Will Myanmar eventually switch back to right hand drive like American Samoa did?

mitsubishi · January 2, 2015

Please stop with the driving on the right bias just because you are American.
please stop assuming out of thin air that i am an American.
for the record: i am a "Central European" who holds citizenships from two European countries located in the heart of Europe where people drive on the right side and abhor driving on the wrong side. of course us "righteous" ones obey prevailing traffic laws and drive on the wrong side when on obscure islands or in countries which are not yet fully affiliated with logic and civilisation.

peace brother, may the force be with you! L-dog.jpg

Didn't know the Swiss and Austrians were so fiercely anti-drive on the left. Anyway, driving on the right with a LHD car is actually less desirable than the opposite. For starters, since most of us are right-handed (and this is a worldwide phenomenon), if the car you are driving is a manual, you'll have a pretty sore left hand from holding onto the steering wheel with your left hand and shifting gears with your right hand, particularly after a long drive. Also, our line of sight is slightly off to the right, hence driving on the left with a RHD vehicle is a more natural position to be driving on.

BTW not all Swiss think like you do regarding driving on the right - I too have Swiss blood.

Switzerland of course used to be famous for it's RHD vehicles that used to negotiate the mountain roads....

Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary continued to drive on the left until Hitler told them not to, as did most of

Austria....

It was Napoleon that started the drive on the right nonsense IIRC.

wilcopops · January 3, 2015

please stop assuming out of thin air that i am an American.
for the record: i am a "Central European" who holds citizenships from two European countries located in the heart of Europe where people drive on the right side and abhor driving on the wrong side. of course us "righteous" ones obey prevailing traffic laws and drive on the wrong side when on obscure islands or in countries which are not yet fully affiliated with logic and civilisation.

peace brother, may the force be with you! L-dog.jpg

Didn't know the Swiss and Austrians were so fiercely anti-drive on the left. Anyway, driving on the right with a LHD car is actually less desirable than the opposite. For starters, since most of us are right-handed (and this is a worldwide phenomenon), if the car you are driving is a manual, you'll have a pretty sore left hand from holding onto the steering wheel with your left hand and shifting gears with your right hand, particularly after a long drive. Also, our line of sight is slightly off to the right, hence driving on the left with a RHD vehicle is a more natural position to be driving on.

BTW not all Swiss think like you do regarding driving on the right - I too have Swiss blood.

Switzerland of course used to be famous for it's RHD vehicles that used to negotiate the mountain roads....

Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary continued to drive on the left until Hitler told them not to, as did most of

Austria....

It was Napoleon that started the drive on the right nonsense IIRC.

It started Around then, but the aristocracy had a hand in it too preferring to keep to the right to avoid the hoi-polloi's traffic. there was also the need for control of the huge transport wagons that used large numbers of horses to draw them.. A lot of this originates from which side you control a horse from when dismounted. Single horse or small team is held whilst standing on the left of the animal so it would be easier to hold the animals' reins and NOT have to stand in the middle of what was then a very crude road.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire continued to drive on the left up till the 20th century. Hitler finally changed the last remaining European Countries.

About 40% of the world's roads are still drive on the left....most notably those countries that were part of the British empire. however one shouldn't forget Japan. It was Japan that was largely responsible for confirming Thailand's DoL status again during the second world war.

Canada was of course originally DoL. Many early vehicles in USA were built RHD (check out old movies) but they drove on the Right so the manufacturers changed for convenience.

As pointed out if Myanmar changed back it would mean DoL would extend from Pakistan to Tasmania and New Zealand. Including Bhutan, Nepal, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Australia and of course Thailand.

Naam · January 3, 2015

if Myanmar changed back...

...then the last hurdle would be removed and driving the super highway from Islamabad to Christchurch, NZ via Tasmania will be a breeze.

next step, to go with the flow, is to convince French Polynesia to switch because otherwise it makes no sense spending all that money to extend the highway to Tahiti.

that's not an easy task, believe me! the French are quite difficult people to deal with and carry old resentments, e.g. being called derogatory names such as "frogs" by natives of an island which they conquered a long time ago.

badshah · March 27, 2015

Bump.

Even India is annoyed with Myanmar's stupidity over their traffic laws: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150316/jsp/frontpage/story_9016.jsp#.VRTNhWY33fY

If India can use its economic might to convince Myanmar to switch to the left, perhaps they can also help Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam switch to the left as well.

onthemoon · March 28, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

badshah · March 28, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Except Myanmar already has the infrastructure necessary to revert back to the left so it wouldn't be much issue to begin with.

And are you trying to downplay India's economic might here? Myanmar is sandwiched between 3 countries that drive on the left: India, Bangladesh, and Thailand. All three of them are far bigger potential markets than China and Russia are, and besides, sooner or later the Russian Far East will eventually have left traffic since 2 million vehicles are RHD over there.

cumgranosalum · March 28, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

Edited March 28, 2015 by cumgranosalum

Tomtomtom69 · March 29, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

@onthemoon, you're dreaming. The much more developed bigger DoL (RHD) countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia amongst others are never going to switch sides. Why would they? The cost would be absolutely enormous. All these countries (except Singapore) have thriving domestic car industries, open car policies that encourage motorization and a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would require converting. It would be senseless.

On the other hand, while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are poorer, all these countries have far less infrastructure, either no or very basic domestic car manufacturing industries and would therefore be much easily able to make the switch.

Realistically however, only Myanmar needs to make the switch. Vietnam may never see any significant number of Thai RHD vehicles in the country either due to legislation (which prevents Thai vehicles from entering as is the case now) or even if they allow their entry one day, poor infrastructure and long driving times and distances will likely keep most Thai motorists out of the country in the first place. For the purposes of trade and tourism, including the proposed Dawei project, Myanmar driving on the same side of the road would be beneficial too.

Although you haven't mentioned China, I believe China is irrelevant to Myanmar because China only allows very limited entry of Burmese vehicles into it's territory, 8km in fact from the Mu-se-Ruili crossing and vice versa for Chinese vehicles entering Myanmar. But despite more trade flowing across the Sino-Myanmar border, limited demand for using the same vehicle for travel further inside the country will mean the current unloading/loading onto local vehicles at their common border will continue. Whereas at the Thai-Burmese and Indo-Burmese borders I can see greater likelihood of demand to keep using one vehicle for the entire journey - distances are shorter (Bangkok-Yangon could be driven in a day depending on the road conditions), there are fewer cultural and linguistic barriers as well (compared to China-Myanmar interactions).

cumgranosalum · March 29, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

@onthemoon, you're dreaming. The much more developed bigger DoL (RHD) countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia amongst others are never going to switch sides. Why would they? The cost would be absolutely enormous. All these countries (except Singapore) have thriving domestic car industries, open car policies that encourage motorization and a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would require converting. It would be senseless.

On the other hand, while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are poorer, all these countries have far less infrastructure, either no or very basic domestic car manufacturing industries and would therefore be much easily able to make the switch.

Realistically however, only Myanmar needs to make the switch. Vietnam may never see any significant number of Thai RHD vehicles in the country either due to legislation (which prevents Thai vehicles from entering as is the case now) or even if they allow their entry one day, poor infrastructure and long driving times and distances will likely keep most Thai motorists out of the country in the first place. For the purposes of trade and tourism, including the proposed Dawei project, Myanmar driving on the same side of the road would be beneficial too.

Although you haven't mentioned China, I believe China is irrelevant to Myanmar because China only allows very limited entry of Burmese vehicles into it's territory, 8km in fact from the Mu-se-Ruili crossing and vice versa for Chinese vehicles entering Myanmar. But despite more trade flowing across the Sino-Myanmar border, limited demand for using the same vehicle for travel further inside the country will mean the current unloading/loading onto local vehicles at their common border will continue. Whereas at the Thai-Burmese and Indo-Burmese borders I can see greater likelihood of demand to keep using one vehicle for the entire journey - distances are shorter (Bangkok-Yangon could be driven in a day depending on the road conditions), there are fewer cultural and linguistic barriers as well (compared to China-Myanmar interactions).

Great post, very good points.......

badshah · March 29, 2015

I still wished China would have stuck with the left instead.

harrry · March 29, 2015

Singapore to the UK is possible. Main problem is the Carnet. Money. Worst restriction is you may have to take a guide with you through some countries.

badshah · March 29, 2015

^Yeah, by flying your car from the UK to Malta to Cyprus to Aden (if it was 1963 perhaps) to Gwadar

onthemoon · March 29, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

@onthemoon, you're dreaming. The much more developed bigger DoL (RHD) countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia amongst others are never going to switch sides. Why would they? The cost would be absolutely enormous. All these countries (except Singapore) have thriving domestic car industries, open car policies that encourage motorization and a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would require converting. It would be senseless.

On the other hand, while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are poorer, all these countries have far less infrastructure, either no or very basic domestic car manufacturing industries and would therefore be much easily able to make the switch.

Realistically however, only Myanmar needs to make the switch. Vietnam may never see any significant number of Thai RHD vehicles in the country either due to legislation (which prevents Thai vehicles from entering as is the case now) or even if they allow their entry one day, poor infrastructure and long driving times and distances will likely keep most Thai motorists out of the country in the first place. For the purposes of trade and tourism, including the proposed Dawei project, Myanmar driving on the same side of the road would be beneficial too.

Although you haven't mentioned China, I believe China is irrelevant to Myanmar because China only allows very limited entry of Burmese vehicles into it's territory, 8km in fact from the Mu-se-Ruili crossing and vice versa for Chinese vehicles entering Myanmar. But despite more trade flowing across the Sino-Myanmar border, limited demand for using the same vehicle for travel further inside the country will mean the current unloading/loading onto local vehicles at their common border will continue. Whereas at the Thai-Burmese and Indo-Burmese borders I can see greater likelihood of demand to keep using one vehicle for the entire journey - distances are shorter (Bangkok-Yangon could be driven in a day depending on the road conditions), there are fewer cultural and linguistic barriers as well (compared to China-Myanmar interactions).

I know Thailand won't change. And I did mention China, which was irrelevant to the world not too long ago, but isn't now, and I believe will be a big force in the future.

I would still recommend all contiguous countries to drive on the same side, and the overwhelming number of countries in Euroasia do drive on the right (which we call LHD, never heard RoR/RoL before).

But hey, we don't decide on this forum what is going to happen.

Edited March 29, 2015 by onthemoon

cumgranosalum · March 29, 2015

Let India be annoyed. Most of the world drives on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#/media/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg including most of continental Eurasia. China and Russia are important countries to trade with, and especially Russia for transit to Europe.

I believe it would make more sense for the few RHD countries in continental Asia to change to LHD. Never mind how convenient it would be for India force some smaller countries from LHD to RHD, in the end it is the bigger picture that counts.

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

@onthemoon, you're dreaming. The much more developed bigger DoL (RHD) countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia amongst others are never going to switch sides. Why would they? The cost would be absolutely enormous. All these countries (except Singapore) have thriving domestic car industries, open car policies that encourage motorization and a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would require converting. It would be senseless.

On the other hand, while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are poorer, all these countries have far less infrastructure, either no or very basic domestic car manufacturing industries and would therefore be much easily able to make the switch.

Realistically however, only Myanmar needs to make the switch. Vietnam may never see any significant number of Thai RHD vehicles in the country either due to legislation (which prevents Thai vehicles from entering as is the case now) or even if they allow their entry one day, poor infrastructure and long driving times and distances will likely keep most Thai motorists out of the country in the first place. For the purposes of trade and tourism, including the proposed Dawei project, Myanmar driving on the same side of the road would be beneficial too.

Although you haven't mentioned China, I believe China is irrelevant to Myanmar because China only allows very limited entry of Burmese vehicles into it's territory, 8km in fact from the Mu-se-Ruili crossing and vice versa for Chinese vehicles entering Myanmar. But despite more trade flowing across the Sino-Myanmar border, limited demand for using the same vehicle for travel further inside the country will mean the current unloading/loading onto local vehicles at their common border will continue. Whereas at the Thai-Burmese and Indo-Burmese borders I can see greater likelihood of demand to keep using one vehicle for the entire journey - distances are shorter (Bangkok-Yangon could be driven in a day depending on the road conditions), there are fewer cultural and linguistic barriers as well (compared to China-Myanmar interactions).

I know Thailand won't change. And I did mention China, which was irrelevant to the world not too long ago, but isn't now, and I believe will be a big force in the future.

I would still recommend all contiguous countries to drive on the same side, and the overwhelming number of countries in Euroasia do drive on the right (which we call LHD, never heard RoR/RoL before).

But hey, we don't decide on this forum what is going to happen.

India is contiguous to Burma is to Thailand is to Malaysia is to Indonesia is to Singapore.

it is not really to do with the size of China either - UK and Eire do fine in Europe. It is as has been said largely to do with the current situation in Burma and the initial reason for the switch.

Tomtomtom69 · March 30, 2015

Looks like you haven’t thought about this very much.

Firstly about 40% of the world’s roads are DoL.

Secondly 90% of Myanmar’s cars are RHD (DoL)

Myanmar’s change was done “overnight” and the country wasn’t prepared for it and still hasn’t changed over properly - e.g - all the buses empty passengers into the middle of the road.

If you make Burma DoL, you can drive from Iran/Pakistan border all the way to Tasmania and New Zealand on the left. (THis also includes detours inot Bhutan and Nepal.

Most of the cars in ASEAN (AEC) are already RHD

So is Japan.

Changing sides is not actually a big trade problem it is however far easier for those who have cars at present to keep their vehicles rarhwr than hve to change them for new because Myanmar is out of step with all it’s immediate ASEAN neighbors

@onthemoon, you're dreaming. The much more developed bigger DoL (RHD) countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia amongst others are never going to switch sides. Why would they? The cost would be absolutely enormous. All these countries (except Singapore) have thriving domestic car industries, open car policies that encourage motorization and a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would require converting. It would be senseless.

On the other hand, while Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are poorer, all these countries have far less infrastructure, either no or very basic domestic car manufacturing industries and would therefore be much easily able to make the switch.

Realistically however, only Myanmar needs to make the switch. Vietnam may never see any significant number of Thai RHD vehicles in the country either due to legislation (which prevents Thai vehicles from entering as is the case now) or even if they allow their entry one day, poor infrastructure and long driving times and distances will likely keep most Thai motorists out of the country in the first place. For the purposes of trade and tourism, including the proposed Dawei project, Myanmar driving on the same side of the road would be beneficial too.

Although you haven't mentioned China, I believe China is irrelevant to Myanmar because China only allows very limited entry of Burmese vehicles into it's territory, 8km in fact from the Mu-se-Ruili crossing and vice versa for Chinese vehicles entering Myanmar. But despite more trade flowing across the Sino-Myanmar border, limited demand for using the same vehicle for travel further inside the country will mean the current unloading/loading onto local vehicles at their common border will continue. Whereas at the Thai-Burmese and Indo-Burmese borders I can see greater likelihood of demand to keep using one vehicle for the entire journey - distances are shorter (Bangkok-Yangon could be driven in a day depending on the road conditions), there are fewer cultural and linguistic barriers as well (compared to China-Myanmar interactions).

I know Thailand won't change. And I did mention China, which was irrelevant to the world not too long ago, but isn't now, and I believe will be a big force in the future.

I would still recommend all contiguous countries to drive on the same side, and the overwhelming number of countries in Euroasia do drive on the right (which we call LHD, never heard RoR/RoL before).

But hey, we don't decide on this forum what is going to happen.

India is contiguous to Burma is to Thailand is to Malaysia is to Indonesia is to Singapore.

it is not really to do with the size of China either - UK and Eire do fine in Europe. It is as has been said largely to do with the current situation in Burma and the initial reason for the switch.

As I've said before, as I'm the only one on this forum who's been to the Sino-Burmese border area of Mu-se/Ruili and having read an article about it on the Asian Development Bank website too, China is not particularly relevant as they are not likely to open up to foreign registered vehicles anytime soon, the side of the road their neighbors drive on is thus not relevant and currently, both RHD and LHD Burmese registered vehicles cross that border daily, but can't travel more than 8km from the border. Some individual agreements are likely to take place though, such as a Russian-Chinese agreement to allow Russian and Chinese cars inside each other's country, to be implemented this year (again irrespective of whether the Russian vehicles have RHD or LHD as many in the far east have RHD), according to an article I read from late 2013. Similarly, Chinese-ASEAN agreements such as the GMS Agreement may signal changes over the next few years, but I don't think this would be a catalyst for China dictating something as trivial as the side of the road it's neighbours drive on. They don't care as it's irrelevant and they generally practice a policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of foreign neighbors - even their own territories of Hong Kong and Macau drive on the left and they don't plan to change that anytime soon (and I don't think it should happen either as it would be a complete waste of money). Not only that, but a further reason to discourage it is because the Hong Kong government doesn't want large numbers of Chinese vehicles crowding it's territory, and thus a reciprocal agreement is in place that requires a large amount of money to be spent on a number plate allowing travel on a quota system, costing about the same or more than the total cost of a car, to be allowed the privilege to travel to Hong Kong and vice versa, for vehicles registered in the other's territory (i.e. Chinese cars registered on the mainland going to Hong Kong and vice versa). This discourages most people because who would want to spend $40,000 or whatever it is just to drive a Chinese car to Hong Kong or the other way round?

In Europe, a region where cross border travel by car, truck or bus is taken for granted it may be different, but in this part of the world taking a vehicle across a border is largely confined to individual agreements between neighboring countries, which in most cases limit travel to the border regions only (exceptions are Thailand, Laos and Malaysia and Vietnam and Laos amongst themselves only). It's the way it's always been and will probably be for a long time to come. The total number of vehicles crossing Thailand's borders to any neighboring country is remarkably small, compared to the hundreds of thousands of daily border crossings in say in Europe or North America. Most Thais who have purchased a new vehicle are paying it off by financing it through a hire-purchase agreement and aren't even allowed to take their cars out of the country. This further reduces border crossings by car. Myanmar's drivers are further squeezed out of neighboring countries as they aren't allowed to drive further than the border town of any neighboring country.

Therefore, for Myanmar to change to the left, they would have to start thinking in terms of how to 1) benefit all the drivers with RHD vehicles by switching back to the left and 2) regional integration, which has never ever been a priority until now, because the country was closed to overland travel, except in the immediate border areas due to internal security issues for so long. Regional integration with Thailand and India could work because both countries are quite happy to allow foreign registered vehicles in temporarily, for the purposes of enhancing trade and tourism. Meanwhile, China is not. They don't want to see tourists driving around in their own cars by themselves, nor do they want to provide competition to the local bus or trucking industry by allowing in foreign players except in the case of a few limited bilateral, cross-border routes, such as China-Lao routes that are operated by both Lao and Chinese companies on an alternative daily basis.

Apart from security issues, it would be the same in Myanmar and aside from the obviously large financial cost of switching, even if there are good reasons for it and I would fully support it, I'm not sure that Myanmar can justify any major benefits occurring, such as large numbers of Thai or Indian buses and trucks entering and vice versa. I think the government realises they made a mistake all those years ago, but can't justify the financial costs of switching now as they feel they have other priorities. So they are choosing the most cost-effective solution instead.

badshah · June 6, 2015

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/14621-right-hand-left-hand-spat-sets-back-draft-automobile-policy.html

Others have suggested more radical approaches to the issue.

At a round-table expert discussion last November, one participant, the chair of the Myanmar Automobile Manufacturers’ and Distributors’ Association (MAMDA), even suggested that the government yield to the inevitable and declare that drivers should keep left instead of right, as they used to do before the country switched to right-hand driving in 1970.

Tomtomtom69 · June 8, 2015

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/14621-right-hand-left-hand-spat-sets-back-draft-automobile-policy.html

Others have suggested more radical approaches to the issue.

At a round-table expert discussion last November, one participant, the chair of the Myanmar Automobile Manufacturers’ and Distributors’ Association (MAMDA), even suggested that the government yield to the inevitable and declare that drivers should keep left instead of right, as they used to do before the country switched to right-hand driving in 1970.

Good article and I agree with the participant at these talks who made the suggestion to switch back to left hand driving. Of course, as anyone who knows Myanmar well will realise, the decision to change back should, if made at this point in time, be based mainly upon the large number of RHD vehicles in the country rather than a policy that tries to promote the opposite (switch to LHD steering columns) to apparently enhance road safety, which we all know is not true, and the article has largely refuted this claim anyway. I have for example, driven a RHD car in Myanmar and numerous times have driven my Thai RHD car to Laos without any problems whatsoever due to the steering wheel being on the "wrong" side.

There are so many other more important road safety issues than being concerned about drivers leaning into the passenger seat when overtaking while driving a vehicle with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side. In fact, in some ways having your steering wheel on the opposite side can enhance safety by allowing a driver to safely exit his/her vehicle on the kerb side rather than risk being hit by traffic on the roadside.

Stopping idiots driving motorcycles against the flow of traffic (which is extremely prevalent in Thailand and also not uncommon in most of Thailand's neighboring countries), getting motorcyclists to wear helmets, getting drivers to actually take a test to prove they can drive and obtain their driver's licences legally, keeping to the speed limits, not driving recklessly, not driving when drunk or any number of other problems that are not adequately enforced in most countries in the region including Myanmar are far more important than anything else before anyone makes the ridiculous assertion that driving RHD vehicles on the right is dangerous. Personally, from my many recent trips to Myanmar, all of which have been overland and involved lots of time spent sitting in a car (always RHD), I have yet to see any major accidents, unlike in Thailand where 99.9% of vehicles have their steering columns on the correct side of the car. So that proves that numerous other factors, some of the most important ones I have identified above, are actually responsible for the high traffic accident rate in Thailand (as well as other neighboring countries).

Regional integration is an important future goal too, although as I have pointed out in my earlier posts, Myanmar has never had to rely on foreign registered vehicles entering it's territory or vice versa so far. This is mainly due to legislation which prevented this effectively turning the country into an "island" as far as road traffic is concerned, meaning that all trade and passengers have to change vehicles at the border. Due to this, the side of the road the neighboring country drives on never really mattered, though that could change in the future if Myanmar finally allows more freedom for foreign registered vehicles to travel it's highways without being subject to the current restrictions such as needing to bring along a government approved guide, etc.

cumgranosalum · June 8, 2015

The "pros" for returning to driving on the left are basically common sense.....so maybe that is why the Myanmar government are having such a hard time dealing with the issue?

badshah · September 20, 2015

Any new news about this since?

cumgranosalum · September 20, 2015

Doesn't bode well for followers of common sense..... But when was that last evident in Myanmar?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Myanmar-mulls-left-hand-drive-car-law/articleshow/49031848.cms

Edited September 20, 2015 by cumgranosalum

Naam · September 20, 2015

Any new news about this since?

they are still driving on the right and not on the wrong side

cumgranosalum · September 20, 2015

Any new news about this since?

they are still driving on the right and not on the wrong side

Oh yeah! I geddit! I see what you did there - you said "right" as in correct when in fact we were talking about "right" as in sides - or as in port or starbord....so it's a play on the dual meanings of the word right........amazing, I've never noticed that before, how do you find all this stuff?? - mind you it's a good job you put that "smiley face" up as I doubt if I would have got it without that.

It's so nice that on Thaivisa there is still a place for sparkling flashes of humour like that.

badshah · September 20, 2015

Doesn't bode well for followers of common sense..... But when was that last evident in Myanmar?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Myanmar-mulls-left-hand-drive-car-law/articleshow/49031848.cms

Wonder if there will be mass protests over this like there was in Russia when they were banning RHD cars?

TuskegeeBen · October 17, 2015

I wonder why the locals won't just simply call for changing it back to the left? I wouldn't mind importing cheap JDM cars over there with such a switch if I was a resident over there.

Because what the locals of Myanmar may or may not want doesn't count. 40-years of an endless civil war, has made that point quite apparent.

badshah · October 24, 2015

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/17161-right-hand-drives-to-remain-on-the-roads.html

Just switch to the left and get it over with.

badshah · November 8, 2015

So the elections are being held, hope whoever wins will change over to the left for greater regional integration

puukao · November 8, 2015

On Wednesday, they will TEST out Right-hand driving between the hours of 5-11 MST

badshah · November 8, 2015

On Wednesday, they will TEST out Right-hand driving between the hours of 5-11 MST

Wait what?

cumgranosalum · November 8, 2015

So the elections are being held, hope whoever wins will change over to the left for greater regional integration

I don't see any "elected" government being radically different from the present one and certainly doubt if it will have any more common sense...it would be nice. Ity has been my opinion from the start that a change is unlikely but without a b=doubt would be both the most logical and best move for Burma.

Naam · November 9, 2015

So the elections are being held, hope whoever wins will change over to the left for greater regional integration

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Will Myanmar eventually switch back to right hand drive like American Samoa did?

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