Right-hand vs. Left-hand - Why?

In Sweden the left-hand traffic had been established in 1734, but in 1955 a popular referendum about a changeover from the left-hand traffic to the right-hand traffic took place. 82,9% of the voters voted against the right-hand traffic, despite this the Government in 1963 sent a proposal to the Parliament about a changeover to right-hand traffic. The Parliament accepted the proposal and the changeover from left-hand traffic to right-hand traffic was introduced on the 3rd of September, 1967.
This led to, among other things, that traffic accidents were reduced. The rearrangement was financed by a special vehicle licence duty.


So, they really had time (and money) for that change. (Aunt and uncle, who lived and ive in Sweden, said that all was done without great complications.)

Since the early 70's, daytime running light are switched on in all Scandinavian countries .... by traffic laws.

I hate daytime running lights. GM puts those on all their new cars now. ARGH!

I just wish people would use their turn signals. Geesh.

for the life of me i cannot understand why drivers refuse/forget to put their lights on when driving at dusk/dawn, in the rain ... are they worried that they are driving their electricity bill up ? i always put my full driving-lights on as soon as i get into the car(even though the car has day-time running lights). i'm sure i'd have been totalled more than once by a driver coming from the other direction and trying to pull out of traffic on a two-lane highway, if i had not had my FULL lights on -(daytime running lights seem to be ignored quite often by oncoming drivers - FULL lights usually get their attention). hbg

Cjhsa: Pulling fuse 16, if you have a full-size truck, will solve that problem.

hamburger

re: full time full lights. Amen!

Very glad to have full time lights on my motorbike, even though it's not the law in the UK.

I agree SO much about the turn signals in California - when I was there, recently, I thought it was incredible how left turns across my path were made without the slightest indication. Then again, I hear your driving test is a bit of a joke! I feel safer in Europe, even though everyone drives faster, here.

I like full-time headlights, too. What's not to like?

Kitchen Pete -- You think people drive faster in Europe? Y'mean on the autobahn? <confused>

I'm driving usually with 150km/h (95miles/h) on the autobahns - if it is possible (and when Mrs. Walter is not aside: faster :wink: )

Usually, speedlimits on European motorways are 120 - 130 km/h (75 - 80 miles/h).


But what I've heard from friends, who have been to the USA and Americans, here in Euroep, Americans do drive much slower than the average American at home. ('at home' = some Americans [especially soldiers] here are "Hell Drivers in disguise" on our autobahns
:wink:

In rural settings in the U.S., the folks often drive right down the middle of the road, because they seldom encounter other traffic. The country boys refer to this as: "Look-a-there, he's takin' his half outta the middle."

KP: When you say "your driving test," you're actually referring to more than fifty driving tests. When i got a driver's license in New Mexico, i answered twenty written questions, and then turned in the sheet to the lady at the counter. She said: "You didn't mark the box which says you're going to turn in your out-of-state license." I replied that i would prefer to keep it. She said o.k. ( ), and then asked: "Say, you wanna take the road test?" I replied: "Sure, why not."

When i came to Ohio, i took the test for a chauffeur's license, because my employment required me to transport clients. I was given a sheet with twenty questions, and when i turned it in, i pointed out to the lady at the counter that i was testing for the chauffeur's license. So she handed me a sheet with twenty different questions. I asked her for a copy of The Rules of the Road, and she just gave me blank look. I then took a standard road test in a passenger car.

In Illinois, you are given a copy of The Rules of the Road, and are sent home for at least a week. You then return to take a written test which consists of a test booklet of about 16 or 18 pages. Then you schedule a road test, which often last for 30 minutes or longer.

The requirements vary from state to state and in the territories.

Hmmm, maybe that explains what I saw last month when my son took his driver's test.

A man was at the licensing office, decked out in "early Hell's Angel" attire with a zillion chains, lots of tattoos (and probably more that weren't covered in his full set of black leathers) hmmm... and hair that hadn't been cut since 1964. A character, no doubt. He was seated next to my son, so I was alarmed when he was kicked out of the written test area for "cheating."

Mr. Leather was surprisingly mild-mannered about his censure for which I thanked my lucky stars.

He'd brought the Road Rules with him to take his written test. That was clearly forbidden, judging from the large signs posted everywhere.

He was probably from New Mexico or maybe Ohio.

As a Japanese living in Japan, this discussion has been very interesting.

I found a curious picture on a Bugatti site in France:
http://www.club-bugatti-france.net/welcome/searching/searching.html
that shows, upon close inspection, a Bugatti T57 with steering wheel on the right, parked on the left-hand side of the road. This picture was supposedly taken somewhere in France between 1950 and 1953.

Did the Napoleon rule not only apply to marhcing army and pedestrians but also to horse carrriages and other vehicles? When did France actually become right-hand-side traffic for motorcars?

FYI, not only all the Grand Prix Bugattis in the 1920's, but almost all the Model-T Ford I have seen have steering wheel on the right side.

I was told that the British drive in the left because in the old days it was proper for the man to walk on the right side of his wife. Since it was men who made all of those decisions in those days they did the same thing when driving cars. The woman sits on the left and the man, the driver sits on the right.

That is what an ex-girlfriend of mine from England told me years ago.

The latter is one of the nice legends about it.

The first is a) obviously in a one-way-road, b) an export car.

France always had right-hand-side traffic for all vehicles - since Napoleon.

Austria, btw, Austria was something of a curiosity: half the country drove on the left and half on the right until some dozens of years ago.
The dividing line was precisely the area affected by Napoleon's conquests in 1805. Napoleon gave the Tyrol, the Western province of Austria, to Bavaria. It continued to keep to the right, although the bulk of Austrians drove on the left.

On 12 March 1938 Hitler invaded Austria, and the next day proclaimed Anschluss, the absorption of Austria into Germany. He ordered that the traffic should change from the left to the right side of the road, 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, the last two states on the mainland of Europe to keep left, changed to the right after being invaded by Germany in 1939.

Thank you, Walter.

Here are some more questions:

1. Why most of racing circuits run clockwise?

2. Why most of old two-seater Grand Prix race cars, and many modern racing sports have steering on the right?

3. If right hand steering is advantageous on clockwise circuit, why?
On this one, please consider the fact many two-seater GP cars had hand operated brake on the right side, forcing drivers to hold the steering on his left hand while braking. Many had preselector gearbox without the shift lever on the left of the driver.

4. Why Indy and NASCAR(with left side steering) oval racing in the US are run anti-clockwise?

I would really appreciate if someone could cast some light on this.

I'll tell ya, Miss PFK Flyer, anyone who would feel the need to cheat on the written tests in either New Mexico or Ohio, would be so hopelessly ignorant as to be incapable of filling in the application form.

I would hazard a guess that right-hand steering is advantageous on a clockwise track because the driver would be nearer the inside of the corners, allowing him better vision to get in as near as possible to the kerb to keep the racing line. Perhaps (again, speculation here) if the US racing scene evolved with LH drive cars, it is easier for them to go anti-clockwise for the same reason - nearer the inside kerbs?

Strangely, I can't ever remember seeing a RH drive rally car. Not sure how big rallying is in US & Canada, but it's popular here in Europe. Watching someone throw a Subaru Impreza down a winding dirty track through a forest at 80mph is a real buzz. The 'round n' round n' round' of F1 and similar I find a bit tedious after a while.

I googled Rally Race USA and came up with a huge number of articles here.

It looks like rally racing is big in my area -- seemed like a large number of participants and races almost every weekend through October. I don't understand about the classes of cars -- I suppose they are based on weight or size. They looked like normal LH drive cars, too. So, it is fun to watch? I saw that there were spectator directions for one of the races.

Is the Baja 1000 Race a Rally Race?

It's kinda strange to watch live, as you are stood part-way up a hill, or on the inside of a curve or at the side of a straight, then a car flies past at high-speed every 2-3 mins. You have no way of knowing who's "winning", as the races are run as time-trials. It can also be quite 'hands-on', as if a car ends up in a ditch, the spectators run on and help push it out so the drivers can continue the race. It can also be dangerous (especially in Europe) as the cars are passing literally 4-5 ft away in places.

The appeal to a spectator is to find a particularly tricky piece of track - a ford, hairpin bend or S-bend, then compare how the different drivers handle the piece of the course you can see. I've only been to see a 'live' race once (the World Championships come to the UK every year), but it's just as good on TV, as they have helicopters following the cars etc. so after a while you can tell who's taken a corner well, and who hasn't.

I think the classes are divided on engine-power.

I've never seen anything like that on TV, GD. If I see one of these, I'll check it out.

I recognized the area of one of the spectator spots for the local race held a few weeks ago -- Wynoochee Lake is a place we've gone camping. I'd always heard there was a way to follow the old logging and Forest Service roads all the way to the ocean.