Rules of the road

From Freepedia

This article concerns rules of the road regarding land vehicles; for sea-going vehicles, see International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

This article covers only rules of highways. For rules of railway, the reader is advised to supply information.

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Rules of the road are the general practices and procedures that road users follow, especially motorists and cyclists. They govern interactions with other vehicles and pedestrians. The basic traffic rules are defined by an international treaty under the authority of the United Nations, the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. Not all countries are signatory to the convention and, even among signatories, local variations in practice may be found. Driving safely is usually easier if a driver can adapt to both written and unwritten local rules of the road.

These rules should be distinguished from the mechanical procedures required to operate one's vehicle. See driving.

Left or right

See also: Road

The first rule to learn for a particular country is which side to drive on. This is so fundamental that it is sometimes known simply as the rule of the road.

If traffic goes on the right hand side of the road:

Viewing from the centre of the road and facing either side, drivers see vehicles approaching from their right, and those behind them are coming from their left;
The driving seat is mostly on the left side of the vehicle, hence the designation left hand drive (LHD);
traffic signs are mostly on the right side of the road;
roundabouts (traffic circles or rotaries) go anticlockwise (counter-clockwise);
pedestrians crossing a two-way road should watch out for traffic from the left first.

If traffic goes on the left hand side of the road:

Viewing from the centre of the road and facing either side, drivers see vehicles approaching from their left, and those behind them are coming from their right;
The driving seat is mostly on the right side of the vehicle, hence the designation right hand drive (RHD);
traffic signs are mostly on the left side of the road;
roundabouts (traffic circles or rotaries) go clockwise;
pedestrians crossing a two-way road should watch out for traffic from the right first.

In most early motor vehicles the driving seat was in the middle. Later some carmakers chose to have the it nearest the centre of the road to help drivers look out for oncoming traffic, whilst others chose to put the seat on the other side so that the drivers could avoid damaging their vehicles on walls, hedges, roadside gutters and other obstacles. Eventually the former idea prevailed.

Countries that drive on the left

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Approximately one quarter to one third of the world's traffic goes on the left-hand side of the road. Some claim that this practice arose from the prevalence of right-handedness, although such prevalence occurs in virtually all populations, regardless of which side of the road is used. In any case, the need to be ready for self-defense on rural roads inclined most horse-riders to keep to their left when encountering oncoming wayfarers, so as to be able to deploy a sword or other hand-weapon more swiftly and effectively should the need arise. Also, those on foot and in charge of horse-drawn vehicles would more usually hold the animals' heads with their right hand, and thus walk along the lefthand side of the road.

The first legal reference in Britain to an order for traffic to remain on the left occurred in 1756 with regard to London Bridge. The General Highways Act of 1773, contained a recommendation that horse traffic should remain on the left and this was enshrined in the Highways Bill in 1835. At one point the rule was enshrined in a piece of doggerel:

The rule of the road is a paradox quite,

For if you keep to the left, you're sure to be right.

The British author C. Northcote Parkinson has presented a "proof" that the British way of driving (on the left side of the road) is the natural one.

Some ex-colonies of the British Empire continue to drive on the left, but others, such as Canada, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the United States switched to the other side.

Apart from former British colonies, traffic moves on the left in others such as Japan, Indonesia, Ireland, Macau, Mozambique, Thailand and the U.S. Virgin Islands as well.

Changing sides

There are still many instances of traffic having to change sides at border crossings, such as at those between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Laos and Thailand, Sudan and Uganda.

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Some countries have changed the side of the road on which their motorists drive in order to ease congestion at border crossings. For example, former British colonies in West Africa, such as Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana, have all changed from left- to right-hand traffic, as they all share borders with former French colonies, which drive on the right.

In the former British Crown colony of Hong Kong and the former Portuguese enclave of Macau, traffic continues to drive on the left, unlike in mainland China, despite the fact that they are now its Special Administrative Regions. However, Taiwan, formerly under Japanese rule, changed to driving on the right in 1946 after the government of the Republic of China assumed administration; the same happened in Korea (both North and South), a former Japanese colony under US and Soviet occupation.

Foreign occupation

However, many countries changed this rule of the road as a result of foreign occupation, notably during the Napoleonic Wars. More recently there are examples such as Austria, Czechoslovakia (details) and Hungary under German rule in the 1930s and '40s. The Channel Islands also changed to driving on the right under German occupation, but changed back after liberation in 1945, as did the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas in Spanish) under Argentine control during the 1982 Falklands War. East Timor changed to driving on the left under Indonesian rule in 1976, and continues the practice as an independent state.

Italy

In Italy the practice of traffic driving on the right first began in the late 1890s, but it was not until the mid 1920s that it became standard throughout the country. The practice was first introduced in cities under socialist control, such as Rome and Naples, with conservative-controlled cities like Milan and Turin continuing to have cars driving on the left side. Cars remained right-hand drive (RHD) until the mid 1920s, with Lancia not producing left-hand drive (LHD) cars until as late as the early 1960s.

China (mainland)

Main article: Rules of the road in the People's Republic of China

Until 1946, driving in mainland China was mixed, with cars in the northern provinces driving on the right, and cars in the southern provinces such as Guangdong driving on the left, probably a result of their proximity to the British crown colony of Hong Kong and the Portuguese enclave of Macau.

After 1946, cars driving on the right became uniform in mainland China. However, during the Cultural Revolution, cars were made to drive on the left for political reasons. This did not last for long, and motorists have since reverted back to driving on the right.

Canada

Until the 1920s, the rule of the road in Canada varied from province to province, with British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island having cars driving on the left, and the other provinces and territories having motorists driving on the right. Between 1920 and 1923, these provinces' motorists were made to drive on the right. Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949, and its motorists drove on the left until 1947. More information of Nova Scotia's experience of the changeover in 1923 can be found here.

Sweden

Sweden had left-hand traffic (Vänstertrafik in Swedish) from approximately 1734, when they changed back from a short period of right-hand traffic starting in 1718. This well into the 20th century, despite the fact that virtually all the cars on the road in Sweden were actually LHD. One argument for this was that it was necessary to keep an eye on the edge of the road, something that was important on the narrow roads in use back then. Also, Sweden's neighbours, Norway, Finland and Denmark already had cars driving on the right side, leading to confusion at border crossings. In 1955 a referendum was held on the issue, resulting in an 82.9%-to-15.5% vote against a change to driving on the right.

Nevertheless, in 1963 the Swedish government passed legislation ordering the switch to right-hand traffic. The changeover took place at 5am on Sunday, September 3, 1967, which was known in Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the 'H' being for Högertrafik or right-hand traffic.

Since Swedish cars were LHD, experts had suggested that changing to driving on the right would be safer, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result. However, the accident rate rose back to its original position within two years.

Iceland

Sweden's fellow Nordic country Iceland followed in switching traffic from left to right at 6am on Sunday, May 26, 1968. The only major casualty from the changeover was a boy on a bicycle who broke his leg (New York Times, May 28, 1968, p. 94). Numerous buses were also stuck in traffic jams.

United States

Since colonial times, traffic in the US has always been on the right hand side. There is a common story that this may be due to the construction of Conestoga wagons, which had a high driver's seat on the left side. However, the Conestoga wagon does not date all the way back to the colonial period so this story is likely apochryphal. Many imported RHD cars are also found on the road in the US, especially classic cars or other collector's items.

Today, US motor vehicles are always LHD (except some postal service ones), and motorists always drive on the right and overtake on the left, except in the US Virgin Islands.

As with many countries, American rules of the road also permit limited overtaking on the right side (multi-lane highways, one-way streets, or where overtaking other vehicles preparing to turn toward the left).

US state-specific practices

Furthermore, in some US states such as Massachusetts, although there are laws requiring all traffic on a public way to use the right-most lane unless overtaking, this rule is often ignored and seldom enforced on multi-lane roadways.

In other states like California, cars may use any lane on multi-lane roadways, although slower drivers are strongly encouraged to stay in the rightmost lanes to keep the way clear for faster vehicles, speeding up traffic. However, California Vehicle Code requires trucks to stay in the right lane, or in the right two lanes if the roadway has four or more lanes going in their direction. The oldest freeways in California that pre-dated this rule often have sliproads on the left, making signs like "TRUCKS OK ON LEFT LANE" or "TRUCKS MAY USE ALL LANES" necessary to override the default rule.

Anomalies

Caribbean

In many Caribbean islands where traffic drives on the left, such as the British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, most passenger cars are LHD, being imported from the United States. Only government cars and those imported from Asia are RHD. The US Virgin Islands are particularly known for having a high accident rate caused by American tourists from the mainland who are unfamilar with driving on the left in their rental cars - the confusion from which is obviously compounded by using a LHD vehicle.

Hong Kong and Macau

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Under the auspices of the one country, two systems arrangement, traffic continues to move on the left in Hong Kong and Macau, now Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, unlike in the mainland. Most vehicles are RHD and even suppliers for the People's Liberation Army have specially made RHD version vehicles for the garrison to drive in Hong Kong and Macau. LHD exceptions include some buses providing services to and from the mainland. Vehicles registered in Hong Kong and Macau are required to have a special number plate issued by the authorities in Guangdong province to drive legally on the mainland.

There are three road border crossing points between mainland China and Hong Kong. The largest and busiest is Lok Ma Chau, which features two separate changeover systems on the mainland side. The next largest is Man Kam To, where there is no changeover system and the border roads on the mainland side simply intersect as one-way streets with a main road. There are two border crossing points between mainland China and Macau. The newer crossing point is the Lotus Bridge, which crosses a narrow channel of sea between the mainland and Macau, and was opened at the end of 1999. The Lotus Bridge was designed to cater for high traffic volumes and features three lanes in each direction as well as a full changeover system on the mainland side, comprising bridges that loop around each other by 360° to swap the direction of the traffic. At the older Macau crossing point, there is no changeover system and the border roads continue with traffic on the left on the mainland side, and simply intersect on to a roundabout. All of these Chinese changeover systems can be viewed in high resolution using Google Earth.

Japan

In Japan, foreign brands of car sold locally have traditionally been LHD, which is regarded as exotic or a status symbol. This even applies to British brands (although cars for the British market have the steering wheel on the right), in part because many have been imported via the US. However, some US manufacturers have made RHD models for the Japanese market, though with limited success; and as continental European brands become more popular, the preference is increasingly for RHD models.

Myanmar (Burma)

As a former British colony, cars in Myanmar (formerly Burma) drove on the left side until 1970, when the military administration of Ne Win decreed that traffic would drive on the right side of the road. It is alleged that this was because Ne Win had been advised by his soothsayer, who had said "move to the right", although this was in fact a reference to economic policy. In spite of the change, most passenger cars in the country today are RHD, being second-hand vehicles imported from Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. However, government limousines, imported from China, are LHD. Virtually all vehicles are driven with a passenger in place to watch the oncoming traffic and inform the driver as to whether it is safe to overtake or not, as the driver cannot see this from his RHD position.

Gibraltar

Although the British territory of Gibraltar changed to driving on the right in 1929, in order to avoid accidents involving vehicles from Spain, some public buses until recently were RHD, with a special door allowing passengers to enter on the right hand side. However, most passenger cars are LHD, as in Spain, with the exception of second-hand cars brought in from the UK and Japan and some vehicles used by the British forces.

Guyana and Suriname

Guyana and Suriname are the only two remaining countries in the mainland Americas that still drive on the left, after four mainland American countries switched to driving on the right between 1943 and 1961 as a result of the Pan-American Highway. Both Guyana and Suriname are separated from their neighbours by large rivers, over which no road bridges have yet been built. The inland south of both countries is sparsely populated with very few roads and hence no border crossings. However, in the south west of Guyana near Lethem, work is underway to build the Takutu Bridge across the Takutu river into neighbouring Brazil, which drives on the right. Unlike road bridges between other countries that drive on opposite sides of the road, the changeover system will unusually be in the country that drives on the left, i.e. Guyana, where one lane will pass under the other on the bridge's access road. Despite stalling construction in recent years, Brazil is keen to open the bridge, as it will give Brazil access to Caribbean sea ports on the north coast of South America. Brazil intends to limit Guyana registered (RHD) vehicles to no further than the Brazilian border town of Bonfim, but it is expected that Brazilian (LHD) vehicles will be able to drive all the way through Guyana to the coast. Once opened, the Takutu Bridge will be the Americas' only border crossing where traffic changes sides of the road.

Russian Federation

Although driving is on the right everywhere in Russia, cheaper grey import cars from Japan are more popular than LHD cars of the same class. Russia is estimated to have more than 1.5 million RHD vehicles on its roads. In the far eastern regions, such as Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, RHD vehicles make up to 90% of the total. This includes not only private cars, but also police cars, ambulances, and many other municipal and governmental vehicles as well.

Considering that RHD vehicles by far outnumber the LHD ones (better suited to the rules) on the Pacific side of Russia, drivers in those regions have made multiple proposals about switching the sides of the road. However, they were denied by Russian government. During spring 2005, the rumour that RHD vehicles would be completely banned from the roads drove thousands of protestors to the streets everywhere in the country. On 4 July 2005 Russian minister of industry and energy Viktor Khristenko announced that RHD vehicles would be allowed on the roads but would have to conform to all Russian traffic safety requirements.

United Kingdom

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Vehicles within United States visiting forces bases in the UK drive on the left, even though the US does not provide specific right-hand drive vehicles for their military fleet. But their white fleet does have right-hand drive vehicles. This is unlike British practice in Germany where even UK green fleet vehicles for British Forces Germany have been left-hand drive.
On some British Army training locations, where the army once trained for conflict in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, traffic is meant to travel on the right. Most military bases in the UK though have the normal rule of driving on the left.
There are several locations in the UK where traffic passes other traffic coming in the opposite direction on the left hand side, but most locations are separated by a barrier (such as on the south side of Portman Square in London). Outside the Savoy Hotel, among other places, however, there is no barrier.
Although the United Kingdom is separated from Continental Europe by the English Channel, the level of cross-Channel traffic is higher than any other place in the world where road traffic changes sides of the road; the Channel Tunnel alone carries 3.5 million vehicles per year between the UK and France. Most vehicles crossing the English Channel, whether via the Channel Tunnel or on ferries, are UK-registered RHD vehicles. Relatively few drivers from Continental Europe take their LHD cars to the UK, but large numbers of British drivers take their RHD cars to Continental Europe for holidays and even for one-day shopping trips. Because of European Union legislation ensuring the free movement of goods, British consumers often exercise their right to buy RHD cars from car dealers in any other EU country, where they are often cheaper, despite originating from the same factories as UK-sourced cars.

Vehicles

For safety reasons, some countries have banned the sale or import of vehicles with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side. In Australia this is the case with non-vintage LHD vehicles, with the result that Australians who do import such vehicles must pay thousands of dollars to convert them to RHD. In New Zealand, LHD vehicles may have been privately imported, and driven locally under a LHD permit. Since 1999, only LHD vehicles older than 20 years or cars owned and operated for at least 90 days may be privately imported. In the Philippines RHD cars are banned. Public buses imported from Japan are converted to LHD, but the passenger doors remain on the left side, leading to the odd (and dangerous) situation in which passengers have to exit toward oncoming traffic.

Cambodia banned the use of RHD cars, most of which were smuggled from Thailand, from 2001, even though these accounted for 80 per cent of vehicles in the country. The government threatened to confiscate all such vehicles unless they were converted to LHD, in spite of the considerable expense involved. According to a BBC report, changing the steering column from right to left would cost between US$600 and US$2000, in a country where average annual income was less than US$1000.

However, many used vehicles exported from Japan to countries like Russia and Peru are already converted to LHD. But even if driver's position is left unchanged some jurisdictions require at least headlights readjustment.

In West Africa, Ghana and Gambia have also banned RHD vehicles.

Most of the above bans on RHD and LHD vehicles apply only to locally-registered vehicles. Countries that have signed the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic are not allowed to make such restrictions on foreign-registered vehicles. Paragraph 1 of Annex 5 states "All vehicles in international traffic must meet the technical requirements in force in their country of registration when they first entered into service". Therefore all signatory countries and most non-signatory countries allow the temporary import (e.g. by tourists) of foreign-registered vehicles, no matter which side the steering wheel is on. However, Singapore bans all foreign-registered LHD vehicles and Oman bans all foreign-registered RHD vehicles, neither of whom have signed the convention.

Both RHD and LHD vehicles may generally be registered in any European Union member state, but there are some restrictions and regulations. Slovakia, despite being a member of the European Union, does not allow the local registration of RHD vehicles, even if the vehicle is imported from one of the four EU countries that drive on the left. If a LHD vehicle is registered in the United Kingdom, then its headlights must be permanently adjusted to dip to the left, which often involves the lenses being replaced.

Most headlights are manufactured so that when dipped, they are aimed slightly towards the kerb side. In this way, RHD vehicles' headlights dip to the left and LHD vehicles' headlights dip to the right. Within Europe, when driving a RHD vehicle in a country that drives on the right or a LHD vehicle in a country that drives on the left, it is a legal requirement to adjust headlights so that they do not shine towards oncoming vehicles when dipped. This may be achieved by fixing adhesive blackout strips to the part of the lens that deflects light to one side, but an increasing number of vehicles, particularly those with Xenon headlights, can be more simply adjusted by a lever or switch on the back of the headlights, whenever switching sides of the road. However, the requirement to adjust headlights is respected by a decreasing number of drivers, and is now rarely enforced by European police forces. In France, this is probably because, since amber-tinted headlights were abolished in 1993, foreign-registered vehicles have been much less conspicuous at night.

History

There is some evidence of cart tracks from a quarry in Blunsdon Ridge near Swindon which suggests that Roman traffic was on the left, and until the 18th century, this was probably the most common choice in Europe. However, driving on the right was more common in France; this was imposed by Napoleon Bonaparte (who is said to have been left-handed) on the countries he occupied, and thus it became the practice in their colonies.

Highway code

In many countries, the rules of the road are codified, setting out the legal requirements and punishments for breaking them.

In the United Kingdom, the rules are set out in the Highway Code, including some obligations, but also a lot of other advice on how to drive sensibly and safely. For this second set of advice, it states: Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under Traffic Acts to establish liability. Many of its ex-colonies still retain this notice.

In the United States, traffic laws are regulated by the states and municipalities through their respective traffic code. The federal government's Department of Transportation has some control over road signage and vehicle safety, and limited control over the Interstate highway system (which is actually built and maintained by the states). However, all state vehicle or traffic laws have common elements. These include the mandatory automobile insurance requirement, right-of-way rules, the basic speed rule (go only as fast as is safe under the circumstances up to the maximum posted speed limit), and the requirement to stop after an accident. The most common state-by-state variation is in maximum speed limits; for example, rural states like Montana have speed limits as high as 75 mph (120 km/h), but Oregon has a maximum speed limit of 65 mph (104 km/h) and Hawaii has a maximum of 55 mph. (88 km/h).