Whether on foot, horseback, or in a carriage, you needed to be able to whip out your lance, sword, pitchfork, or staff in response to a threat—and quickly. According to the BBC , this practice was widespread outside of Britain, too, potentially dating back as far as ancient Greece and Rome. But various pressures eventually shifted travelers to the right. Notably, Napoleon was a fan of right-side driving, and brought the practice to territories he conquered as did French colonists.
That included Germany, and Hitler continued to spread the tradition across Europe as he took power, forcing Czechoslovakia and Austria where half the country drove on the left side of the road and the other half drove on the right to switch to right-side driving. Recommended for you. Why do we call it a gallon hat? Why do some people call it soccer?
Why do people knock on wood for luck? Why is Switzerland a neutral country? Half the country drove on the left and half on the right. The Austrian states of Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Carinthia, as well as the western half of Salzburg switched to driving on the right between and When Germany annexed Austria in , Hitler ordered the rest of Austria to make the switch overnight.
The change threw the driving public into turmoil, because motorists were unable to see most road signs. In Vienna it proved impossible to change the trams overnight, so while all other traffic took to the right-hand side of the road, the trams continued to run on the left for several weeks. Czechoslovakia and Hungary, among the last states on the mainland of Europe to keep left, changed to the right after being invaded by Germany in and late respectively. Meanwhile, the power of the right kept growing steadily.
With the mass production of reliable and economical cars in the United States, initial exports used the same design, and out of necessity many countries changed their rule of the road.
Gibraltar changed to right-hand traffic in and China in Since neighbouring Hong Kong was a British colony at the time, it continued to keep to the left. Korea now drives right, but only because it passed directly from Japanese colonial rule to American and Russian influence at the end of the Second World War. Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the s, but ultimately decided not to do it.
The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers were dozing. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change. Nigeria, a former British colony, had been driving on the left with British imported right-hand-drive cars, but when it gained independence, it wanted to throw off its colonial past and shifted to driving on the right in After the Second World War, left-driving Sweden, the odd one out in mainland Europe, felt increasing pressure to change sides in order to conform with the rest of the continent.
The problem was that all their neighbours already drove on the right side and since there are a lot of small roads without border guards leading into Norway and Finland, one had to remember in which country one was. In , the Swedish government held a referendum on the introduction of right-hand driving. Although no less than The day was referred to as Dagen H or, in English, H day.
All traffic with private motor-driven vehicles was prohibited four hours before and one hour after the conversion, in order to be able to rearrange all traffic signs. Even the army was called in to help. Also a very low speed limit was applied, which was raised in a number of steps. Russia did not switch until Czechoslovakia and Hungary were the last countries in mainland Europe to keep left, only changing to the right following invasion by Germany in the late s.
Portugal made the change from left to right in the s; countries with border crossings found there was great confusion if drivers were required to change sides of the road when passing from country to country. Sweden remained on the left until and changed to the right following a lengthy road safety campaign.
In Austria from to half the country drove on the left whilst the other half, the area that had been invaded by Napoleon, drove on the right!
Most of the British Empire adopted the British custom of driving on the left although Egypt, which had been conquered by Napoleon, kept using the right after it became a British dependency. Pakistan considered changing from left to right in the s. The main argument against was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers dozed.
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