Legal restrictions on "wrong-hand drive" vehicles
For safety reasons (and in some cases political or economic reasons), some countries have banned the sale or import of vehicles with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side.
Imported
AMX from the United States with RHD assembled from
CKD by
Australian Motor Industries in 1969. Even the antenna location was changed.
In
Australia this is the case with non-vintage (i.e. less than 30 years old) LHD vehicles, with the result that Australians who import such vehicles usually must pay sometimes thousands of dollars to convert them to RHD. The exceptions are for vehicles registered in
Western Australia and the
Northern Territory - both which have at various times hosted U.S. military facilities and had vehicles imported, used and sold by U.S service personnel in circulation. The
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) previously allowed non-vintage LHD vehicles to be registered, but changed its legislation some years ago.
In
New Zealand, LHD vehicles may be privately imported, and driven locally under a LHD permit. Since 1999, only LHD vehicles older than 20 years or cars owned and operated for at least 90 days may be privately imported.
Diplomats and
Operation Deep Freeze personnel are exempted from these restrictions.
In the
Philippines, RHD vehicles especially cars, are banned. Public buses and vans imported from Japan are converted to LHD, and passenger doors are created on the right side. However, some vans keep their doors on the left side, leading to the odd (and dangerous) situation in which passengers have to exit toward oncoming traffic.
Cambodia banned the use of RHD cars, many of which were smuggled from
Thailand, from 2001, even though RHD vehicles accounted for 80 percent of vehicles in the country. The government threatened to confiscate all such vehicles unless they were converted to LHD, in spite of the considerable expense involved. According to a
BBC report,
[10] changing the steering column from right to left would cost between
US$600 and US$2,000, in a country where average annual income was less than US$1,000.
A RHD Toyota Landcruiser in front of a Pyongyang hotel
Although it drives on the right,
North Korea has imported various used RHD vehicles from Japan, from tourist buses to
Toyota Land Cruisers.
However, many
used vehicles exported from Japan to countries like
Russia and
Peru are already converted to LHD. But even if the driver's position is left unchanged, some jurisdictions require at least readjustment of the headlights.
Singapore bans LHD vehicles from being imported for personal local registration, but temporary usage by tourists of LHD vehicles is allowed. However, diplomatic vehicles in Singapore are exempt from the RHD-only ruling, and there are a few hydrogen and
fuel cell powered LHD vehicles currently undergoing trials in Singapore.
In
Taiwan, Article 39 of the Road Traffic Security Rules (
zh:道路交通安全規則) require a steering wheel to be on the left side of a vehicle to pass an inspection when registering the vehicle, so RHD vehicles may not be registered in Taiwan. This rule does not apply retroactively so older RHD vehicles may continue to be legally driven.
In
Trinidad and Tobago, LHD vehicles are banned except for returning nationals who were resident in a foreign country and are importing a vehicle for personal use. LHD vehicles are also allowed to be imported for use as
funeral hearses.
In
West Africa, once-British
Ghana and
Gambia have also banned RHD vehicles. Their traffic has been changed from on the left to on the right. Ghana prohibited new registrations of RHD vehicles after
1 August 1974, three days before the traffic change on
4 August 1974. RHD vehicles may be imported only temporarily into Sierra Leone, for example for humanitarian programmes, but must be rexported at the end of the operation.
Most of the above bans on RHD and LHD vehicles apply only to locally-registered vehicles. Countries that have signed the 1968
Vienna Convention on Road Traffic are not allowed to make such restrictions on foreign-registered vehicles. Paragraph 1 of Annex 5 states "All vehicles in international traffic must meet the technical requirements in force in their country of registration when they first entered into service". Therefore all signatory countries and most non-signatory countries allow the temporary import (e.g. by tourists) of foreign-registered vehicles, no matter which side the steering wheel is on.
Oman, which has not signed the
convention bans all foreign-registered RHD vehicles.
[11]Both RHD and LHD vehicles may generally be registered in any
European Union member state, but there are some restrictions and regulations.
Slovakia, despite being a member of the
European Union, does not allow the local registration of RHD vehicles,
[12] even if the vehicle is imported from one of the four EU countries that drive on the left (UK, Ireland, Cyprus, and Malta). Lithuania has prohibited new RHD vehicle registration since 1993.
