dpb

....Ive heard rumours that insuring an 'english' car on the continent is becoming more an more difficult and even that it will be illegal to drive there sooner rather than later .

Flatcapdriver

You can hear whatever rumours you like but it's not going to happen given that around 40% of world production is for right hand drive vehicles and the market (with India) is growing.

Given the amount of lorries (and foreign ones in particular) that manage to crash on the M25 this year I'd say that any insurance surcharge should be the other way round.

jasey

Time to remind Johnny Foreigner who won all the wars I reckon .

This is one of the main problems with Euro-integration - pretty much any concessions will have to be made by us because we do pretty much everything differently from everyone else !

Clett

40% right hand drive! No way!? Britain, Japan, India err... Malta? Guernsey? Is it really that much?

Brendan Hughes

The Americans. And they also drive on the right.

jasey

Brendan - I didn't think you'd contribute to this thread - you drive on the wrong side of the road regardless of any local guidance .

Brendan Hughes

Touché mate

dpb

well , i wasn't going to mention it, but yes.......

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Actually most of the world has RHD vehicles

(Australasia being the biggest continent )

CrisPDuk

Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand. To name but three

Clett

Yes, but the big car-owning and driving countries are the USA and EU states (650 million combined). Surely UK, Oz, NZ etc can't add up to as much as that?

Nicks VR4

Countries Which Drive on the Left-Hand Side

Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Australia
Bahamas
Bangladesh
Barbados
Bermuda
Bhutan
Botswana
Brunei
Cayman Islands
Christmas Island (Australia)
Cook Islands
Cyprus
L Dominica
East Timor
Falkland Islands
Fiji
Grenada
Guernsey (Channel Islands)
Guyana
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle of Man
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey (Channel Islands)
Kenya
Kiribati
Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)
Lesotho
Macau
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Mauritius
Montserrat
Mozambique
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
New Zealand
Niue
Norfolk Island (Australia)
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Pitcairn Islands (Britain)
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Singapore
Solomon Islands
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Swaziland
Tanzania
Thailand
Tokelau (New Zealand)
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (US)
Zambia
Zimbabwe

STi-Frenchie

Countries / areas driving on the right hand side

1. Afghanistan
2. Åland Islands (Finland)
3. Albania
4. Algeria
5. American Samoa (United States)
6. Andorra
7. Angola (1928)
8. Argentina
9. Armenia
10. Aruba (Netherlands)
11. Austria (1936)
12. Azerbaijan
13. Bahrain (1968)
14. Belarus
15. Belgium
16. Belize (1961)
17. Benin
18. Bolivia
19. Bosnia and Herzegovina
20. Brazil
21. British Indian Ocean Territory (1960s?- the United Kingdom itself drives on the left)
22. Bulgaria
23. Burkina Faso
24. Burundi
25. Cambodia
26. Cameroon (Former British Cameroon 1961)
27. Canada (British Columbia and Maritime provinces during 1920s, Newfoundland 1947)
28. Cape Verde (1928)
29. Central African Republic
30. Chad
31. Chile
32. China, mainland (southern provinces 1946)
33. Colombia
34. Comoros
35. Congo, Republic
36. Congo, Democratic Republic
37. Costa Rica
38. Côte d'Ivoire
39. Croatia
40. Cuba
41. Czech Republic (1938)
42. Denmark
43. Djibouti
44. Dominican Republic
45. Ecuador
46. Egypt
47. El Salvador
48. Equatorial Guinea
49. Eritrea (1964)
50. Estonia
51. Ethiopia (1964)
52. Faroe Islands (Denmark)
53. Finland
54. France
55. French Guiana (France)
56. French Polynesia (France)
57. Gabon
58. Gambia (1966)
59. Georgia
60. Germany
61. Ghana (1974)
62. Gibraltar (1929 - the United Kingdom itself drives on the left)
63. Greece
64. Greenland (Denmark)
65. Guadeloupe (France)
66. Guam (United States)
67. Guatemala
68. Guinea
69. Guinea-Bissau (1928)
70. Haiti
71. Holy See (Vatican City State)
72. Honduras
73. Hungary (1940)
74. Iceland (1968)
75. Iran, Islamic Republic of
76. Iraq
77. Israel
78. Italy (change between 1890s and 1920s)
79. Jordan
80. Kazakhstan
81. Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (1946)
82. Korea, Republic of (1946)
83. Kuwait
84. Kyrgyzstan
85. Lao People's Democratic Republic
86. Latvia
87. Lebanon
88. Liberia
89. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
90. Liechtenstein
91. Lithuania
92. Luxembourg
93. Macedonia, Republic of
94. Madagascar
95. Mali
96. Marshall Islands
97. Martinique (France)
98. Mauritania
99. Mayotte (France)
100. Mexico
101. Micronesia, Federated States of
102. Midway Atoll (United States)
103. Moldova
104. Monaco
105. Mongolia
106. Morocco
107. Myanmar (1970)
108. Netherlands
109. Netherlands Antilles (Netherlands)
110. New Caledonia (France)
111. Nicaragua
112. Niger
113. Nigeria (1972)
114. Northern Mariana Islands (United States)
115. Norway
116. Oman
117. Palau
118. Panama
119. Paraguay
120. Peru
121. Philippines (1946) (Will drive on the left 2007)
122. Poland
123. Portugal (1928)
124. Puerto Rico (United States)
125. Qatar
126. Réunion (France)
127. Romania
128. Russian Federation
129. Rwanda
130. Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France)
131. Samoa (mid-1990s?)
132. San Marino
133. São Tomé and Príncipe (1928)
134. Saudi Arabia
135. Senegal
136. Serbia and Montenegro
137. Sierra Leone (1971)
138. Slovakia (1938)
139. Slovenia
140. Somalia (1970s? except Somaliland)
141. Spain
142. Sudan (1973)
143. Svalbard (Norway)
144. Sweden (1967)
145. Switzerland
146. Syrian Arab Republic
147. Taiwan (Republic of China) (1946)
148. Tajikistan
149. Togo
150. Tunisia
151. Turkey
152. Turkmenistan
153. Ukraine
154. United Arab Emirates
155. United States
156. Uruguay
157. Uzbekistan
158. Vanuatu
159. Venezuela
160. Viet Nam
161. Wake Island (United States)
162. Wallis and Futuna (France)
163. Western Sahara (occupied by Morocco)
164. Yemen (South Yemen in 1977)

Leslie

Why should we make any concessions to the corrupt European government anyway?

Les

dpb

True - that just leaves

Europe
essentaily all the Americas
3/4 of africa
all the middle-east
most of asia
all of russia
....
............In response to Nick

dpb

will we get a choice?

Scoobydid

Coz we have one too???

If it ever does happen, I'm staying off the roads for a year.

dpb

Wont take quite that long to change the infrastructure..!!........

paulr

How about creating a larger market and bringing down car prices?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm yes...1% saving for the consumer...50% saving for the manufacturer and 25% saving for the dealers

Consumers always get the best deals in any circumstance

paulr

Sometimes they do.

jasey

I sooner Tony went to war with North Korea than try to get the brits to start driving on the WRONG side of the road.


There would be less deaths !


But it would be close

Flatcapdriver

It's somewhere around that figure in vehicle sales terms. Don't forget that Japan (second largest car market) drives on the correct side and India is one of the emerging economies that is growing exponentially which will keep that figure about the same even taking into account the growth in vehicles in China.

Factor in Indonesia and the figures start to stack up when you consider the population growth figures for both there and Oz. The last country to convert from the left to right hand side was Sweden I think in 1967 which wasn't easy even then given that there were relatively few people and cars, so there's just no way a country such as the UK or Oz could convert these days without incurring huge costs.

Brendan Hughes

(FCD, I spoke to a Swede about this recently and they said it was even easier because all their cars were LHD anyway!!)

gsm1

There was talk of converting to LHD many years back. It will never happen because there will be far too many accidents. I consider myself a pretty good driver but when I've been driving in Europe you really have to think carefully sometimes especially when going on a roundabout. Another time there were no cars about in some side streets and I forgot which side to stay on till a Dutch couple in their Merc were heading towards me. The look on their faces was priceless.

P.S. America didn't win in Vietnam.

P1Fanatic

What about the expense of changing all road markings, signposts, traffic lights around lol? Aint ever gonna happen.

Simon.

Flatcapdriver

Hmmm. I got this information from my step father who's Finnish so the level of difficulty was probably exaggerated given the antipathy of the Finns towards the Swedes.

It went something along the lines of driving on the left until midnight with the speed limit being lowered gradually and then switching over to the right as limits were ramped up slowly which seems logical until you consider that most Swedes in those days were happy home brewers and most likely pissed at that time of night.

Leslie

Nothing wrong with trading with Europe, as we were led to believe by Edward Heath in his referendum, but a big mistake to give them the power to govern us. He did not tell us about that!

Les

CrisPDuk

There was an old joke about the Irish phasing it in. Cars & Vans starting one week, with Lorries & Coaches following the week after

Flatcapdriver

Sounds like a good plan to me. An excellent way of boosting new vehicle sales.