466 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 78 PART 3 MAY 2020
In Traffic District No. 1 KEEP TO THE LEFT;
In Traffic District No. 2 KEEP TO THE RIGHT;
on and after July 15th, 1920.
Various companies, including automobile dealers, ran advertisements
reminding readers of the change. One such advertiser was the British
Columbia Telephone Company. Leading up to the January 1, 1922 change
in Traffic District No. 1, the telephone company ran the following road-oriented
public service announcement: “Now the New Year is begun, ‘Keep to
the right’ is a very good motto. Follow it, to avoid all accidents.” The company
then used its remaining space to deliver telephone-related advice:
“Keep to the right, too, when you telephone. That is, be right in the way you
telephone, be right in courtesy, in short, be right in all those practices
which make for good telephoning. Keeping to the right means good service.”
17 (Another of its advertisements of the era, with no road-related content
but like the advertisement above suggesting dire telephone practices
that required correction, commenced with the rather startling “‘HELLO’ IS
OBSOLETE” and continued: “The use of ‘Hello!’ is obsolete in proper telephone
practice. The correct way to answer the telephone is to give the
name of the firm, so that the caller will know instantly who’s talking. It
sounds business-like, too, and saves time.”18)
Other measures were also taken to ensure that drivers and pedestrians
remained alert. In Vernon, four-sided pillars bearing “Keep Right” signs (as
“Silent Policemen”) were placed at major intersections.19 One newspaper
relayed advice from the secretary of the “Good Roads League of British
Columbia” for motorists to “paste a clearly printed ‘sticker’ on the windshield
in front of them, bearing the legend, ‘Turn to the Right.’”20 In Vancouver,
banners reminding motorists to “Drive to the Right” were hung over
streets. B.C. Electric handed out cards to passengers—i.e., those who, on
emerging from their streetcars, became part of the vulnerable category of
pedestrians—cautioning that they “Stop, Look and Listen”.21
Perhaps in part because of all these efforts, the transition in each traffic
district occurred much more smoothly than naysayers had expected. Soon
after the change in Traffic District No. 2, in July 1920, the Okanagan Commoner
reported that “motorists ‘took to the right’ as naturally as ducks take
to water. We have not heard of a single accident as a result of the change in
the rule of the road on the 15th inst.”22
The Province reported after the change was made in Traffic District No. 1
that despite the predictions of confusion and human sacrifice, in fact “there
were no sacrifices and no confusion”.23 The Abbotsford Post confirmed that