Thank you for the replies I have had to date on who drives left and why.
Full details of the history of rule-of-the-road, with details on trains and
pedestrians and cars, AND MAPS OF DRIVEDNESS FOR 1919 and 1986 can be found in
Kincaid, Peter (1986), "The Rule of the Road, an international guide to
history and practice", Greenwood Press, NY, 240pp, isbn:0-313-25249-1
See also the web site:
http://www.travel-library.com/general/driving/drive_which_side.html
this site also has notes on how international borders cope with changes in
sidedness for vehicle crossings.
For the record:
Austria(1921-38), Hungary(6/7/41 and 9/11/41), Czechoslovakia (15/3/38) and
parts of Yugoslavia changed to the right bewteen to suit the Germans
around WW2.
Gibraltar changed to the right in 16/6/1929 to match the Spaniards
Portugal and colonies changed to the right in 1/61928. Goa, Macao and
Mozambique did not bacause they were surrounded by left sideoftheroaders.
Strangely, E.Timor joined Portugal in changing to the right, despite being
next to left-driving Indonesia. It changed BACK to the left upon
Indonesia's invasion in 1976. Maybe it will revert to rightsidedness with
independence to shake of a vestige of its invaders?
Sweden changed 3/9/1967, and Iceland 26/5/1968
China and Taiwan changed to the right 1/1/1946, South Korea 1/4/46 and
North Korea sometime in 1945 or 1946.
Philippines changed to the right 10/3/1945
Burma changed in 1970, apparently upon a whim by Ne Win.
Argentina, Uruguay and Panama were all left drivers until 1945 and 1943
respectively.
Belize went right in 1961
Sierra Leone 1/3/71
Gambia 1/10/68
Ghana 4/8/74
Nigeria 2/4/72
Bahrain 17/11/67
Aden(S.Yemen) 2/1/77
Sudan August 73
Ethiopia 8/6/74
There is conflicting evidence on whether Somalia was left or right in the
mid 80s. It was left until the 50s at any rate.
Diego Gercia went right in 1972,
and the Pacific Island Trust Territories in 1945
Samoa has always been right, despite being a NZ dependency from 1918.
There is a UN convention of the road requiring all traffic in a country to
drive on the same side of the road. This is currently not the case in China
(with HK and soon Macao being different).
Is China a signatory to this convention?
It used to be the case that different parts of Canada, Italy, hingary and
austria had different sides of the road.
British Colombia went right in its interior 15/7/1920, and on the coast 1/1/22
New Brunswick 1/12/22, Nova Scotia 15/4/23, PEI 1/5/24, Newfoundland 2/1/47.
The US Virgin Islands drive left, as they did under denmark, which was
seemingly a carryover form ancient British rule. A similar reason holds for
Indonesia and Surinam driving left.
Invaders often changed sidedness:
Channel Islands in WW2
East timor by Indonesia
Falklands islands by Argentina.
Military bases often conformed to the military owner, not the sovereign
nation.
Turkish North Cyprus maintains leftsidedness.
No nation is known to have changed its sidedness since the book's
publication.
Brendan Whyte
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