I am sure this has been asked and answered, but I am too lazy to look it up right now.
Does anyone have a quick answer to this? Why do some countries drive on the right and some on the left?
AFAIK, as a general rule, all the commonwealth colonies drive on the left. Everywhere else drives on the right.
Don’t forget Japan, they drive on the left as well.
This site has some interesting information of left/right driving. Including some mentions of why various laws or decrees were made. At the bottom there is also a list of countries indicating which side they drive on.
Not to sound nitpicky, but countries can’t drive.
Especially Canada.
When I assume control of this country I’m going to make everybody drive on the right.
Of course, there will be a transitional period during which people can drive on both sides of the road.
Especially Canada.
You take that back! :mad:
No, no, NO! The transition works this way: during the first week of transition only trucks and busses (lorries and coaches to you :p) drive on the right, everyone else still drives on the left.
I leave the following steps as an exercise for the reader…
This might be an urban legend, but I’ve heard that one of the Scandanavian countries (either Norway or Sweden) used to drive on the left, but eventually they decided that they wanted to drive on the right like everyone else does. They set a date when, at midnight, the entire country would switch over to the other side of the road.
The result? Nationwide gridlock, as everyone went out at the stroke of midnight so they could be the first to drive on the right :smack:
Yup. That’s the way to do it. At least that’s how they did it in Sweden.
While many of the former British colonies retain driving on the left, we drive on the right in Gibraltar, which is still a British colony.
Japan drives on the left. They were never in the British fold, but did probably pick it up from the British.
Here’s a good trivia question: There’s a place in US territory where traffic keeps to the left (mostly with LHD cars). This place was never under British rule. What is it?
The US Virgin Islands. It’s said they acquired the habit when under Danish rule, and never lost it.
I always enjoy seeing this question asked here because it reminds me of how, researching it some ten years ago, I first discovered The Straight Dope column (back then, only available on AOL!)…
Nigeria changed over from driving on the left to driving on the right. One reason I heard was that the country is boarded by mostly ex-French colonies and made cross-border driving easier.
There’s a place under British rule that drives on the right hand side of the road: British Indian Ocean Territory. Another interesting tidbit is the local currency is the US Dollar.
In Manchester city centre I’ve noticed that people drive pretty much where they bloody feel like :eek: