I know that I’m the USVI, traffic is on the left side of the road because reasons, but since they’re part of the US, their cars are intended for the American market. Viz, both steering wheel and traffic are on the left.
Are there any other places in the world with this kind of quirk? Also, does the USVI have a higher automobile accident rate, comparatively?
Police vehicles used by the Royal Police in the British Indian Ocean Territory have the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the car and traffic in the territory drives on the right-hand side of the road.
Burma/Mayanmar do I believe:
https://www.minordiversion.com/2012/03/the-unique-world-of-burmese-driving/
Postal vehicles (the Grumman LLV specifically) in the US do as well. Right-hand drive to reach the mailboxes better.
I heard a story from someone who came to the U. S. Shortly after WWII, and brought a small MG with him. It was right-hand drive. He mentioned going driving with his wife in the passenger, left seat. If he wanted to pass a truck on a two-lane road, he could see the oncoming traffic very well from his position on the right. He had to pull well into the oncoming lane to see if it was clear enough to make the pass, and sometimes that meant getting back into his own lane very quickly to avoid another car. It was an adventurous ride for his wife, to say the least.
So there’s a good reason to have the driver seated toward the center of the road.
When I take my RHD car over the Channel, My wife helps me out by looking past trucks etc and telling me if it’s safe to pull out and have a look for myself. Her other job is sign spotting.
I noticed that a lot of the cars in the Cayman Islands were imported from RHD countries like the US, and they drive on the left. I borrowed a US market car when driving there, and going around the roundabouts was an interesting experience. Otherwise the driving was fine, The major concern was on remote parts of the island - not seeing other cars for a while and forgetting which side you’re supposed to be on. In traffic it’s much easier, with lots of visual cues.
The LLV’s predecessor, the Jeep DJ / Dispatcher, and its new successor, the Oshkosh NGDV, were/are both right-hand drive, as well.
And that was in an MG where you are basically shoulder to shoulder. Imagine doing that with a modern pickup truck or SUV!
In Sweden, before they changed the side of the road they drove on in 1967 (Sweden had traffic on the left until September 3, 1967), most cars were LHD.
I’ve owned a couple different LHD cars in the UK. Overtaking is a bit more difficult but not too bad.
I’ve noticed a few cars in Barbados that had put “Left hand drive” signs in their rear windows as warnings to other drivers. I once drove a LHD drive car in England; it was not too bad. Basically I was driving from London to a ferry terminal to France.
Ditto for the British Virgin Islands. USVI drives on the left because that’s what it was when they inherited the islands from Denmark. What’s weird is that Denmark drives on the right…
The MG T-series started production in the 1930s, but then Hitler did his Hitler thing and MG stopped making cars and made war stuff instead. After the war, MG didn’t have enough money to switch back to making cars and also design a new car at the same time, so they basically went back into production with the T series again. It wasn’t until the mid 1950s that they were able to get a new car design into production.
Your story isn’t unique. Far from it. In fact, so many American servicemen enjoyed the MG that they made a special left-hand drive version specifically for export to America.
I have one. This is my 1953 MG TD (ignore the battery charger - I need to upload a pic that wasn’t from when I was working on it). You can tell that it’s a car that was designed in the 1930s. They didn’t change much over the years.
Most of the TDs were exported. Both the left-hand drive and right-hand drive were exported to America.
So it was entirely possible in the early 1950s for you to buy a car made for the American market that was right-hand drive!