Driving On The Right Side Of The Road Which Is The Left Side!

 As most people who are born and bred in Britain will tell you, that we drive on the correct side of the road, which is the left side. However as anybody that has done a wee bit of travelling will be well aware of, is that in some countries they drive on the wrong side of the road, which is the right side.

I don’t know why some countries chose to drive on the left and vice versa, why some drive on the right. For example countries such as Britain, Australia, Barbados, Botswana, India, Thailand, South Africa and many more all drive on the left side of the road. And counties such as America, France, Germany, Poland, China, Sweden, Brazil, Albania and various other countries all have got it wrong and drive on the wrong side of the road.

If you go way back in time, you will find that most travellers in most countries in the world would have travelled on the left side of the road but as time progressed things changed. And every country now has some sort of story as to why they drive on whatever side of the road they do now.

Nowadays about 66% of the world’s people live in right-hand traffic countries and 34% in left-hand traffic countries. An interesting insight into why countries now drive on their chosen side of the road can be found at, Which Side Of The Road Do They Drive On?

I have personally never driven on the wrong side of the road, that is just too confusing for me, it is bad enough trying to cross a road as pedestrian, let alone driving there. Fortunately when I was living in Barbados they drive on the left side, but I would debate that with some of the crazy and stupid drivers they have over there, I’m quite certain some of them probably don’t know which side they are legally meant to be driving on!

I remember talking to a local girl I knew in Barbados one day and she was moaning about how bad drivers tourists were, you can always spot a tourist driving because they have an H number plate. I personally would rather have a tourist driving in front of me or behind me, that is if they were from the UK than a local. I twice had locals go into the back of me, who had lost there concentration. I have never seen so many car accidents in my life as I did over there. This girl was then moaning about not having a car anymore and I asked her what happened to it. She had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into a ditch and wrote it off!

In London because it is such a hugely cosmopolitan city, and as a result we have thousands upon thousands of people driving on the roads here that are used to driving on the wrong side. I personally feel that it is a major problem, there have been numerous cases of foreigners driving down the wrong side of the road and causing accidents. I have seen it numerous times myself, cars with Polish number plates driving down one way streets the wrong way or blatantly disregarding the rules of the roads, I take it that is because they don’t know any better.

I think that anybody that is coming from a country that is used to driving on the right side of the road, should have to do a proficiency test. To make sure first of all that they weren’t just giving a license for being able to turn the car on like in Barbados and the fact that they can actually drive on the left side of the road, as well as knowing the rules of the road. I think it is something that the authorities need to seriously look into, especially since we have so many Europeans now living and working in Britain. But I suppose something like this wouldn’t be as profitable as dishing out parking tickets and wheel clamping. It is the usual story in Britain where the safety of the public is secondary to doing what is right!

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