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A few years ago, my friend and I went to Hawaii, and we rented a car to get around.
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Here's me on day one, the car still in the parking lot, looking a little terrified at
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the prospect of driving.
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Not because I was tired, or because I hate driving.
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It was because in Australia, you drive on the left side of the road,
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whereas in the US, you drive on the right.
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Most countries in the world — about two-thirds — drive on the right side.
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Which leaves one third that drives on the left.
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You might be wondering why people who drive on the left don't just switch over to the right.
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The thing is, left-hand side traffic was the worldwide norm for a long time.
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So how come a split now exists?
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Well, the reason boils down to two main factors:
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One, the fact that most people are right-handed.
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And two, the fact that countries were using different forms of transportation at the time
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formalised road rules began to emerge.
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Back in the middle ages — way before cars existed — people mainly travelled around on horseback
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or by foot.
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People kept to the left so they could keep their dominant hand closer to the centre of the road.
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Remember this was a time when people often carried weapons on them — such as swords,
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knives or daggers — while travelling because of bandits and outlaws.
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Also, people almost always mount horses from the left side — and it's safer to mount
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from the roadside than in the middle of the road.
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This left-side travelling continued for years across the world until about the time of the
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French Revolution.
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There was a big class distinction on the roads of France at the time — the wealthy would
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drive their carriages on the left and force poorer people to travel to the right.
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But by the end of the revolution, the aristocracy began travelling on the right to blend in
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with the lower classes, and France's roads effectively became right-side travel.
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So you had France travelling on the right, and places like England travelling on the left.
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Throughout Britain it was more a matter of custom than widespread regulation until 1835,
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when parliament passed a law forcing traffic to keep left.
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In France, the keep-right rule was established more firmly by this guy.
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As Napoleon conquered countries across Europe, those countries were forced to switched sides.
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Meanwhile in the US, one particular wagon was a big driving force for keeping to the right.
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The Conestoga wagon became popular in the late 1700s, as a way to transport heavy goods.
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These massive wagons could hold thousands of kilograms worth of cargo, and needed teams
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of horses to pull them along.
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There was no driver's seat, so the driver would usually sit on the rear left horse — so
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they could still hold a whip in their right hand.
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Because of this, the wagons travelled on the right, so the driver — sitting on the left
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— would have more visibility over the rest of the road.
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In 1792, Pennsylvania officially passed the first keep-right law in the US, to this turnpike.
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Twelve years later, New York enforced right-hand travel on all public highways, and it slowly
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spread across the rest of the US.
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In time, more and more countries shifted to the right.
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As they found themselves surrounded by converted land neighbours, it was just easier to follow suit.
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When the US started putting steering wheels on the left, that became extra incentive to switch.
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Cars initially had the wheel on the right, following horse-drawn buggies.
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Ford was the first to put the wheel on the left with the Model T in 1908.
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Initially, it was just to make disembarking easier.
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But car manufacturers soon realised it was better — and safer — for the driver to
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sit more towards the centre of the road.
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And because the US is such a big car exporting country, this was an extra push for more countries
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to switch over to the right, so they could use the cars.
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Obviously not everyone made the switch.
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British colonies remained on the left, and still do for the most part.
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And other countries like Japan and Thailand, which were never British colonies but had
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dealings with the British, have also kept to the left.
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But most countries switched to the right in the early to mid 20th century.
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In fact, only three places have switched back from right to left in recent times.
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In Japan, Okinawa was controlled by the US after WWII and made to drive on the right.
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It switched back to the left on July 30, 1978, after being returned to Japan 6 years previously.
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Timor-Leste switched to the left under Indonesian rule in 1975.
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And Samoa switched over in 2009, so they could import old Australian cars
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instead of more expensive US cars.
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The Samoans had a smooth changeover — they got a two-day national holiday to ease traffic,
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and a three-day ban on alcohol sales to deter accidents.
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But they had a relatively small population at the time of about 180,000 people.
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So what would happen in a country with a lot more people
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— and a lot more that could go wrong?
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Sweden switched from left to right in 1967.
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With a population of about 7.8 million people at the time,
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there was a lot to prepare for H-Day.
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Road markings had to be repainted, bus stops relocated, intersections and one-way streets redesigned,
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and about 360,000 street signs changed.
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At precisely 5am on September 3, Swedes were directed to switch over to the right.
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The whole process cost 628 million kronor — the equivalent of more than $400 million today.
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But the country's road networks and infrastructure a lot more sophisticated now than they
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were 50 years ago — not to mention there are a lot more people and cars.
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A switch nowadays would be a lot harder and cost a lot more.
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It's the main reason why we won't see another country switching sides any time soon —
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it would be a huge logistical exercise that would cost a lot more than people
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are willing to spend for something that isn't needed.
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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In the end, it only took a day or two for us to be comfortable driving on the other
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side of the road — and it's probably what travellers will have to keep doing.
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You may have noticed that most left-side driving countries are actually
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islands, which helps justify not switching over.
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For the few that do share borders with right-side driving countries, most of the time it's
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a non-issue - you'd have to go through customs first, so you'd go through border security
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on one side and exit out the other.
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But for a few countries, they've come up with some inventive solutions.