I was pondering these questions while walking home today:
I've noticed that people in the U.S. tend to walk on the right side of unmarked pathways, sidwalks and corridors. There are a lot of exceptions to this of course. Some people walk straight at you trying to intimidate you into moving, etc., but more often than not people walk on the right.
Do people tend to walk on the left side in countries where they drive on the left side?
Why do people drive on the right side in the U.S., while most other countries have you drive on the left?
Another question:
I've barely been outside the U.S.. How often do streets in other countries go North-South or East-West? From what I gather, most do not. I'm more likely to get lost where roads don't go strictly North-South/East-West because my sense of direction is thrown off.
Directions and roads
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kittens
- Koneko no kenshi
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For countries, like Japan or UK, we walk in left b/c old days, knights or samurai put their swords on their left. So when you are walking on right other people touch their swords which was very rude and the person who touches the swod might be killed. So people started walking on left to avoid touching swords.
For countries walking on right, I think it is b/c many people are right handed. So it is easy to walk on right.....
For countries walking on right, I think it is b/c many people are right handed. So it is easy to walk on right.....
Cats rule!
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Keropi
- Bishoujo art collector
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That makes sense. 
I stumbled on this webpage about the entire history of it and which countries drive on which side:
(Warning: Evil Popunder on site):
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/ ... tm#history
If you don't want to experience the Pop-under, here's some info from the site:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------->
List of left-driving countries
The following is a list of countries of the world whose inhabitants drive on the left-hand side of the road. Most of the drivers of these countries use right-hand-drive vehicles.
1. Anguilla
2. Antigua and Barbuda
3. Australia
4. Bahamas
5. Bangladesh
6. Barbados
7. Bermuda
8. Bhutan
9. Botswana
10. Brunei
11. Cayman Islands
12. Christmas Island (Australia)
13. Cook Islands
14. Cyprus
15. Dominica
16. East Timor
17. Falkland Islands
18. Fiji
19. Grenada
20. Guernsey (Channel Islands)
21. Guyana
22. Hong Kong
23. India
24. Indonesia
25. Ireland
26. Isle of Man
27. Jamaica
28. Japan
29. Jersey (Channel Islands)
30. Kenya
31. Kiribati
32. Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)
33. Lesotho
34. Macau
35. Malawi
36. Malaysia
37. Maldives
38. Malta
39. Mauritius
40. Montserrat
41. Mozambique
42. Namibia
43. Nauru
44. Nepal
45. New Zealand
46. Niue
47. Norfolk Island (Australia)
48. Pakistan
49. Papua New Guinea
50. Pitcairn Islands (Britain)
51. Saint Helena
52. Saint Kitts and Nevis
53. Saint Lucia
54. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
55. Seychelles
56. Singapore
57. Solomon Islands
58. South Africa
59. Sri Lanka
60. Suriname
61. Swaziland
62. Tanzania
63. Thailand
64. Tokelau (New Zealand)
65. Tonga
66. Trinidad and Tobago
67. Turks and Caicos Islands
68. Tuvalu
69. Uganda
70. United Kingdom
71. Virgin Islands (British)
72. Virgin Islands (US)
73. Zambia
74. Zimbabwe
List of right-driving countries
The following is a list of countries of the world whose inhabitants drive on the right-hand side of the road. Most of the drivers of these countries use left-hand-drive vehicles.
1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. American Samoa
5. Andorra
6. Angola
7. Argentina
8. Armenia
9. Aruba
10. Austria
11. Azerbaijan
12. Bahrain
13. Belarus
14. Belgium
15. Belize
16. Benin
17. Bolivia
18. Bosnia and Herzegovina
19. Brazil
20. British Indian Ocean Territory (Diego García)
21. Bulgaria
22. Burkina Faso
23. Burundi
24. Cambodia
25. Cameroon
26. Canada
27. Cape Verde
28. Central African Republic
29. Chad
30. Chile
31. China, People's Republic of (Mainland China)
32. Colombia
33. Comoros
34. Congo
35. Congo (former Republic of Zaire)
36. Costa Rica
37. Croatia
38. Cuba
39. Czech Republic
40. Denmark
41. Djibouti
42. Dominican Republic
43. Ecuador
44. Egypt
45. El Salvador
46. Equatorial Guinea
47. Eritrea
48. Estonia
49. Ethiopia
50. Faroe Islands (Denmark)
51. Finland
52. France
53. French Guiana
54. French Polynesia
55. Gabon
56. Gambia, The
57. Gaza Strip
58. Georgia
59. Germany
60. Ghana
61. Gibraltar
62. Greece
63. Greenland
64. Guadeloupe (French West Indies)
65. Guam
66. Guatemala
67. Guinea
68. Guinea-Bissau
69. Haiti
70. Honduras
71. Hungary
72. Iceland
73. Iran
74. Iraq
75. Israel
76. Italy
77. Ivory Coast
78. Jordan
79. Kazakhstan
80. Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)
81. Korea, Republic of (South Korea)
82. Kuwait
83. Kyrgyzstan
84. Laos
85. Latvia
86. Lebanon
87. Liberia
88. Libya
89. Liechtenstein
90. Lithuania
91. Luxembourg
92. Macedonia
93. Madagascar
94. Mali
95. Marshall Islands
96. Martinique (French West Indies)
97. Mauritania
98. Mayotte (France)
99. Mexico
100. Micronesia, Federated States of
101. Midway Islands (USA)
102. Moldova
103. Monaco
104. Mongolia
105. Morocco
106. Myanmar (formerly Burma)
107. Netherlands
108. Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba)
109. New Caledonia
110. Nicaragua
111. Niger
112. Nigeria
113. Northern Mariana Islands
114. Norway
115. Oman
116. Palau
117. Panama
118. Paraguay
119. Peru
120. Philippines
121. Poland
122. Portugal
123. Puerto Rico
124. Qatar
125. Réunion
126. Romania
127. Russia
128. Rwanda
129. Saint Barthélemy (French West Indies)
130. Saint Martin (French West Indies)
131. Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France)
132. Samoa
133. San Marino
134. Sao Tome e Principe
135. Saudi Arabia
136. Senegal
137. Serbia and Montenegro
138. Sierra Leone
139. Slovakia
140. Slovenia
141. Somalia
142. Spain
143. Sudan
144. Svalbard (Norway)
145. Sweden
146. Switzerland
147. Syria
148. Taiwan
149. Tajikistan
150. Togo
151. Tunisia
152. Turkey
153. Turkmenistan
154. Ukraine
155. United Arab Emirates
156. United States
157. Uruguay
158. Uzbekistan
159. Vanuatu
160. Venezuela
161. Vietnam
162. Wake Island (USA)
163. Wallis and Futuna Islands (France)
164. West Bank
165. Western Sahara
166. Yemen
Population distribution
This is a quick table of populations to provide a clue as to just how evenly the sides are represented. As it turns out, some 4 billion people drive right, and 2 billion drive left (when they drive at all, that is). So roughly a third of the world drives on the left.
LEFT-DRIVING COUNTRIES RIGHT-DRIVING COUNTRIES
India 952,107,694 China 1,210,004,956
Indonesia 206,611,600 United States 265,562,845
Pakistan 129,275,660 Brazil 162,661,214
Japan 125,449,703 Russia 148,178,487
Bangladesh 123,062,800 Nigeria 103,912,489
Thailand 58,851,357 Mexico 95,772,462
United Kingdom 58,489,975 Germany 83,536,115
South Africa 41,743,459 Philippines 74,480,848
Tanzania 29,058,470 Vietnam 73,976,973
Kenya 28,176,686 Iran 66,094,264
Nepal 22,094,033 Egypt 63,575,107
Uganda 20,158,176 Turkey 62,484,478
Malaysia 19,962,893 France 58,040,988
Sri Lanka 18,553,074 Italy 57,460,274
Australia 18,260,863 Ethiopia 57,171,662
Mozambique 17,877,927 Ukraine 50,864,009
Zimbabwe 11,271,314 Congo (former Zaire) 46,498,539
Malawi 9,452,844 Burma 45,975,625
Zambia 9,159,072 South Korea 45,482,291
Hong Kong 6,305,413 Spain 39,181,114
Papua New Guinea 4,394,537 Poland 38,642,565
Ireland 3,566,833 Colombia 36,813,161
New Zealand 3,547,983 Argentina 34,672,997
Singapore 3,396,924 Sudan 31,065,229
Jamaica 2,595,275 Morocco 29,779,156
Lesotho 1,970,781 Algeria 29,183,032
Bhutan 1,822,625 Canada 28,820,671
Namibia 1,677,243 Peru 24,523,408
Botswana 1,477,630 North Korea 23,904,124
Trinidad and Tobago 1,272,385 Uzbekistan 23,418,381
Mauritius 1,140,256 Afghanistan 22,664,136
Swaziland 998,730 Venezuela 21,983,188
Fiji 782,381 Romania 21,657,162
Cyprus 744,609 Taiwan 21,465,881
Guyana 712,091 Iraq 21,422,292
Macau 496,837 Saudi Arabia 19,409,058
Suriname 436,418 Ghana 17,698,271
Solomon Islands 412,902 Kazakstan 16,916,463
Malta 375,576 Syria 15,608,648
Brunei 299,939 Netherlands 15,568,034
Maldives 270,758 Ivory Coast 14,762,445
Bahamas, The 259,367 Chile 14,333,258
Barbados 257,030 Cameroon 14,261,557
Saint Lucia 157,862 Madagascar 13,670,507
Saint Vincent 118,344 Yemen 13,483,178
US Virgin Islands 97,120 Ecuador 11,466,291
Grenada 94,961 Guatemala 11,277,614
Dominica 82,926 Cuba 10,951,334
Kiribati 80,919 Cambodia 10,861,218
Seychelles 77,575 Burkina Faso 10,623,323
Antigua and Barbuda 65,647 Greece 10,538,594
Guernsey 62,920 Belarus 10,415,973
Bermuda 62,099 Angola 10,342,899
Saint Kitts and Nevis 41,369 Czech Republic 10,321,120
Cook Islands 19,561 Belgium 10,170,241
Turks and Caicos Islands 14,302 Hungary 10,002,541
British Virgin Islands 13,195 Serbia 9,979,116
Anguilla 10,424 Portugal 9,865,114
Nauru 10,273 Mali 9,653,261
Tuvalu 10,146 Somalia 9,639,151
Falkland Islands 2,758 Niger 9,113,001
Senegal 9,092,749
Tunisia 9,019,687
Sweden 8,900,954
Bulgaria 8,612,757
Dominican Republic 8,088,881
Austria 8,023,244
Azerbaijan 7,676,953
Guinea 7,411,981
Switzerland 7,207,060
Bolivia 7,165,257
Chad 6,976,845
Rwanda 6,853,359
Haiti 6,731,539
Burundi 5,943,057
Tajikistan 5,916,373
El Salvador 5,828,987
Benin 5,709,529
Honduras 5,605,193
Paraguay 5,504,146
Libya 5,445,436
Israel 5,421,995
Slovakia 5,374,362
Denmark 5,249,632
Georgia 5,219,810
Finland 5,105,230
Croatia 5,004,112
Laos 4,975,772
Sierra Leone 4,793,121
Togo 4,570,530
Kyrgyzstan 4,529,648
Moldova 4,463,847
Norway 4,383,807
Nicaragua 4,272,352
Jordan 4,212,152
Turkmenistan 4,149,283
Eritrea 3,909,628
Lebanon 3,776,317
Lithuania 3,646,041
Armenia 3,463,574
Costa Rica 3,463,083
Central African 3,274,426
Albania 3,249,136
Uruguay 3,238,952
United Arab Emirates 3,057,337
Bosnia and Herzegov. 2,656,240
Panama 2,655,094
Congo 2,527,841
Mongolia 2,496,617
Latvia 2,468,982
Mauritania 2,336,048
Oman 2,186,548
Liberia 2,109,789
Macedonia 2,104,035
Slovenia 1,951,443
Kuwait 1,950,047
Estonia 1,459,428
West Bank 1,427,741
Gambia 1,204,984
Gabon 1,172,798
Guinea-Bissau 1,151,330
Gaza Strip 923,940
Bahrain 590,042
Comoros 569,237
Qatar 547,761
Cape Verde 449,066
Equatorial Guinea 431,282
Djibouti 427,642
Luxembourg 415,870
Iceland 270,292
Western Sahara 222,631
Belize 219,296
Samoa 214,384
Vanuatu 177,504
Guam 156,974
Sao Tome 144,128
Micronesia 125,377
Andorra 72,766
American Samoa 63,786
Greenland 59,827
Marshall Islands 58,363
Northern Mariana 52,284
Monaco 31,719
Liechtenstein 31,122
Gibraltar 28,765
San Marino 24,521
Wallis and Futuna 14,659
Total 1,939,854,524 Total 3,824,562,670
34% 66%
Some anecdotes…
While some countries have transferred from left to right, the only case recorded of a transfer from right to left is in Okinawa on 30 July 1978.
A newspaper story one April Fool's Day suggested that, to further European integration, the UK was to convert to driving on the right. However, owing to the huge amount of work this conversion would cause, it would be phased in: for the first six months the regulation would only apply to buses and taxis.
Myanmar (formerly Burma) was a British colony until 1948, and drove on the left until 1970, when it changed sides. It is said that the ruler of the country, Ne Win, interpreted a dream to mean that all traffic should keep to the right. However, virtually every vehicle is right-hand-drive, since there are still many old cars and buses driving around and almost all the modern cars are second-hand imports from Japan. You can still even see old traffic lights in downtown Rangoon on the wrong side of the road.
Location of the steering wheel
Almost always, in countries where one drives on the right-hand side of the road, the cars are built so that the driver sits on the left-hand side of the car. Conversely, driving on the left-hand side of the road usually implies that the driver's seat is on the right-hand side of the car. It used to be different, though.
All early automobiles in the USA (driving on the right-hand side of the road) were right-hand-drive, following the practice established by horse-drawn buggies. They changed to left-hand-drive in the early 1900s as it was decided that it was more practical to have the driver seated near the centreline of the road, both to judge the space available when passing oncoming cars, and to allow front-seat passengers to get out of the car onto the pavement instead of into the middle of the street.
Ford changed to left-hand-drive in the 1908 model year. A Ford catalogue from 1908 explains the benefits of placing the controls on the left side of the car:
“The control is located on the left side, the logical place, for the following reasons: Travelling along the right side of the road the steering wheel on the right side of the car made it necessary to get out on the street side and walk around the car. This is awkward and especially inconvenient if there is a lady to be considered. The control on the left allows you to step out of the car on to the curbing without having had to turn the car around.
In the matter of steering with the control on the right, the driver is farthest away from the vehicle he is passing, going in opposite direction; with it on the left side he is able to see even the wheels of the other car and easily avoids danger.”
Nowadays, the driver always sits on the side of the car that is nearest to the centre line. However, there are a few exceptions, among other things certain kinds of specialised service vehicles. For example, street-sweeping vehicles may have the reverse driving position to place the driver next to the gutter. Italian-built trolley buses were right-hand-drive for many years in order to observe the passenger doors better.
Until the mid-60s, all Lancias, even in left-hand-drive Italy, were manufactured as right-hand-drive. Lancia intended the cars to be suitable for use on the Alpine passes, so when driving on the right, the driver was also on the right, and could see the edge of the road. Falling off the edge of the road was considered a greater danger than head-on collisions. Modern Italian trucks in the Alps are still often right-hand-drive for the same reason. Similarly, Spanish buses and trucks were right-hand-drive until the 1950s because of the need to watch for unstable road edges.
Some countries restrict imports of vehicles that have their controls arranged differently from the norm for the country, but foreign tourists are usually allowed to drive their odd vehicles while they visit. Non-standard vehicles may be required to have a sign on the back announcing this, which typically reads, "Right-hand-drive" or "Left-hand-drive" or just "RHD" or "LHD". Cambodia (which drives on the right) banned all right-hand-drive vehicles in January 2001 in order to control imports of stolen and smuggled vehicles from Thailand. It required all car owners to have their vehicles modified so that the steering wheel is on the left or risk confiscation. About 80% of the officially registered vehicles in the country had to be modified in order to comply.
One comfort in all this is that the arrangement of the pedals and the gear shift is the same worldwide. An international standard was arrived at some time ago which determined the order of the pedals, no matter on which side the steering wheel is located. Going from right to left, the order is always “A-B-C”, or accelerator, brake and clutch (if the vehicle has manual transmission). Thanks to this international standard, the driver who lives in a right-hand-drive country and, say, rents a car in a left-hand-drive country, does not have to re-educate himself before he can drive a car which has the steering wheel on the “other” side.
The manual (as opposed to automatic) gear lever pattern is also the same but only for commercial reasons. Since the cost-benefit ratio would not be favourable, the same transmissions are generally used, no matter whether the car is left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive.
One area which is not standardised is the location of the turn signal lever. In most places, the turn signal is mounted on the left side of the steering column. This includes right-hand-drive vehicles in the UK, and left-hand-drive vehicles in America and continental Europe. Vehicles built in Australia and Japan, however, have the turn signal lever mounted on the right. At one time this meant that cars made by Nissan in Britain had the signals and wiper controls one way round, but cars made by Nissan in Japan for the British market had them the opposite way round. In recent years most Japanese cars sold in the British Isles seem to conform to the European convention.
Cars driven on the right side of the road usually have headlights which are aimed slightly to the right when not on full beam, and vice-versa with cars intended to be driven on the left. In Europe, it is common for travellers from the UK to affix deflectors to their headlights to prevent them dazzling oncoming drivers when driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Also, windscreen wipers are usually aligned to give more coverage to the driver's side than to the passenger side.
Japanese people sometimes import left-hand-drive models of cars, whereas the standard Japanese car in Japan is right-hand-drive. This is done purely for prestige. A Mercedes or BMW with the steering wheel on the left is seen as more authentic and carries something of a cachet. It is also more expensive than the right-hand-drive version of the same vehicle.<--------------------------------------------------------
I stumbled on this webpage about the entire history of it and which countries drive on which side:
(Warning: Evil Popunder on site):
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/ ... tm#history
If you don't want to experience the Pop-under, here's some info from the site:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------->
List of left-driving countries
The following is a list of countries of the world whose inhabitants drive on the left-hand side of the road. Most of the drivers of these countries use right-hand-drive vehicles.
1. Anguilla
2. Antigua and Barbuda
3. Australia
4. Bahamas
5. Bangladesh
6. Barbados
7. Bermuda
8. Bhutan
9. Botswana
10. Brunei
11. Cayman Islands
12. Christmas Island (Australia)
13. Cook Islands
14. Cyprus
15. Dominica
16. East Timor
17. Falkland Islands
18. Fiji
19. Grenada
20. Guernsey (Channel Islands)
21. Guyana
22. Hong Kong
23. India
24. Indonesia
25. Ireland
26. Isle of Man
27. Jamaica
28. Japan
29. Jersey (Channel Islands)
30. Kenya
31. Kiribati
32. Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)
33. Lesotho
34. Macau
35. Malawi
36. Malaysia
37. Maldives
38. Malta
39. Mauritius
40. Montserrat
41. Mozambique
42. Namibia
43. Nauru
44. Nepal
45. New Zealand
46. Niue
47. Norfolk Island (Australia)
48. Pakistan
49. Papua New Guinea
50. Pitcairn Islands (Britain)
51. Saint Helena
52. Saint Kitts and Nevis
53. Saint Lucia
54. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
55. Seychelles
56. Singapore
57. Solomon Islands
58. South Africa
59. Sri Lanka
60. Suriname
61. Swaziland
62. Tanzania
63. Thailand
64. Tokelau (New Zealand)
65. Tonga
66. Trinidad and Tobago
67. Turks and Caicos Islands
68. Tuvalu
69. Uganda
70. United Kingdom
71. Virgin Islands (British)
72. Virgin Islands (US)
73. Zambia
74. Zimbabwe
List of right-driving countries
The following is a list of countries of the world whose inhabitants drive on the right-hand side of the road. Most of the drivers of these countries use left-hand-drive vehicles.
1. Afghanistan
2. Albania
3. Algeria
4. American Samoa
5. Andorra
6. Angola
7. Argentina
8. Armenia
9. Aruba
10. Austria
11. Azerbaijan
12. Bahrain
13. Belarus
14. Belgium
15. Belize
16. Benin
17. Bolivia
18. Bosnia and Herzegovina
19. Brazil
20. British Indian Ocean Territory (Diego García)
21. Bulgaria
22. Burkina Faso
23. Burundi
24. Cambodia
25. Cameroon
26. Canada
27. Cape Verde
28. Central African Republic
29. Chad
30. Chile
31. China, People's Republic of (Mainland China)
32. Colombia
33. Comoros
34. Congo
35. Congo (former Republic of Zaire)
36. Costa Rica
37. Croatia
38. Cuba
39. Czech Republic
40. Denmark
41. Djibouti
42. Dominican Republic
43. Ecuador
44. Egypt
45. El Salvador
46. Equatorial Guinea
47. Eritrea
48. Estonia
49. Ethiopia
50. Faroe Islands (Denmark)
51. Finland
52. France
53. French Guiana
54. French Polynesia
55. Gabon
56. Gambia, The
57. Gaza Strip
58. Georgia
59. Germany
60. Ghana
61. Gibraltar
62. Greece
63. Greenland
64. Guadeloupe (French West Indies)
65. Guam
66. Guatemala
67. Guinea
68. Guinea-Bissau
69. Haiti
70. Honduras
71. Hungary
72. Iceland
73. Iran
74. Iraq
75. Israel
76. Italy
77. Ivory Coast
78. Jordan
79. Kazakhstan
80. Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)
81. Korea, Republic of (South Korea)
82. Kuwait
83. Kyrgyzstan
84. Laos
85. Latvia
86. Lebanon
87. Liberia
88. Libya
89. Liechtenstein
90. Lithuania
91. Luxembourg
92. Macedonia
93. Madagascar
94. Mali
95. Marshall Islands
96. Martinique (French West Indies)
97. Mauritania
98. Mayotte (France)
99. Mexico
100. Micronesia, Federated States of
101. Midway Islands (USA)
102. Moldova
103. Monaco
104. Mongolia
105. Morocco
106. Myanmar (formerly Burma)
107. Netherlands
108. Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba)
109. New Caledonia
110. Nicaragua
111. Niger
112. Nigeria
113. Northern Mariana Islands
114. Norway
115. Oman
116. Palau
117. Panama
118. Paraguay
119. Peru
120. Philippines
121. Poland
122. Portugal
123. Puerto Rico
124. Qatar
125. Réunion
126. Romania
127. Russia
128. Rwanda
129. Saint Barthélemy (French West Indies)
130. Saint Martin (French West Indies)
131. Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France)
132. Samoa
133. San Marino
134. Sao Tome e Principe
135. Saudi Arabia
136. Senegal
137. Serbia and Montenegro
138. Sierra Leone
139. Slovakia
140. Slovenia
141. Somalia
142. Spain
143. Sudan
144. Svalbard (Norway)
145. Sweden
146. Switzerland
147. Syria
148. Taiwan
149. Tajikistan
150. Togo
151. Tunisia
152. Turkey
153. Turkmenistan
154. Ukraine
155. United Arab Emirates
156. United States
157. Uruguay
158. Uzbekistan
159. Vanuatu
160. Venezuela
161. Vietnam
162. Wake Island (USA)
163. Wallis and Futuna Islands (France)
164. West Bank
165. Western Sahara
166. Yemen
Population distribution
This is a quick table of populations to provide a clue as to just how evenly the sides are represented. As it turns out, some 4 billion people drive right, and 2 billion drive left (when they drive at all, that is). So roughly a third of the world drives on the left.
LEFT-DRIVING COUNTRIES RIGHT-DRIVING COUNTRIES
India 952,107,694 China 1,210,004,956
Indonesia 206,611,600 United States 265,562,845
Pakistan 129,275,660 Brazil 162,661,214
Japan 125,449,703 Russia 148,178,487
Bangladesh 123,062,800 Nigeria 103,912,489
Thailand 58,851,357 Mexico 95,772,462
United Kingdom 58,489,975 Germany 83,536,115
South Africa 41,743,459 Philippines 74,480,848
Tanzania 29,058,470 Vietnam 73,976,973
Kenya 28,176,686 Iran 66,094,264
Nepal 22,094,033 Egypt 63,575,107
Uganda 20,158,176 Turkey 62,484,478
Malaysia 19,962,893 France 58,040,988
Sri Lanka 18,553,074 Italy 57,460,274
Australia 18,260,863 Ethiopia 57,171,662
Mozambique 17,877,927 Ukraine 50,864,009
Zimbabwe 11,271,314 Congo (former Zaire) 46,498,539
Malawi 9,452,844 Burma 45,975,625
Zambia 9,159,072 South Korea 45,482,291
Hong Kong 6,305,413 Spain 39,181,114
Papua New Guinea 4,394,537 Poland 38,642,565
Ireland 3,566,833 Colombia 36,813,161
New Zealand 3,547,983 Argentina 34,672,997
Singapore 3,396,924 Sudan 31,065,229
Jamaica 2,595,275 Morocco 29,779,156
Lesotho 1,970,781 Algeria 29,183,032
Bhutan 1,822,625 Canada 28,820,671
Namibia 1,677,243 Peru 24,523,408
Botswana 1,477,630 North Korea 23,904,124
Trinidad and Tobago 1,272,385 Uzbekistan 23,418,381
Mauritius 1,140,256 Afghanistan 22,664,136
Swaziland 998,730 Venezuela 21,983,188
Fiji 782,381 Romania 21,657,162
Cyprus 744,609 Taiwan 21,465,881
Guyana 712,091 Iraq 21,422,292
Macau 496,837 Saudi Arabia 19,409,058
Suriname 436,418 Ghana 17,698,271
Solomon Islands 412,902 Kazakstan 16,916,463
Malta 375,576 Syria 15,608,648
Brunei 299,939 Netherlands 15,568,034
Maldives 270,758 Ivory Coast 14,762,445
Bahamas, The 259,367 Chile 14,333,258
Barbados 257,030 Cameroon 14,261,557
Saint Lucia 157,862 Madagascar 13,670,507
Saint Vincent 118,344 Yemen 13,483,178
US Virgin Islands 97,120 Ecuador 11,466,291
Grenada 94,961 Guatemala 11,277,614
Dominica 82,926 Cuba 10,951,334
Kiribati 80,919 Cambodia 10,861,218
Seychelles 77,575 Burkina Faso 10,623,323
Antigua and Barbuda 65,647 Greece 10,538,594
Guernsey 62,920 Belarus 10,415,973
Bermuda 62,099 Angola 10,342,899
Saint Kitts and Nevis 41,369 Czech Republic 10,321,120
Cook Islands 19,561 Belgium 10,170,241
Turks and Caicos Islands 14,302 Hungary 10,002,541
British Virgin Islands 13,195 Serbia 9,979,116
Anguilla 10,424 Portugal 9,865,114
Nauru 10,273 Mali 9,653,261
Tuvalu 10,146 Somalia 9,639,151
Falkland Islands 2,758 Niger 9,113,001
Senegal 9,092,749
Tunisia 9,019,687
Sweden 8,900,954
Bulgaria 8,612,757
Dominican Republic 8,088,881
Austria 8,023,244
Azerbaijan 7,676,953
Guinea 7,411,981
Switzerland 7,207,060
Bolivia 7,165,257
Chad 6,976,845
Rwanda 6,853,359
Haiti 6,731,539
Burundi 5,943,057
Tajikistan 5,916,373
El Salvador 5,828,987
Benin 5,709,529
Honduras 5,605,193
Paraguay 5,504,146
Libya 5,445,436
Israel 5,421,995
Slovakia 5,374,362
Denmark 5,249,632
Georgia 5,219,810
Finland 5,105,230
Croatia 5,004,112
Laos 4,975,772
Sierra Leone 4,793,121
Togo 4,570,530
Kyrgyzstan 4,529,648
Moldova 4,463,847
Norway 4,383,807
Nicaragua 4,272,352
Jordan 4,212,152
Turkmenistan 4,149,283
Eritrea 3,909,628
Lebanon 3,776,317
Lithuania 3,646,041
Armenia 3,463,574
Costa Rica 3,463,083
Central African 3,274,426
Albania 3,249,136
Uruguay 3,238,952
United Arab Emirates 3,057,337
Bosnia and Herzegov. 2,656,240
Panama 2,655,094
Congo 2,527,841
Mongolia 2,496,617
Latvia 2,468,982
Mauritania 2,336,048
Oman 2,186,548
Liberia 2,109,789
Macedonia 2,104,035
Slovenia 1,951,443
Kuwait 1,950,047
Estonia 1,459,428
West Bank 1,427,741
Gambia 1,204,984
Gabon 1,172,798
Guinea-Bissau 1,151,330
Gaza Strip 923,940
Bahrain 590,042
Comoros 569,237
Qatar 547,761
Cape Verde 449,066
Equatorial Guinea 431,282
Djibouti 427,642
Luxembourg 415,870
Iceland 270,292
Western Sahara 222,631
Belize 219,296
Samoa 214,384
Vanuatu 177,504
Guam 156,974
Sao Tome 144,128
Micronesia 125,377
Andorra 72,766
American Samoa 63,786
Greenland 59,827
Marshall Islands 58,363
Northern Mariana 52,284
Monaco 31,719
Liechtenstein 31,122
Gibraltar 28,765
San Marino 24,521
Wallis and Futuna 14,659
Total 1,939,854,524 Total 3,824,562,670
34% 66%
Some anecdotes…
While some countries have transferred from left to right, the only case recorded of a transfer from right to left is in Okinawa on 30 July 1978.
A newspaper story one April Fool's Day suggested that, to further European integration, the UK was to convert to driving on the right. However, owing to the huge amount of work this conversion would cause, it would be phased in: for the first six months the regulation would only apply to buses and taxis.
Myanmar (formerly Burma) was a British colony until 1948, and drove on the left until 1970, when it changed sides. It is said that the ruler of the country, Ne Win, interpreted a dream to mean that all traffic should keep to the right. However, virtually every vehicle is right-hand-drive, since there are still many old cars and buses driving around and almost all the modern cars are second-hand imports from Japan. You can still even see old traffic lights in downtown Rangoon on the wrong side of the road.
Location of the steering wheel
Almost always, in countries where one drives on the right-hand side of the road, the cars are built so that the driver sits on the left-hand side of the car. Conversely, driving on the left-hand side of the road usually implies that the driver's seat is on the right-hand side of the car. It used to be different, though.
All early automobiles in the USA (driving on the right-hand side of the road) were right-hand-drive, following the practice established by horse-drawn buggies. They changed to left-hand-drive in the early 1900s as it was decided that it was more practical to have the driver seated near the centreline of the road, both to judge the space available when passing oncoming cars, and to allow front-seat passengers to get out of the car onto the pavement instead of into the middle of the street.
Ford changed to left-hand-drive in the 1908 model year. A Ford catalogue from 1908 explains the benefits of placing the controls on the left side of the car:
“The control is located on the left side, the logical place, for the following reasons: Travelling along the right side of the road the steering wheel on the right side of the car made it necessary to get out on the street side and walk around the car. This is awkward and especially inconvenient if there is a lady to be considered. The control on the left allows you to step out of the car on to the curbing without having had to turn the car around.
In the matter of steering with the control on the right, the driver is farthest away from the vehicle he is passing, going in opposite direction; with it on the left side he is able to see even the wheels of the other car and easily avoids danger.”
Nowadays, the driver always sits on the side of the car that is nearest to the centre line. However, there are a few exceptions, among other things certain kinds of specialised service vehicles. For example, street-sweeping vehicles may have the reverse driving position to place the driver next to the gutter. Italian-built trolley buses were right-hand-drive for many years in order to observe the passenger doors better.
Until the mid-60s, all Lancias, even in left-hand-drive Italy, were manufactured as right-hand-drive. Lancia intended the cars to be suitable for use on the Alpine passes, so when driving on the right, the driver was also on the right, and could see the edge of the road. Falling off the edge of the road was considered a greater danger than head-on collisions. Modern Italian trucks in the Alps are still often right-hand-drive for the same reason. Similarly, Spanish buses and trucks were right-hand-drive until the 1950s because of the need to watch for unstable road edges.
Some countries restrict imports of vehicles that have their controls arranged differently from the norm for the country, but foreign tourists are usually allowed to drive their odd vehicles while they visit. Non-standard vehicles may be required to have a sign on the back announcing this, which typically reads, "Right-hand-drive" or "Left-hand-drive" or just "RHD" or "LHD". Cambodia (which drives on the right) banned all right-hand-drive vehicles in January 2001 in order to control imports of stolen and smuggled vehicles from Thailand. It required all car owners to have their vehicles modified so that the steering wheel is on the left or risk confiscation. About 80% of the officially registered vehicles in the country had to be modified in order to comply.
One comfort in all this is that the arrangement of the pedals and the gear shift is the same worldwide. An international standard was arrived at some time ago which determined the order of the pedals, no matter on which side the steering wheel is located. Going from right to left, the order is always “A-B-C”, or accelerator, brake and clutch (if the vehicle has manual transmission). Thanks to this international standard, the driver who lives in a right-hand-drive country and, say, rents a car in a left-hand-drive country, does not have to re-educate himself before he can drive a car which has the steering wheel on the “other” side.
The manual (as opposed to automatic) gear lever pattern is also the same but only for commercial reasons. Since the cost-benefit ratio would not be favourable, the same transmissions are generally used, no matter whether the car is left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive.
One area which is not standardised is the location of the turn signal lever. In most places, the turn signal is mounted on the left side of the steering column. This includes right-hand-drive vehicles in the UK, and left-hand-drive vehicles in America and continental Europe. Vehicles built in Australia and Japan, however, have the turn signal lever mounted on the right. At one time this meant that cars made by Nissan in Britain had the signals and wiper controls one way round, but cars made by Nissan in Japan for the British market had them the opposite way round. In recent years most Japanese cars sold in the British Isles seem to conform to the European convention.
Cars driven on the right side of the road usually have headlights which are aimed slightly to the right when not on full beam, and vice-versa with cars intended to be driven on the left. In Europe, it is common for travellers from the UK to affix deflectors to their headlights to prevent them dazzling oncoming drivers when driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Also, windscreen wipers are usually aligned to give more coverage to the driver's side than to the passenger side.
Japanese people sometimes import left-hand-drive models of cars, whereas the standard Japanese car in Japan is right-hand-drive. This is done purely for prestige. A Mercedes or BMW with the steering wheel on the left is seen as more authentic and carries something of a cachet. It is also more expensive than the right-hand-drive version of the same vehicle.<--------------------------------------------------------
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aernath
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heeheeKeropi wrote:While some countries have transferred from left to right, the only case recorded of a transfer from right to left is in Okinawa on 30 July 1978.
Yes.
Funny thing, I was actually there for that.
I was all of nine years old, riding with my mom. she's tooling along, turns a corner and ends up driving on the right side again. I helpfully interject "You're on the right side of the road, mom." Which she of course nods happily to, and ignores me.
I try it again, a little more insistant this time, as there's another car approaching (travelling in it's correct left lane). Now of course she's looking at me trying to figure out what the heck I'm going on about. She doesn't see the car.
I degrade into blithered "Right/LEFT, mom, not right/WRONG!" and then finally reduced to pointing and just saying "CAR!"
....we were so thankful they had banned trucks and other large vehicles for three days while the rest of the population got used to driving on the left.
Not to be confused with the wrong.
