Samoa's woes: change from right to left hand driving

Samoa have announced their whole country will change from driving from the right to the left side of the road in September this year.

I've yet to understand why this would be beneficial. Won't this cause accidents as people slowly adjust?

I heard on the radio that Samoa's people don't wish to do so, but that their PM is insisting. "Practice roads" have been provided, which the news report hardly any Samoans are using.

Quote: The switch is the brainchild of Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the Samoan Prime Minister.

He hopes that by changing sides, the country will be able to put an end to the importation of costly left-hand drive cars from the US and that the 250,000 Samoans who live in Australia and New Zealand will send over British-style right-hand drive cars to their extended families.


What do you think?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/samoa/news/article.cfm?l_id=88&objectid=10523412

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/5732906/Samoa-provokes-fury-by-switching-sides-of-the-road.html

why?

don't know....I will look around on the net tonight to try and find more info.

and the purpose of this is?

Ah-hah...


Quote: The switch is the brainchild of Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the Samoan Prime Minister.

He hopes that by changing sides, the country will be able to put an end to the importation of costly left-hand drive cars from the US and that the 250,000 Samoans who live in Australia and New Zealand will send over British-style right-hand drive cars to their extended families.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/5732906/Samoa-provokes-fury-by-switching-sides-of-the-road.html

from the minister:

"More than 90 per cent of Samoan migrants shift to Australia or New Zealand, "so having the same traffic laws will just make it less complicated when they go, and when they come back to visit"."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/samoa/news/article.cfm?l_id=88&objectid=10576343

It makes sense when you look at it like that.. though I imagine for all the people there now it will take a bit of getting used to. It will probably get a bit embarrassing too when i'm sure people will rush to their new car and end up on the passengers side rather than the drivers side

There is good argument for all countries to drive on the same side of the road as each other. It would promote driver safety between countries. I think Sweden made a change for this reason decades back.

The huge numbers of Samoans who currently go back and forth between countries are obviously managing okay now. It seems very extreme when you consider the accidents that will certainly take place. And what are people supposed to do with their left hand drive cars?

Yes Sweden did make that decision, mainly as the countries it borders drove on the right. The UK is an island, like Australia, New Zealand and Japan who all drive on the left. So there isn't that necessary need to change for those countries.

For Samoa I don't think its a matter of the people not coping, its primarily the cost of cars they are trying to get down to help make Samoa a bit better off in the long run. This is what is driving the change nothing about the people.. thats just a convenient thing to say to add weight to the article.

I am thinking how hard it will be on older drivers to make that switch and the cost of accidents.

I appreciate your post, I can see you are in NZ so you would be hearing quite a bit about this too. I acknowledge that many articles about this may not reflect what is really happening.

Would you not acknowledge though that accidents for some period on Samoan roads are almost a certainty after Sept? I guess I'm wondering if those accidents/fatalities have been anticipated and whether the safety of their citizens has been fairly considered.

Some accidents will happen. Its guaranteed. What is probably concerning is that whenever you take evasive action you would dive for the shoulder, which currently is the right. This won't change in people straight away and when you are taking evasive action driving on the other side of the road the cars will veer into one another instead of away from one another. This is what will cause the fatalities, along with those who have a momentary lapse in concentration and go back into their old ways in their head.

I believe this has been duly considered and i'm not aware of any figures of incidents they are expecting. If more occur than they factored for, I would hope like any good government there would be an investigation and further consideration on the matter made.

That's utterly ridiculous...I foresee many accidents if this goes into effect.

What is it about 'governments' that seem to have the need to 'fix things that aren't broken' ?
The citizens are okay with the "costly left-hand drive cars" and are against the change. . But thier Prime Minister isn't listening ,

If I was there I would keep it in pristine condition...Will be worth a lot in about 10-15 years. Right hand drive cars here in America are very hard to come by.


Well, it also probably has something to do with the American car companies failing. This will just hurt them more...because they lost a whole country of customers.

I guess those expensive cars won't do, just imagine, they would have to change the whole infrastructure, like road signs that are on the wrong side of the road, plus those traffic signals Good luck Samoa