The Day Newfoundland Started Driving on the Right

History
Written By Robert Hiscock

It was January 2, 1947 and everyone was nervous — drivers, pedestrians and maybe especially, horses.

Drive Slowly, Drive Safely, Drive Right ad, Evening Telegram, Dec 23, 1947. MUN DAI

At 1 minute past midnight, changes to the Newfoundland Highway Traffic Act had come into effect and motorists had a big adjustment to make. For the first time, all drivers were expected to abandon life-long practice and begin driving on the right-hand side of the road.

Until 1947, Newfoundlanders had driven on the left — as they still do in Britain and Australia. Much of the rest of North America had adopted the right-hand rule. Some, like Ontario and Quebec, had always driven on the right and other parts, like the Maritime provinces, adopted the practice in the 1920s.

Newfoundland, being an island and having strong ties to Britain (this was, after all, the era of Commission of Government), was much later making the move.

Despite ample evidence from mainland North America that right-hand driving could be safe, locals were nervous about it. Vehicles on the island were a mixture of left-hand and right-hand drive. Those using right-hand driven vehicles on the left side of the road had become used to using ditches to gauge their position.

It was feared that once driving to the right was adopted, they’d drift into a ditch or, worse yet, into oncoming traffic. A piece in The Evening Telegram suggested “a distinguishable line drawn longitudinally through the middle of the highways would, at least during the months when the roads are free of snow, help to overcome that handicap.”

Military Influence

It’s often said that foreign military bases in Newfoundland contributed to the adoption of right-hand traffic. There’s probably some truth to that.

Parts of Newfoundland had experienced driving on the right prior to 1947. American military bases were treated as American soil and, as they had laws requiring driving to the right, Americans bases in Stephenville, Argentia and St. John’s drove to the right. On top of that, they brought with them an influx of vehicles designed for driving to the right.

There’s some evidence that Canadian military personnel stationed on the island thought driving to the right might be okay for them, too. At least one Canadian soldier found, to his peril, this was incorrect.

“Arising out of an automoblie collision near Torbay on November 21th,[1945]” reported The Evening Telegram, “a city motorist was convicted this morning of driving on the wrong side of the road and without a licence, and was fined $2.00.”

The Telegram continued:

Acting Sergeant Churchill who, with other policemen in the van, sped to the scene and found two motor cars in a head-on collision on the left side of the road. The sergeant intimated that the accused, whose car was on the right side of the road facing towards the city, had been a member of the Canadian Army In which the right hand drive was the rule.

Though not owning & Newfoundland drivers licence the ex-soldier had a Canadian Army licence.

Generally it seemed to be accepted that, given proximity to mainland North America and the presence of North American military bases on the island, Newfoundland would eventually be better served by adopting a ‘drive to the right’ rule.

The Bay Roberts Guardian captures the general attitude: “If anything emerges from the switch over it should be a little caution on the part of the drivers, a better ability on their part to use hand signals effectively and, at least a temporary improvement of driving methods.”

For those who remained unconvinced, it was suggested that maybe some roads could be designated practice sites that citizens could use to experiment with right-hand traffic rules.

The Big Switch

On February 1946 the Newfoundland government announced that on January 1st, 1947 Newfoundland would officially change the rule of the road and adopt ‘drive to the right.’

They’d given the people nearly 11 months to adjust to the idea. While there was some opposition, most people seemed content with the change in principle. The biggest concern were about the timing of the switch-over.

Some pointed out that winter, with its ice and snow-covered roads might not be the best time to introduce the change. April was floated as a better alternative.

Walter J. Ruth wrote to the editor of the Western Star on November 1, 1946:

“Winter driving as we all know is very hazardous due to icy roads and with the change from left to right at that particular period I feel that many accidents will occur. With at least ninety per cent of the drivers in this area accustomed to left hand drive it is only reasonable to believe that it will take them a little time to adapt themselves to right hand drive.”

The government was undeterred.

Then it was suggested that selecting a holiday might be a problem:

“New Year’s Day might prove an unsuitable date on which to make the change, particularly as it would come into operation on “the morning after the night before” when it is by no means impossible there might in some cases be bewilderment as to which was right anyway.”
— The Evening Telegram, 29 November, 1946

In 2024, the argument that people might be too drunk/hungover/insensible to follow the rules of the road is an interesting one but, in 1946, it might have carried some weight.

The government amended their plan, and changed the start date to January 2nd, 1947.

  • Drinking and driving was frowned upon in 1946, too.

    Here’s an NL law from 1945 prohibiting driving a horse while under the influence of drink or drug.

    The maximum penalty was $100 or 3 months imprisonment

In the lead-up to the big day the government started a campaign to ensure everyone was aware of the change. There were newspaper driver safety ads explaining the change, and talks of issuing stickers to affix to cars. In the week leading up to the change, ads appeared on nearly every page of the newspapers.

So numerous were the notices, it must have been virtually impossible to remain ignorant of the change.

Drive Slowly, Drive Safely, Drive Right Ad, The Evening Telegram, January 2, 1947, MUN DAI

More Than Motor Vehicles

Golden Arrow Coaches Ad, The Evening Telegram, Dec 31, 1946, MUN DAI

It’s important to remember it was not only motor vehicle drivers who had to adjust — everyone who used the roads needed to adapt to the new law.

Public transit users had to contend with new bus stops, and worse.

An ad from Golden Arrow Coaches of St. John’s pointed out, “The main doors of our buses will now be on the traffic side and passengers will have to embark and disembark in the street instead of at the curb…”

Pedestrians had to adjust their usage of the road too. If they were to face oncoming traffic they had to shift to walking on the left side of the road. The following is an excerpt of short poem by B. Oake published in the Daily News, titled ‘Walk Left’.

Pedestrians short, pedestrians tall
Pedestrians big, pedestrians small,
Were’er you go on foot at all,
Walk left

Besides buses and pedestrians, Newfoundland’s streets still played host to horse traffic. These horses had been trained to drive on the left. There was concern that, by habit, horses would default to moving into oncoming traffic.

It was pointed out by some, that this ought not to be a big concern as many horses in Newfoundland had been purchased from mainland North America and arrived on the island trained with a preference for the right side of the road — they’d already learned to change once, they could do it again.

The Big Day

St. John’s, the island’s largest municipality, prepared itself for the change.

Extra police were dispatched to Rawlins Cross, one of the city’s busiest intersections, but things were, more-or-less, fine.

“On the whole, motor cars and trucks were going slower than usual early this morning but as the day wore on the novelty wore off, engines were being fed more gas and the tempo of driving was quickening,” reported The Evening Telegram.

A policeman concurred, “It was a bit awkward for me at first, not difficult, mind you, but sorta strange. Yes, there were a few cars tending to hold the left side, but they were a very small minority.”

Even the horses seemed to manage, “a few aging dobbins well-versed in city traffic wore bewildered looks, apparently puzzled as they were jigged to the right (to them, wrong) side of the road,” wrote The Telegram.

All-in-all, the paper described it as an ‘unobtrusive debut,’ deciding the St. John’s had taken to right-hand traffic ’like the royal swans took to the boatpool Bowring Park’.

The Big Picture

Despite asking the population to change life-long habits, the shift to right-hand traffic was adopted without too much controversy. For some of those who dissented, I’d imagine the shift was about more than traffic.

The change must have touched on feelings of national identity. 1947 was, after all, a pivotal year in Newfoundland history.

A piece appearing in The Telegram on January 2nd, 1947 stated, ”In the change to keep right there may be something symbolic of the new constitutional order which Newfoundland is contemplating and which may be a decisive factor in shaping its destiny.”

Just over two years later Newfoundland became a Canadian province.

In that era, even a small thing like the shift to ‘drive right’ must have felt like a movement away from Britain and an alignment with North America/Canada.

‘Drive right,’ for all its practicality, must have felt like a harbinger of things to come, and a tiny step toward a frightening new world.

Robert Hiscock

Robert grew up in a tiny Newfoundland community called Happy Adventure. These days he lives in Gander, NL and his happiest adventures are spent with his two Labrador retrievers exploring the island while listening to a soundtrack of local music.

When the dogs are napping Robert takes photos, writes about Newfoundland, and makes a podcast.

https://productofnewfoundland.ca
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