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Police ordinance of right-hand traffic

in Prague area

Switch to right hand traffic in CzechoslovakiaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The switch to right hand traffic in Czechoslovakia

describes changes in the rules of the road in 1938/1939.

Before 1938, Czechoslovakia drove on the left side of the

road. In about 1925, Czechoslovakia accepted the Paris

convention and undertook to change to right hand traffic

"within a reasonable time frame". In 1931, the government

decreed to change over within 5 years, which did not happen.

The main obstacles were financial cost and widespread

opposition in rural areas. In November 1938, parliament

finally decided to change to right hand traffic with effect from

May 1, 1939.

(Austria had already been forced to switch[citation needed]afterits 1938 annexation by Germany.)

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

The occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

by Germany on March 15, 1939, sped up the change. A few places switched the same day (e.g.

Ostrava), the rest of the area of the Protectorate on March 17, and Prague got a few more days to

implement the change and switched on March 26.

Tramway infrastructure in Prague had been modified since November 1938. In the final days therewere daily reminders of the change in newspapers and large warnings were painted on the streets and

on tramway cars. Drivers adapted quickly and only a small number of traffic accidents happened due

to the switch with only one recorded fatality in Prague.[citation needed]

WWII Slovakia

Right hand traffic had already been introduced in Slovakia by a decree of the government of

"autonomous Slovakia" within Czechoslovakia in late 1938. Buses in the capital Bratislava were

adapted in 1939, and the last roads in Slovakia switched to the new system in 1940/1941.

The area which is now Southern Slovakia was occupied by Hungary then and so would not have

changed until Hungary changed in 1941.

See also

Right- and left-hand traffic

Dagen H

730 (transport)

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Categories: Transport in Czechoslovakia Traffic law 1938 in Czechoslovakia

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