Adjacent countries that drive on opposite sides of road

[whitetho]

I remember a segment decades ago on 60 Minutes about an island with very little traffic that was being jointly administered by the British and the French. It included one scene where two cars with owners from each country stopped facing each other on a narrow dirt road, and the drivers got to to argue – good naturally – whether they would pass each other on the left or right.

[septimus]

Thailand drives on the left while three of its neighbors (Burma-Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia) drive on the right. (This seems backwards since Burma was part of the British Empire, but Thailand never was.)

One border crossing I’ve visited too many times (though not in recent years) is the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge which crosses the Moei River to connect Myawaddy, Burma and Mae Sot, Thailand. In this photo you can see all traffic has signs to change lanes in the middle of the bridge.

I’ve always crossed the bridge on foot (like these people) and have never seen heavy traffic, but I guess jams do happen. (I’ll guess the delay that day was more about negotiating bribes with the Burmese border police rather than lane change difficulty.)

[John_Bredin]

@whitetho

I remember a segment decades ago on 60 Minutes about an island with very little traffic that was being jointly administered by the British and the French. It included one scene where two cars with owners from each country stopped facing each other on a narrow dirt road, and the drivers got to to argue – good naturally – whether they would pass each other on the left or right.

Would that have been New Hebrides, now Vanuatu? While the Wikipedia article states that New Hebrides was a British-French condominium, it also says

There were two police forces with their own laws, including road laws, two health services, two education systems, two currencies, and two prison systems.

(Emphasis added.)

[naita]

@md2000

I think it was Sweden that made the big switch to match continental Europe a decade or two ago?

Isn’t it nice when you think “decade or two ago” and are told it’s been 51 years?

[Corry_El]

@John_Bredin

Would that have been the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu?

Yes, but I think that 60 Minutes piece (which I recall) was somewhat anachronistic/apocryphal on that point. The British had conceded that driving would officially be on the right in the New Hebrides decades before that. Outside the Vila area, which has the only paved roads in the country, I’ve read that people from the Anglosphere still sometimes drive on the left to this day. But it’s been technically illegal for a long time.

The confusion of the Condominium form of govt was actually serious in the period of agitation for independence of the New Hebrides in the 70’s.

[TokyoBayer]

@md2000

And Japan - one island had been switched by the occupying Americans to drive on the wrong side, and a while ago made the switch back to match the rest of Japan. But what they did at the “intersection point” before that, I don’t know.

Okinawa reverted back to Japanese control in 1972. My Okinawa friend said that they just switched on the appointed day.