RHD cars in Poland - my campaign to change the rules in Poland

I have read all these posts with great interest. I'm surprised at the meaningless comments about which hand goes where or where to rest a foot and using mirrors or turning round etc. Anyone knows that a good driver is a good driver regardless of where or what he is driving. Provided you drive with DUE CARE AND ATTENTION then there should be no problem. I am a UK citizen and have driven in the UK for 45 years before retiring to Poland. Over the years I have driven my rhd drive car in different countries in Europe. I have also driven lhd cars in many countries including the USA and have never had any problems. I retired last year and now live in Poland.

Of course it is strange at first, but if you look at it from the point of view of the country you're in and exercise care then it soon becomes second nature. When I return to England it is also strange at first to drive on the left. I keep reaching to the door for the gear lever (laugh). But that disappears in a matter of days. I still have my Peugeot 205 which I bought new 25 years ago and which has sentimental attachment as it is still in good condition. I couldn't bear to sell it now. I would love to be able to register it in Poland and use it here. At present it sits in the garage until I am able to register it. I have been told that there are a couple of garages which would test a rhd car, one near Warsaw. But I don't know anymore about it. I had no trouble getting insurance for it in Poland.

Interestingly the comment someone made about not trusting anyone selling a car in Poland - I had the experience last year of buying a car off Allegro. The seller came to my house and gave me false documents even though he was the registered owner of the car. There was no way for me to know as I wasn't aware of the requirements at the time. The police have failed to contact him as he has given an address in Denmark. That means the car is only good for scrap as there is no way to get it registered. Pity. Yes. BEWARE.

Access to water is not (yet) a human right and you consider driving a car, LHD or RHD a human right?
Write this 100 times: driving a car is not a human right.

Buyer beware and all that.

All EU citizens have the right to peaceably enjoy their possessions. That Poland refuses to allow EU citizens to do that is something which will not end well for Poland.

Yeh, if the rest of europe treated the poles in the same way, we would soon hear them whinge about it. It,s in their nature.

I agree with that. However, driving is a privilege. They're not the same thing.

I think the OP is pi$$ing up a rope in his attempt to mobilizen PF members to write a letter, and I doubt that Poland will change its laws to accommodate him, but I wish him luck.

Years ago, my family had a large American LHD car in Japan, which I drove. Trying to pass (overtake) a large truck (lorry) on narrow roads was an often frightening experience. I wouldn't want to drive an RHD car in Europe, let alone Poland, yet I know it can be done safely. I just choose not to.

lol.. glad they won't.. and you ought to go back to skool.. your english is rather terrible for a british bloke. hmm


you may have realized by now that PL is a LHD country and they do use kilometers too.


i am sure they already told you that you're more then welcome to adapt the LHD car.. it's not hard at all.


you should be able to get this done from profits from the sale of your current car. what kind of adaptations cost #12k?


the rhd cars pose a much bigger hazard on already dangerous roads of PL.. shifting ain't all that hard... besides, i bet his car is also an automatic.

Anybody ever drive a rhd car in Poland or some other lhd country? it must be a harrowing experience and a serious traffic hazard not being able to what gong on in the lane ahead. And shfitng gears with the left hand really seems off the wall! I hope the accelerator, brake and clutch pedals are all in their normal place?

If you don't even know how the pedals are lined up, I doubt you are qualified to comment on driving an RHD car in a LHD country or vice versa. For what it's worth, I did a fair amount of kilometres with dnz on this forum on an RHD car and never saw one dangerous moment - except where other drivers were concerned, and they would be a danger, RHD or LHD.

If you can't change gears with the opposing hand, you shouldn't be in a car. I can drive both easily without even thinking.

Then again, I'm not surprised some dumb yank can't comprehend driving an RHD car in an LHD country.

We have more freedom in the US than you have anywhere in the EU but no state would ever let you drive RHD car.

No, here in Poland we use metres and units based thereon. Perhaps you may wish to reconsider your comment about going back to 'skool'? If not, as one of your representative countrymen wrote "Get a brain moran".


I guess Texas, Vermont and Florida must no longer be in the Union then, seeing as I have personally driven RHD cars in all three of those states.

And you may also want to consider whining to the USPS and the DoT: according to them RHD vehicles are legal in all 50 states and very much a good idea for contracted mail deliverers. And then go whine to Jeep about how they made specific RHD models for the US market. But don't let facts get in the way of defending Poland!

That's good.More freedom than I have though.Can you register RHD cars in these states?

You can register RHD cars in all 50 states.

Right I forgot all the mail men have RHD.My bad.

lol welcome to Poland dude, the situation you described is 100% normal here :-D the faster you get used to it the better for you

I'll ignore those stupid remarks about LHD being better than RHD...

Instead have a look at this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg

In case you haven't noticed Right hand traffic is not the same as a right hand car ( I see that the term is mostly used in the UK, as opposed to right hand traffic (probably because you want to think that it is right, right ? ;-) )

Majority of the world is totally wrong, only you, aussies and a few other countries are right - lol how typical...
Being different is not always a good thing, you know.
For example - gays are a minority. I hope this will help you understand why driving on the left is gay :-D

lol that was a somewhat far-fetched analogy, but at least you get the idea ;-)

huh? ever seen a postman out in the country?

harry, r u as big of a dolt as you seem? so, according to you speed limit, for example, is m/h? lol and distances between towns in meters too? lmao


can you try to use reasoning to come up with an answer? sheesh


good 1. :D

"metres and units based thereon": what do you think the kilometre is based on? Could it be based on a metre? Or is a metre based on a kilometre? I've said it before and I'll say it again: as one of your representative countrymen wrote "Get a brain moran". Where you homescholed or something?

Hello Charles,
I read your posts with great interest about trying to register a RHD car in Poland. I am in the same situation as you as I also have a specially adapted RHD (British) car which my wife and I use to transport our disabled son around. I would like to know if you got anywhere with your attempts to have your car registered in Poland. I spoke today with somebody in the Ministry of Transport who confirmed that, whilst in theory it was possible to register a RHD car in Poland on the basis of special permission from the Ministry, in practice no private individual has been able to do this. The only RHD vehicles that were allowed to be registered were RHD road cleaning machines. Furthermore the person said that the Ministry had no plans to change the current restrictive. The person I spoke to suggested that despite the poor track record I make a formal application to register my car if only to prove that the process is not worth a fig. I intend to do this and send a copy of my application (and any further correspondence with the Ministry of Transport) to the European Ombudsman to demonstrate that the Polish government is flouting EU law. Perhaps then the EU will finally force Poland to fall into line with the rest of the EU. The Polish government's stance with regard to this issue is totally unacceptable.

Regards,

Adam Kaznowski

this is a nightmare as many have said the only way is to return to the uk once a year for mot and tax and lets face it if they allowed it everyone would have a rhd and in my experience of driving in poland many drivers fail to see oncoming traffic whilst driving a LHD car so we would all be seeing an even higher number of crosses on the roadside i personally think if a vehicle has been specially adapted for disability then if should be ok but for the majority of people who want RHD its just people being tight and not wanting to spend the money although LHD holds value 10 times better than RHD or do what i did buy a RHD in good nick and buy a lhd which had a total engine gearbox failure and swap the engine gearbox over or just do a conversion but this is all time consuming and silly when you can still pick up bargains in poland if you know where to look

Might be worth registering in france/germany etc then re registering in poland not sure if it states the drive side on french papers but maybe the polish dvla would not check in to it as normally french reg cars are lefties

Just to stir things up a bit...

My Russian girlfriend tells me it will be no problem to register my rhd British car in Moscow when i move there...

As far as I know there is only one country in the world which outright forbids the registration of RHD cars: Poland. Although Singapore forbids both the registration and use of LHD cars.

I didn,t realise Poland was the only place to make things difficult....

Its about time they got their act together then....

don't you need to be resident in France or Germany to register a car there?

using a RHD car on Polish roads is just dangerous - perhaps there is little problem with the English using their cars in Western Europe (as there are no multitudes of the English there) - but if you let Poles register a RHD here you will end up with millions RHD cars - and this is just hmm dangerous?? - so actually this closes the issue for me

a thing to consider - would you allow nuclear propulsion for cars?

I have been using one for six years...

no accidents so far....

you are a good driver and a responsible guy - can you say the same thing of all Polish people you know? - imagine drink driving in a RHD in Poland - pretty horrific I would picture - and well English used cars are cheaper than those from the rest of Europe - and the consequence: a couple hundred tousands of used RHD cars registered in Poland in just few years (a million in ten years?) -

- so no, thank you - and well RHD car is not part of constitution neither in Poland nor in Europe (some chemicals are not readily available on market - because they may be very dangerous (especially in the hands ill-skilled or irresponsible people) - I think the analogy is perfect here)

Yes..i have to admit that rhd cars being driven insanely are usually in the hands of Poles who have brought them back from the UK....

was speaking to the mayor of the polish town i live in (i'm teaching him english) its possible to do but very tricky he suggests if you must have a rhd car just insure it in the uk there are many dodgy mot garages in the uk who for a fee will mot the car in its absence if its abroad and not on uk roads or just save the trouble and buy lhd whenever i see rhd cars here i just think tw@t was pissing myself at a guy in a rhd merc trying to get a ticket for the car park had to get out then the barrier came down before he was back in the car its like wearing fake designer gear gives the impression of wealth from a distance then on closer inspection just a cheap tight wad

No it isn't. And yes I have spent a fair amount of time using one here.

maybe it isn't in your hands simply

Exactly the reason I'd never let Poles import RHD cars - can you imagine the carnage?

I'd be in favour of allowing people to have them, upon passing a special test (or holding a licence from an RHD country). But I just don't want to imagine the horror of your average Polish macho driver with an RHD car. The ones visiting from the UK are bad enough!