Left- and right-hand traffic
Left-hand traffic and right-hand traffic are the practice, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. A fundamental element to traffic flow, it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. RHT is used in 165 countries and territories, with the remaining 75 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the world's area with about 35% of its population and a quarter of its roads. In 1919, 104 of the world's territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. From 1919 to 1986, 34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT. Many of the countries with LHT were part of the British Empire. In addition, Thailand and other countries have retained the LHT tradition. Conversely, many of the countries with RHT were part of the French colonial empire or, in Europe, were subject to French rule during the Napoleonic conquests. For rail traffic, LHT predominates in Western Europe, Latin America, in countries in the British and French Empires, whereas North American and central and eastern European train services operate RHT.
According to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, water traffic is RHT: a vessel proceeding along a narrow channel must keep to starboard, when two power-driven vessels are meeting head-on both must alter course to starboard also. For aircraft the US Federal Aviation Regulations suggest RHT principles, both in the air and on water. In LHT vehicles keep left, cars are RHD with the steering wheel on the right-hand side and the driver sitting on the offside or side closest to the centre of the road; the passenger sits on the nearside, closest to the kerb. Roundabouts circulate clockwise. In RHT everything is reversed: cars keep right, the driver sits on the left side of the car, roundabouts circulate anticlockwise. Ancient Greek and Roman troops kept to the left when marching. In 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved double track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon, in southern England; the grooves in the road on the left side were much deeper than those on the right side, suggesting LHT, at least at this location, since carts would exit the quarry loaded, enter it empty.
In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII directed pilgrims to keep left. Following the French Revolution, all traffic in France kept right; the first reference in English law to an order for LHT was with regard to London Bridge. The United Kingdom is LHT, but its overseas territories of Gibraltar and British Indian Ocean Territory are RHT. In the late 1960s, the UK Department for Transport considered switching to RHT, but declared it unsafe and too costly for such a built-up nation. Road building standards, for motorways in particular, allow asymmetrically designed road junctions, where merge and diverge lanes differ in length. Sweden switched to RHT in 1967, having been LHT since from about 1734 despite having land borders with RHT countries, 90 percent of cars being left-hand drive vehicles. A referendum was held in 1955, with an overwhelming majority voting against a change to RHT; some years the government ordered a conversion, which took place at 5 am on Sunday, 3 September 1967. The accident rate dropped after the change, but soon rose back to near its original level.
The day was known as the'H' being for Högertrafik. When Iceland switched the following year, it was known as H-dagurinn, again meaning "H-Day". Most passenger cars were LHD. LHT was used in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the empire was split up, the countries all changed to RHT. Austria switched sides in 1921 in Vorarlberg, 1930 in North Tyrol, 1935 in Carinthia and East Tyrol, in 1938 in the rest of the country. Partitions of Poland changed to RHT in the 1920s, Partitions belonging to the German Empire and the Russian Empire were RHT. Croatia-Slavonia switched to RHT on joining the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although Istria and Dalmatia were RHT. Nazi Germany introduced the switch to right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia in 1938–39. West Ukraine was LHT, although the rest of Ukraine, having been part of the Russian Empire drove on the right. In Romania Transylvania, the Banat and Bukovina were LHT until 1919, while Wallachia and Moldavia were RHT. In Italy the countryside was RHT while cities were LHT until 1927.
Rome changed to RHT in 1924 and Milan in 1926. Alfa Romeo and Lancia did produce RHD cars until as late as 1950 and 1953 only to special order, as many drivers favoured the RHD layout in RHT as this offered the driver a clearer view of the edge of the road in mountainous regions at a time when many such roads lacked barriers or walls; the Rome Metro uses LHT. Finland ruled as part of LHT Sweden, switched to RHT in 1858 as the Grand Duchy of Finland by Russian decree. Rotterdam was LHT until 1917, although the rest Today, four countries in Europe continue to use left-hand traffic, all island nations: the UK, Cyprus and Malta. LHT was introduced in British West Africa. All of the countries part of this colony have borders with former French RHT jurisdictions and have switched sides since decolonization; these include Ghana, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria. LHT was introduced by the British in the East Africa Protectorate and the Cape Colony. All of these have remained LHT. Sudan part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan switched to RHT in 1973, as it
Rail freight transport
Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, transporting cargo all or some of the way between the shipper and the intended destination as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material, intermodal containers, general freight or specialized freight in purpose-designed cars. Rail freight practices and economics vary by region; when considered in terms of ton-miles or tonne-kilometers hauled per unit of energy consumed, rail transport can be more efficient than other means of transportation. Maximum economies are realized with bulk commodities when hauled over long distances. However, shipment by rail is not as flexible as by the highway, which has resulted in much freight being hauled by truck over long distances. Moving goods by rail involves transshipment costs when the shipper or receiver lack direct rail access.
These costs may exceed that of operating the train itself, a factor that practices such as containerization aim to minimize. Traditionally, large shippers build factories and warehouses near rail lines and have a section of track on their property called a siding where goods are loaded onto or unloaded from rail cars. Other shippers have their goods hauled by truck to or from a goods station. Smaller locomotives transfer the rail cars from the sidings and goods stations to a classification yard, where each car is coupled to one of several long-distance trains being assembled there, depending on that car's destination; when long enough, or based on a schedule, each long-distance train is dispatched to another classification yard. At the next classification yard, cars are resorted; those that are destined for stations served by that yard are assigned to local trains for delivery. Others are reassembled into trains heading to classification yards closer to their final destination. A single car might be reclassified or switched in several yards before reaching its final destination, a process that made rail freight slow and increased costs.
Many freight rail operators are trying to reduce these costs by reducing or eliminating switching in classification yards through techniques such as unit trains and containerization. In many countries, railroads have been built to haul one commodity, such as coal or ore, from an inland point to a port. Rail freight uses many types of freight car; these include box cars or covered wagons for general merchandise, flat cars or flat wagons for heavy or bulky loads, well wagons or "low loader" wagons for transporting road vehicles. Most coal and aggregates are moved in hopper wagons or gondolas or open wagons that can be filled and discharged to enable efficient handling of the materials. A major disadvantage of rail freight is its lack of flexibility. In part for this reason, rail has lost much of the freight business to road transport. Many governments are now trying to encourage more freight onto trains, because of the environmental benefits that it would bring. Compared to road transport whісh employs the uѕе of trucks, rail transportation ensures thаt goods thаt соuld оtherwіѕе bе transported on а number of trucks are transported in а single shipment.
Thіѕ saves. In Europe many manufacturing towns developed before the railway. Many factories did not have direct rail access; this meant that freight had to be shipped through a goods station, sent by train and unloaded at another goods station for onward delivery to another factory. When lorries replaced horses it was economical and faster to make one movement by road. In the United States in the West and Mid-West towns developed with railway and factories had a direct rail connection. Despite the closure of many minor lines carload shipping from one company to another by rail remains common. Railroads were early users of automatic data processing equipment, starting at the turn of the twentieth century with punched cards and unit record equipment. Many rail systems have turned to computerized scheduling and optimization for trains which has reduced costs and helped add more train traffic to the rails. Freight railroads relationship with other modes of transportation varies widely. There is no interaction with airfreight, close cooperation with ocean-going freight and a competitive relationship with long distance trucking and barge transport.
Many businesses ship their products by rail if they are shipped long distance because it can be cheaper to ship in large quantities by rail than by truck. Freight trains are sometimes illegally boarded by individuals who do not have the money or the desire to travel a practice referred to as "hopping". Most hoppers stow away in boxcars. Bolder hoppers will catch a train "on the fly", that is, as it is moving, leading to occasional fatalities, some of which go unrecorded; the act of leaving a town or area, by hopping a freight train is sometimes referred to as "catching-out", as in catching a train out of town. Bulk cargo constitutes the majority of tonnage carried by most freight railroads. Bulk cargo is commodity cargo, transported unpackaged
Salang Pass
The Salang Pass is nowadays the major mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with onward connections to Kabul Province, southern Afghanistan, to the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Located on the border of Parwan Province and Baghlan Province, it is just to the east of the Kushan Pass, both of them were of great importance in early times as they provided the most direct connections between the Kabul region with northern Afghanistan or Tokharistan; the Salang River flows south. The pass crosses the Hindu Kush mountains but is now bypassed through the Salang Tunnel, which runs underneath it at a height of about 3,400 m, it links Kabul in the south with Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in the north. Before the road and tunnel were built, the main route between Kabul and northern Afghanistan was via the Shibar Pass, a much longer route which took three days; the road through the pass has carried heavy military traffic in recent conflicts and is in bad repair. On 3 November 1982, during the Soviet–Afghan War, there was a huge fire in the tunnel which at the time was filled with Soviet military convoys.
A large, but unknown number, of Soviet troops were killed in the Salang tunnel fire. On February 9, 2010, the pass was hit by multiple avalanches. According to press reports the road through the pass was hit by 17 avalanches, killing dozens, burying miles of highway, trapping the vehicles in the Salang tunnel. By February 10, 2010 authorities had recovered over 160 bodies. Radio Free Europe reported the first avalanche blocked the tunnel, trapped vehicles in a traffic jam in a "deadly avalanche zone". List of mountain passes
Herat
Herāt is the third-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 436,300, serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated in the fertile valley of the Hari River in the western part of the country, it is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif via Highway 1 or the ring road. It is further linked to the city of Mashhad in neighboring Iran through the border town of Islam Qala, to Mary in Turkmenistan to the north through the border town of Torghundi. Herat was traditionally known for its wine; the city has a number including the Herat Citadel and the Musalla Complex. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan, it has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century. In 1717, the city was invaded by the Hotaki forces until they were expelled by the Afsharids in 1729. After Nader Shah's death and Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power in 1747, Herat became part of Afghanistan, it witnessed some political disturbances and military invasions during the early half of the 19th century but the 1857 Treaty of Paris ended hostilities of the Anglo-Persian War.
Herat lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East and South Asia, today is a regional hub in western Afghanistan. The roads from Herat to Iran and other parts of Afghanistan are still strategically important; as the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of customs revenue for Afghanistan. It has an international airport; the city has high residential density clustered around the core of the city. However, vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city than residential land use and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use. Today the city is considered to be safe. Herat dates back to ancient times. During the period of the Achaemenid Empire, the surrounding district was known as Haraiva, in classical sources the region was correspondingly known as Aria. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the district is mentioned as Haroiva; the name of the district and its main town is derived from that of the chief river of the region, the Herey River, which traverses the district and passes some 5 km south of modern Herāt.
Herey is mentioned in Sanskrit as golden color equivalent to Persian "Zard" meaning Gold. The naming of a region and its principal town after the main river is a common feature in this part of the world—compare the adjoining districts/rivers/towns of Arachosia and Bactria; the district Aria of the Achaemenid Empire is mentioned in the provincial lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance, in the Behistun inscription of Darius I. Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, e.g. at the royal Achaemenid tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam and Persepolis. They are wearing Scythian-style dress and a twisted Bashlyk that covers their head and neck. Hamdallah Mustawfi, composer of the 14th century work The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat-al-Qulub writes that:Herāt was the name of one of the chiefs among the followers of the hero Narīmān, it was he who first founded the city. After it had fallen to ruin Alexander the Great rebuilt it, the circuit of its walls was 9000 paces.
Herodotus described Herat as the bread-basket of Central Asia. At the time of Alexander the Great in 330 BC, Aria was an important district, it was administered by a satrap called Satibarzanes, one of the three main Persian officials in the East of the Empire, together with the satrap Bessus of Bactria and Barsaentes of Arachosia. In late 330 BC, Alexander captured the Arian capital, called Artacoana; the town was rebuilt and the citadel was constructed. Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire. Most sources suggest, it became part of the Parthian Empire in 167 BC. In the Sasanian period, Harēv is listed in an inscription on the Ka'ba-i Zartosht at Naqsh-e Rustam. In around 430, the town is listed as having a Christian community, with a Nestorian bishop. In the last two centuries of Sasanian rule, Aria had great strategic importance in the endless wars between the Sasanians, the Chionites and the Hephthalites, settled in the northern section of Afghanistan since the late 4th century. At the time of the Arab invasion in the middle of the 7th century, the Sasanian central power seemed largely nominal in the province in contrast with the role of the Hephthalites tribal lords, who were settled in the Herat region and in the neighboring districts in pastoral Bādghis and in Qohestān.
It must be underlined, that Herat remained one of the three Sasanian mint centers in the east, the other two being Balkh and Marv. The Hephthalites from Herat and some unidentified Turks opposed the Arab forces in a battle of Qohestān in 651-52 AD, trying to block their advance on Nishāpur, but they were defeated When the Arab armies appeared in Khorāsān in the 650s AD, Herāt was counted among the twelve capital towns of the Sasanian Empire; the Arab army under the general command of Ahnaf ibn Qais in its conquest of Khorāsān in 652 seems to have avoided Herāt, but it can be assumed that the city submitted to the Arabs, since shortly afterwards an Arab governor is mentioned there. A treaty was drawn in which the regions of Bushanj were included; as did many other places in Khorāsān, Herāt reb
Kabul–Jalalabad Road
The Kabul–Jalalabad Road is a highway running between the Afghan cities of Kabul and Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan and capital of Nangarhar Province. A portion of the road runs through the Tang-e Gharu gorge; because of the many traffic accidents, the road between Jalalabad and Kabul is considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world. It is a large part of the Afghan leg of the Grand Trunk Road, was rebuilt by Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban. Highway 1
Durand Line
پاکستان افغانستان باؤنڈری The Durand Line is the 2,200-kilometre international border, between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was established in 1893 between Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat and civil servant of the British Raj, Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan Amir, to fix the limit of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade. Afghanistan was considered by the British as an independent state at the time, although the British controlled its foreign affairs and diplomatic relations; the single-page agreement, dated 12 November 1893, contains seven short articles, including a commitment not to exercise interference beyond the Durand Line. A joint British-Afghan demarcation survey took place starting from 1894, covering some 800 miles of the border. Established towards the close of the British-Russian "Great Game", the resulting line established Afghanistan as a buffer zone between British and Russian interests in the region; the line, as modified by the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, was inherited by Pakistan in 1947, following its independence.
The Durand Line cuts through the Pashtun tribal areas and further south through the Balochistan region, politically dividing ethnic Pashtuns, as well as the Baloch and other ethnic groups, who live on both sides of the border. It demarcates Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan of northern and western Pakistan from the northeastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan. From a geopolitical and geostrategic perspective, it has been described as one of the most dangerous borders in the world. Although the Durand Line is internationally recognized as the western border of Pakistan, it remains unrecognized by Afghanistan. In 2017, amid cross-border tensions, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that Afghanistan will "never recognise" the Durand Line as the international border between the two countries; the area through which the Durand Line runs has been inhabited by the indigenous Pashtuns since ancient times, at least since 500 B. C; the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a people called Pactyans living in and around Arachosia as early as the 1st millennium BC.
The Baloch tribes inhabit the southern end of the line, which runs in the Balochistan region that separates the ethnic Baloch people. Arab Muslims conquered the area in the 7th century and introduced Islam to the Pashtuns, it is believed that some of the early Arabs settled among the Pashtuns in the Sulaiman Mountains. It is important to note that these Pashtuns were known as "Afghans" and are believed to be mentioned by that name in Arabic chronicles as early as the 10th century; the Pashtun area fell within the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century followed by the Ghurids, Mughals, Hotakis, by the Durranis, thereafter brutally conquered and consilidated by the reigning Sikh empire. In 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, British-led Indian forces invaded Afghanistan and initiated a war with the Afghan rulers. Two years in 1842, the British were defeated and the war ended; the British again invaded Afghanistan in 1878, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, withdrawing a couple of years after attaining some geopolitical objectives.
During this war, the Treaty of Gandamak was signed, ceding control of various frontier areas to the British Empire. In 1893, Mortimer Durand was dispatched to Kabul by the government of British India to sign an agreement with Amir Abdur Rahman Khan for fixing the limits of their respective spheres of influence as well as improving diplomatic relations and trade. On November 12, 1893, the Durand Line Agreement was reached; the two parties camped at Parachinar, a small town near Khost in Afghanistan, now part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, to delineate the frontier. From the British side, the camp was attended by Mortimer Durand and Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum, Political Agent Khyber Agency representing the British Viceroy and Governor General; the Afghan side was represented by Sahibzada Abdul Latif and a former governor of Khost province in Afghanistan, Sardar Shireendil Khan, representing Amir Abdur Rahman Khan. The original 1893 Durand Line Agreement was written with translated copies in Dari.
The resulting agreement or treaty led to the creation of a new province called at the time North-West Frontier Province now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province of Pakistan which includes FATA and Frontier Regions. It included the areas of Multan, the Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan; these areas were part of the Durrani Empire from 1709 until the 1820s when the Sikh Empire, followed by the British and took possession. The initial and primary demarcation, a joint Afghan-British survey and mapping effort, covered 800 miles and took place from 1894 to 1896. "The total length of the boundary, delimitated and demarcated between March 1894 and May 1896, amounted to 800 miles." Detailed topographic maps locating hundreds of boundary demarcation pillars were soon published and are available in the Survey of India collection at the British Library. The complete 20-page text of these detailed joint Afghan-British demarcation surveys is available in several sources, which point out that "J. Donald and Sardar Shireendil Khan settled the boundary from Sikaram Peak to Laram Peak in a document dated 21 November 1894.
This section was marked by 76 pillars. The boundary from Laram Peak to... Khwaja Khidr... was surveyed and marked by H. A. Anderson in concert with various Afghan chiefs... marked by pillars which are described in a report dated 15 April 1895. L. W. King
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2010 edition".
