TL;TR, That Russian city (Vladivostok) has 90%+ cars with steering wheel on the wrong side.
So I ask you, my fellows Murricans, Canucks, Mexicans and others, what are regulations in your country for driving cars with steer wheel on the “wrong” side."
Quick googling for my country (Slovenia). Almost none. Importing “wrong side car” will cost 150€ for bureaucracy and (probably) less than that for adjusting / buying new headlamps.
Sweden switched sides in 1967, overnight. I’m in awe at the amount of coordination needed.
For Spain, the regulations are the same for everybody. If you have a UK or Ireland vehicle (the “wrong side” ones most commonly seen here), you’re supposed to follow the same rules as everybody else. Most of the people driving such a vehicle aren’t Spaniards using imported cars: they’re expats, tourists or truck drivers. People who realize someone is using a wrong-side vehicle will usually give them a wide berth simply because we figure it’s got to be kind of a bitch to drive that way, but that’s a matter of defensive driving, not a regulation.
The fact that " [Vladivostok] is 4,000 miles from Moscow, but only 600 miles from Tokyo" may have some bearing. Japan drives on the left side of the road.
No countries that I am aware of have restrictions on which side the steering wheel is on imported cars. Many countries impose high tariffs though.
I’ve driven right had drive cars in the US (best was a Mustang, people lost their minds when they saw it) and it’s not that hard to adjust. I think it would be far harder adjusting to driving on the opposite side of the road.
It’s rumored that Ireland is thinking of switching now that the UK is leaving the EU. They will not do it *overnight *though; the proposal is in an obscure document yet to be published:
No regulations in the U.S. concerning vehicles with the steering wheel on the opposite (right) side. In fact, U.S. postal delivery vehicles have the steering wheel on the right side. I drove one and found it relatively easy to adjust to. I didn’t find myself veering left into the next lane.
This makes no sense, and given that it is from an “obscure document” that you didn’t even name, I think it is fake.
During this “transition” period, which side or the road will people actually be driving on? Each person can decide for himself? What about ramps on and off the highways?
I drive my RHD car on the roads of Europe for thousand of miles each year. no restrictions other than ensuring the headlights are converted to avoid dazzle.
I driven every combination of road lhs/rhs and car lhd/rhd It is not a problem to drive on the other side of the road. As long as there are other cars on the road you really can’t forget, overtaking is easier and safer with a passenger to spot for you but that is the only issue.
This got me giggling… You may be referring to something like this or this… hint … it’s a satire site
However, it was sort of proposed, see proper cite… and turned down.
Btw… the “wrong” side from an Irish pov is the right side… left is proper. Cite that the Irish apperantly can’t wrap their heads around driving on the right side, eh wrong side… Left is king! … never mind the rules of the road
There is a low percentage of “wrong” sides car here in Ireland… most of them are from tourists, immigrants, expats, classic cars, camper vans or specialized vehicles.
It’s generally not an issue, if you want to register your foreign car here, you just need to “import” it, get it tested and certified for road safety and off you go.
There was a show about converting cars from one side to another, this was for a country where it was mandatory, and the switch was pretty much done to the minimum standards, so even the dashboard stayed where it was originally (one had to look over at the passenger side to see the speedometer. I forgot the country, but IIRC it was poor, and most cars bought there were used and also rare to have one. I assume because of this amount of switching they were importing used left hand drive cars and switching them, although it could have been they were just close to a good RHD source and got lots of them. Africa comes to mind on recalling the show about the conversions however I don’t know of any country that is RHD on that continent.
I drove my LHD pickup truck for years in Cayman where we drive left of centerline. Not much to it but for limited visibility when initiating an overtake and getting used to the proper side of the steering wheel for the turn signal. For a time I was constantly hitting the windshield wipers when I meant to activate the turn signal.
We do have a lot of LHD vehicles imported from the States. That is usually cheaper than importing all the way from Japan, though some do go that route.
Japan is a RHD country, and a lot of cars in Asia are imported directly from Japan by private operators, who just buy a buch of used fleet cars in Japan and ship them. RHD cars are very common in Central Asia, and I even saw some in Ethiopia. They were once pretty common in Peru, vans still with Japanese markings on the sides. I would expect nearly all cars in far eastern Russia to have come into the country directly throgh this kind of sourcing.
In the UK you can drive a foreign registered car for up to 6 months. After that time you would need to formally import and register it. At which point it would be liable for road tax and annual check up the same as any other car on the roads.
Insurance companies will always ask if the car is LHD or RHD when you fill in a proposal form. I’m guessing that’s so they can charge you a higher premium.
A personal anecdote: I was knocked off my motorbike by a french registered car who didn’t stop, but I managed to get the number. I reported it to the police who told me that tracing the driver was too hard and they would only normally bother if it was a fatality. From that I’m guessing that cars that have over stayed the 6 month limit are a very low priority too.
Yes. I can handle that. 10yo cars are scrap material in Japan. So many are “exported” instead. Regulations is what I’m asking for. Would you buy perfectly fine 10yo. RHD Toyota for a dime?