The United Kingdom is well known for driving on the left side (or the ‘wrong’ side, depending on who you ask) of the road.

But the eccentric island is not alone. A surprising number of countries drive on the left. Many are former British colonies, but other countries including Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Guyana and Suriname also drive on the left.

The countries coloured in blue in the map below are all countries which drive on the left.

Map source: Wikipedia

The list of countries which drive on the left has been decreasing steadily. Sweden switched to right-hand driving in 1967, followed by Iceland in 1968 and Burma in 1970.

However Samoa is going against the trend. In this article, Salon explains that the government of Samoa wants to switch from right-side to left-side driving in order to import cheaper right-hand drive cars from Australia and New Zealand.

Changing driving directions is expensive and unpopular - think a whole country waking up to find its steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. But it seems the savings from avoiding expensive US car imports will justify the inconvenience.

Do you think more countries should drive on the right?

Read more:
Iconic Italian transport - Vespa, Cinquecento and a few buses as well.
A day in the life of 380 London taxis
Catching a plane in Iraq - a traveller’s story