Trivia about driving on the
left
Last updated: 23 January 2024
Some anecdotes and trivia about
driving on the left
Below are some trivia about driving on the
left. If you want to find out the history
behind driving on the left or right,
click here.
In Myanmar, most people have a right-hand-drive
vehicle, although they drive on the right side of
the road (picture: February 2012)
While all countries that have swapped sides have transferred
from left to right, the only three cases recorded of a transfer
from right to left were in East Timor in 1975, in Okinawa on 30
July 1978 and in Samoa on 7 September 2009.
A newspaper story on 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 at that time, dictator General Ne Win,
ordered everyone to start driving on the right side of the road.
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.
Ford T Touring with the
steering wheel on the
left (1908)
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 carriages. 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.
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.
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.
Turn signal lever, windscreen
wipers and headlights
One of the areas which are not
standardized 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.
Windscreen wipers are usually aligned to give more coverage to
the driver’s side than to the passenger side.
Although it would make sense to mirror the manual (as opposed
to automatic) gear lever pattern, it is actually pretty much
standard all over the world. The reason is simple: profit. Since
the cost-benefit ratio would not be favourable, the same
transmissions are used around the globe, no matter whether the
car is left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive.
Click here for a full list of all countries of the world and the side of
the road each of them drives on.
Click here to find out why some countries drive on the left side of the
road.
