Tips on Buying Cars: Left Hand and Right Hand Driving - ( Regarding 4 Wheeler Automobiles), india pakistan bangladesh, wheel brakes

Question
QUESTION: Dear Alexander

This is regarding Left Hand and Right Hand Driving.

As we see most of the countries, follow the Right Hand Drive.
i.e In 4 Wheelers like cars, trucks, lorries, Buses etc the Steering wheel design of the vehicle is on the right side so that the driver sits on the right hand side, does a overtake of another vehicle from the right hand side. But there are also few countries which follow the left hand drive method.

There are four queries from my side.

1. In both the cases, the traffic signs will be same, or will there be some traffic sign posts which will be different ?. Traffic signposts for examples : U-turn, Zebra crossing, No Parking zone, silence zone, steep curve ahead etc.
2. Which in these some countries do they follow the left hand drive method ? Do you feel the right hand drive method should be standardized i.e common throughout the world i.e in all countries ?
3. Apart from Right Hand Steering wheel , brakes, clutches, gears, accelerator placement for the right hand drive vehicle and Left Hand Steering wheel , brakes, clutches, gears, accelerator parts placement for the Left hand drive vehicle what are the
other changes in Vehicle Design ?. i.e Will there be changes also in Motor engine placement area , battery placement area, fuels storage area etc ?
4.Will the cost of a left hand and right hand drive vehicle different ?

Awaiting your inputs,

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

ANSWER: This is a great question but i think everybody prefers their own way. Below you will find the countries RHD VS LHD and some small history:

List of some RHD Countries:

Kenya, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Mongolia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, United States, Vietnam, Switzerland, Burma, South Korea, France.


List of LHD Countries

Australia, Barbados, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Bhutan, Nepal, Guyana, Suriname South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.



Right Hand Drive in Japan :

Japan does allow both RHD and LHD vehicles on their roads. In some cases the same vehicle is available in both LHD and RHD configurations but most of vehicles are Right Hand Drives. Sometimes LHD cars are also available for foreigners


The car manufacturers are offering these vehicles at almost identical prices , the big question is if you push a standard to RHD the Infrastructure and training of drivers in countries would be to most the biggest question and cost that eventually will be pushed to the tax payer and insured driver.
Please dont understand me wrong but i think a investment in safer cars and a strong hand of developing alternative fuels would be a better idea than having everybody drive on the same side.

We need to get away form our current fuels and push tors an era of more solarpower and alternative fuels .
The technology is here to run cars on HHO the brown gas and Solar energy is here to run our housings off the grid.

But positive changes and simplifications like that will not happen as long as a leaders fill their pockets with money , the same thing with metric and inch LHD and RHD .

Excuse my far out answer .

Alexander

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Alexander

Thank you for the inputs provided.

I am particularly interested in Knowing Differences (Equivalents) in Road Traffic Sign Posts (if any) with images (.gif,.jpg,.png etc).

For example :

Two Columns displaying Left Sign Post and Right Sign Post Images Comparison Charts.

As i mention, Road Traffic sign posts viz Zebra crossing, No Parking zone, silence zone, steep curve ahead etc could be common to both but there could be some traffic signs which are for left hand drive and there could be a equivalent sign post for the right hand drive. so there could be

1. Traffic signs which can be shown which are common to both.
2. Traffic signs which can be shown which are not common to both but there could be an alternative (equivalent) traffic sign post.

so for these left hand drive this is the sign post and for the right hand drive this is the equivalent sign post .....

i.e image changes in terms of clockwise, anticlockwise rotation, angles - 90,180,270,360 degree, lines direction i.e upward, downward, right, left, curves angle direction etc

Is there a good site available which can show me the differences between the two drivings i.e left hand and right hand driving for the Road Sign Posts ?

Attaching Image for the same ....

Thank you.

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

Answer
Ok ,
this question is a bit far away from my knowlege as i have more a knowhow of the car market selling and purchasing internationally as well as technical info . However i looked this up and the best possible information was on wikipedia.

Its not a easy way out of your question but i think rather than giving you wrong information i believe you should follow this link follow this link this should give you pictures and every possible information you are asking for :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic