# What happens when right meets left? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066 "2005-02-02T22:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/1 "2005-02-02T22:56:13Z")
I’m sorry. I couldn’t find a good way to phrase the topic (or put into the search). Some countries drive on the right side of the road. Others drive on the wrong (er, left!) side. I imagine that somewhere in this vast world that two countries with opposite setups meet…what happens on the roads at the border? Chaos? A swirling vortex of death? Lots of signs with big text? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/2 "2005-02-02T23:13:15Z")
I’m not sure if any two countries that share a land border have differing sides of road\* on which they drive. The cars on the trains in the channel tunnel (England\<-\>France) line up single file, so coming out the other end on the right side of the road is no problem. [sub]\*Not saying there isn’t. Just that with so few countries where people drive on the left- there might not be[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/3 "2005-02-02T23:39:57Z")
Some anecdotal experiences are found [here](http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/#bordercrossings) > [@](#): > > Andrew Myles: It was not a problem at the only border I have been to like this (Zaire-Uganda). The traffic was slow and there was very little of it. There was just a sign reminding you to swap sides. > Lynn Garry Salmon: The border crossing from China (where they drive on the right) to Pakistan (where they drive on the left) merely has a sign at the side of the road that says “Entering Pakistan, Drive Left” and for those going the other way “Entering China, Drive Right”. > agsmith : Usually you don’t drive straight through a border post. The only place I’ve crossed a land border where the side of the road for driving changes is between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We drove into a car park (using the right hand side) and after the border formalities, drove out using the left hand side. > Douglas Clark: Both Hong Kong and Macao drive on the left and China on the right. In each case, now, when you cross the border, you do so through a car park/customs area and merely exit onto the correct side of the road. > There is one bridge across the Mekong River between Thailand (driving on the left) and Laos (driving on the right), which opened in 1994. Vehicles keep left on the bridge, and cross over at a traffic signal at the Laos end of the bridge. (See Eric and Joan’s travelogue, Mekong Express Laos Magazine) > At the border between Namibia (left-side driving) and Angola (right-side driving), there are customs on the Namibian side but none on the Angolan side (at least at the border). One drives through customs on the left side of the building (the road is split, with the customs building in the median). Then, at the gate (at the exact border), there are two one-way driveways (one on the left/west going north into Angola, one on the right/east going south back into Namibia). On the north side of the gate, these driveways intersect with a two-way street where people drive on the right. There were few cars at this border (but many many pedestrians). (Brandt Maxwell) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/4 "2005-02-02T23:52:36Z")
And here I thought this was going to be about the treaty between Hitler and Stalin. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/5 "2005-02-02T23:56:04Z")
[The birthday boy](http://207.97.195.229/sdmb/showthread.php?t=300226) [speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_242.html). ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/6 "2005-02-03T01:09:29Z")
They should have a cross-over piece of road like those found on slot-car tracks. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/7 "2005-02-03T04:53:37Z")
> [@mstay](#): > > **What happens when right meets left?** Heh, I thought this was about John Ashcroft meeting Howard Dean! ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/8 "2005-02-03T05:15:47Z")
Sweden used to drive on the left (until late 1966 I think it was). At that time there was no customs/passport requirements to travel between Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Now you can’t drive from Denmark to Sweden (well not directly) but you could cross the long Swedish-Norwegian border at many places. Where I crossed the border was marked by two signs posted in the middle of the road about ten feet apart. As you crossed from Sweden to Norway they read “Kept left” then “Keep right”. Actually thinking back on it since I couldn’t read either language I assume they were marked with the international symbols for “keep left” and “keep right”. That’s it no trouble at all – of course, the traffic was very light there. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/9 "2005-02-09T09:08:17Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Sweden used to drive on the left (until late 1966 I think it was). At that time there was no customs/passport requirements to travel between Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Now you can’t drive from Denmark to Sweden (well not directly) but you could cross the long Swedish-Norwegian border at many places. Where I crossed the border was marked by two signs posted in the middle of the road about ten feet apart. As you crossed from Sweden to Norway they read “Kept left” then “Keep right”. Actually thinking back on it since I couldn’t read either language I assume they were marked with the international symbols for “keep left” and “keep right”. That’s it no trouble at all – of course, the traffic was very light there. Unca Cecil included a letter from a reader about driving near the Norwegian-Swedish border in this [url=http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_242.html]classic SD column. Although it’s true that at the time traffic was light and accidents owing to the change in driving laws were few, increasing car traffic from Norway and Finland was surely one of the reasons Sweden decided to switch. Particularly along the long border between Norway and Sweden, there are many border crossings, few of them guarded in any significant way, and many poorly marked. Even major road crossings are open and most people just drive straight on through. Switching sides at the busy Svinesund crossing would be quite a headache! ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-right-meets-left/288066/10 "2005-02-09T09:32:24Z")
You should keep in mind that in most cases of countries which abut each other in this fashion, there are enough other differences that we’re talking about a sealed border which requires stopping for passport control. So there’s no traffic slamming into each other if for no other reason than the fact that people come to a complete stop for that purpose. The last crossing I did of this sort was on the Thai-Cambodian border. For the most part vehicles will take you to the border, then you get out and arrange the next leg of your travel on the other side. You’re changing languages, cultures, currency and the side of the road you drive on (with corresponding switching of the side of the vehicle the wheel is on in most cases), and most transport workers have no interest in taking you into the neighboring country. The crossing itself happens in between the two passport control points, is largely by foot for most travellers (freight on trucks gets checked off to the side and re-enters traffic in a roundabout way.) You can hire guys with pullcarts to take your stuff the 50 ft between countries if you have that much to move. You do in fact cross over each others’ paths in a large extended “X” that must look like the simplified diagram of DNA strands you see in a biology text from the air. This is slightly chaotic but not much worse than changing classes in high school.