Last Updated on May 9, 2022 by Victor A
If you’ve been traveling or you’re planning to travel you should be aware that some right-hand driving countries in the world may be a challenge for you if you are used to driving in a left-hand car. That’s why we created a list of all the countries where people drive a right hand car.
It’s also important to know that when driving a right-hand car it cruises on the left side of the road while a left-hand car drives on the right side of the road.
Before we show you all the list, let’s talk about the reasons why some countries have right-hand cars.
So, why do we have right-hand cars in some countries?
Lots of countries that drive right-hand cars used to be, or are still British colonies, the reason for it requires us to go back in time to English feudalism where the knights used to walk or ride their horses on the left side of the road.
A reason for it was that they could easily wield their sword in their right hand in case an enemy was approaching.
Another reason was that they could mount from the left side which would make dismounting from the right side of a horse easier.
One of the main reasons why this practice wasn’t adopted in all of Europe was due to Napoleon.
As a left-handed, he proved that riding on the right could be intimidating for some enemies, which many adopted the tactic. That led France to bring the right-hand drive to their colonies.
In the case of the United States, they wanted to get away from their British roots they decided to adopt left-hand driving.
Full List of countries where people drive a right hand car
There’s a total of 76 countries where people drive right-hand vehicles. Remember that when driving a car like that, the traffic will remain on the left, and for passing you will need to use the right side.
We’ve made the list categorized by region so it’s easier for you to navigate through it:
Europe:
- Cyprus
- Guernsey
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
- Malta
- United Kingdom
Asia:
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- East Timor
- Hong Kong
- Indonesia
- India
- Japan
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- Thailand
Africa:
- Botswana
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- South Africa
- Swaziland
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Australia and Oceania:
- Australia
- Christmas Island
- Cocos Islands
- Cook Islands
- Fiji
- Kiribati
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- Papua New Guinea
- Pitcairn Islands
- Solomon Islands
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
South America:
- Guyana
- Surinam
West Indies:
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbados
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- The British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Jamaica
- Montserrat
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Virgin Islands
Atlantic Ocean:
- Bermuda
- Falkland Islands
- Saint Helena
- Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Indian Ocean:
- Maldives
- Mauritius
- Seychelles
And those are all the countries; you might be interested to know that when the Philippines was under American rule it used to be a left-hand driving country. But that changed when it was colonized by Japan, which lead to a switch to a right-hand drive.
Maybe in the future, we could see other countries switching from one side to another. Ideally, we would appreciate it if all the world would agree on one side and we could harmonize this so that traveling to other countries would not require us to think twice when renting a car.
Also, automakers could benefit from lowering the costs, since focusing on one side would require less planning and less parts.
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