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Left- and right-hand traffic

directionality of traffic flow, varies by national traffic laws
     Right-hand traffic      Left-hand traffic
A sign on Australia's Great Ocean Road reminding foreign drivers to keep left.

The driving side of a road is the side where vehicles must drive. Each country says whether vehicles will drive on the right-hand or left-hand side of the road.[1] This is sometimes called the rule of the road.[2] This basic rule makes traffic move more easily. It also lowers the risk of head-on collisions. Today about 66.1% of the world's people live in countries who drive on the right-hand. 33.9% live in countries that drive on the left-hand.[3] Do not confuse between left-hand drive (LHD) and to drive on the left-hand side of the road which is the right-hand drive (RHD).

While most countries who drive on the left-hand are former British colonies, there are some that were not that still chose the left-hand side of the road. These countries include Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Mozambique, Suriname, East Timor, and Indonesia. Today, only four European countries drive on the left-hand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which are islands. There are several countries where their territories that exist outside the mainland drive on a different side from the mainland. One well-known example is that all of China drives on the right-hand except for its Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau, which drive on the left-hand.

Historically, before the creation of the automobile, people mostly rode on the left-hand side, since most people were right-handed and would whip their horses with their left hands. Warriors in battle could also use their right hand to hold and control their weapon.[4] However, during the 1700s, many farmers began to pull their vehicles using teams of horses rather than just one. This was so that the driver could easily whip all the horses and so that the driver could see how close his/her wheels were to colliding to another wagon. In 1794, France passed the first right-hand driving laws, and this law would spread with Napolean's conquests.[5] The territories and regions of the former Austro-Hungarian and Portuguese Empires refused to change the direction of driving at first, but most eventually chose to drive on the right-side. Only Mozambique, East Timor, and Macau (all former Portuguese colonies) still drive on the left-side.[6] However, many former British territories and colonies refused to change their direction of driving, and still do so today. Some exceptions do still exist, including Canada, Myanmar, Gibraltar, British Indian Ocean Territory, and a few countries in West Africa like Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia. They all switched to left-hand driving.


  1. Draper, Geoff (1993). "Harmonised Headlamp Design for Worldwide Application". Motor Vehicle Lighting : 23–36Society of Automotive Engineers. 
  4. Dan Stone, Dan Stone (2013-05-31). "The Right (and Left) Stuff: Why Countries Drive on Different Sides of the Road". National Geographic Society (blogs). Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  5. John (2013-02-22). "Why Does Japan Drive On The Left Side of the Road?". Tofugu. Retrieved 2017-06-27.