Right Hand Drive Vehicles Countries

Finland formerly part of lht sweden switched to rht in 1858 as the grand duchy of finland by russian decree.

Right hand drive vehicles countries.

All mainland european union countries drive on the right. 75 countries use right hand drive vehicles. Today almost 50 countries still stick to the tradition of driving on the left. 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.

Portugal switched to rht in 1928. All traffic remains to the right and passing is from the left and oncoming traffic comes from the left. Right hand drive cars are actually getting smaller these days but still there are some countries that are surprisingly switching to the right. While rhd vehicles are strange to us in america they are preferred in many other countries.

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. 161 countries follow the right hand drive system. List of lhd countries. These right hand drive cars are driven in left hand traffic countries.

In spite of this some italian heavy commercial vehicles were right hand drive until the traffic code was changed in 1959. 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. Lhd cars left hand drive cars in left hand drive countries the traffic if on the right side but the driver sits is on the left. Most of the left hand drive countries are part of the commonwealth of nations with the major exception being canada.

Countries have designed the roads and cities according to the way the drive. Border sign showing change of traffic direction between sweden and norway in 1934. The most recent one was samoa a former german colony. Guyana formerly a british colony is the only country in south america to drive on the left.

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. Who uses right hand drive vehicles.