Right Hand Drive Vehicles Countries

161 countries follow the right hand drive system.

Right hand drive vehicles countries.

75 countries use right hand drive vehicles. Portugal switched to rht in 1928. These right hand drive cars are driven in left hand traffic countries. List of lhd countries.

The most recent one was samoa a former german colony. As you can see most former british colonies with some exceptions drive on the left side of the road whereas the united states of america latin american countries and european countries drive on the right. Guyana formerly a british colony is the only country in south america to drive on the left. What is the current condition.

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. All traffic remains to the right and passing is from the left and oncoming traffic comes from the left. The relevancy to new zealand is that we are limited in the vehicles we can import to either.

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. 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. Right hand drive cars are actually getting smaller these days but still there are some countries that are surprisingly switching to the right.

Today almost 50 countries still stick to the tradition of driving on the left. Countries have designed the roads and cities according to the way the drive. 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. While rhd vehicles are strange to us in america they are preferred in many other countries.

Who uses right hand drive vehicles. Border sign showing change of traffic direction between sweden and norway in 1934.