in (not many) cinemas 50s Italy has LHD cars for the most part, however many of the Lancias shown are RHD. Apparently despite Italy being an RHT country, early cars would often be RHD so that "keen" drivers could better judge how much clearance they had before hitting the edge of the road

Might this be an advantage on Alpine roads?

... as long as they were not carrying a car load of gold bars!