Right Hand Drive Vehicles Countries

In the united states we re so used to driving in left handed vehicles that we forget a large chunk of the world operates cars with the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle.

Right hand drive vehicles countries.

Guyana formerly a british colony is the only country in south america to drive on the left. Today almost 50 countries still stick to the tradition of driving on the left. The relevancy to new zealand is that we are limited in the vehicles we can import to either. These right hand drive cars are driven in left hand traffic countries.

While rhd vehicles are strange to us in america they are preferred in many other countries. It is obvious from the left hand drive vs right hand drive discussion that all the countries started driving on the right side of the road but most of them eventually switched the side. 161 countries follow the right hand drive system. List of lhd countries.

75 countries use right hand drive vehicles. What is the current condition. Portugal switched to rht in 1928. The remainder drive on the right the majority of left hand driving nations drive cars with the driving seat on the right however there are some countries notably some caribbean islands which drive on the left but most cars are imported from the usa and are therefore left hand drive which can make overtaking a tricky manoeuvre.

In spite of this some italian heavy commercial vehicles were right hand drive until the traffic code was changed in 1959. The most recent one was samoa a former german colony. All mainland european union countries drive on the right. Most of the left hand drive countries are part of the commonwealth of nations with the major exception being canada.

Border sign showing change of traffic direction between sweden and norway in 1934. Finland formerly part of lht sweden switched to rht in 1858 as the grand duchy of finland by russian decree. All traffic remains to the right and passing is from the left and oncoming traffic comes from the left. Europe generally drives on the right hand side apart from the united kingdom ireland malta and cyprus so if you re renting a car in the uk or any other left hand side driving country you need to know before you take to the roads.

Right hand drive cars are actually getting smaller these days but still there are some countries that are surprisingly switching to the right. Countries have designed the roads and cities according to the way the drive.