Iceland also did a changeover from laeft to right in the 1960's.
Samoa's shift to the 'wrong' side
By: Dan Keegan
Date: Thursday, 10. September 2009
Things went relatively smoothly in the first country to change its driving orientation since the 1970s. Samoa changed from right side driving to left side driving on September 7. The first days with the new alignment seem to have gone well.
However, the first few days are not, by any means, the whole story. These will be careful days when everyone is mentally "on their toes," super alert and concentrating on their driving as they have never done before ( at least not since those early novice days). Later, drivers will sink inevitably back into their normal "automated" driving mode, that subconscious state in which the 'driving computer' part of their brain handles most of what they do.
This is where old habits, both physical and mental, can kick in, usually unexpectedly. This is where you pull out into traffic and make that critical last second check to the left instead of the right, or where you unconsciously revert to the right side of the road instead of the left.
This is the mental mode in which that oncoming car on a narrow country road looks like it's on your side - and you instinctively veer to the right instead of to the left. Old habits and instincts can rise up to bite you in unguarded moments, and in driving, there are many of these for the average motor vehicle operator.
No big deal
Changing to other-side driving is not such a big deal. In Europe, travelers between France and Britain do it all the time. Cross continent truckers often deal with it under conditions of fatigue. American tourists may go from an overnight flight into a rented car and are often plunged into this alien driving environment with little or no preparation. It's not unknown for these tourists to wrestle with fatigue, an alien driving environment and maybe even an unfamiliar manual shift transmission at the same time.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi isn't worried about crashes. "All this talk about accidents is just stupid. The 7th and the 8th are holidays to help people get used to it, and after that they'll be driving more carefully than ever because it will be so different."
Samoa's Island neighbors mostly drive on the left, with the notable exception of American Samoa, which drives on the right. The Samoan government wants the change to facilitate purchase of cheaper used vehicles from left-driving New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
When Sweden changed from left to right in 1967 the transition went well. As in Samoa, the population didn't like it (apparently, 12 years earlier a referendum showed more than 80% of Swedes against the change). Crash rates actually went down following the change but soon rose back to normal. For traffic risk psychologist Gerald Wilde that was a classic example of his Risk Homeostasis Theory in action. People tend to balance their risk out, says professor Wilde. When they perceive it to be getting higher, they adopt more cautious strategies. When their sense of risk drops off again, they readjust until they feel they are experiencing a risk level that once again suits their risk balance goals.
Other effects
Ostensibly, the goal of the change is to make cheaper cars available to Samoans. Some Samoans say they may also find it easier to get jobs if they migrate to Australia or New Zealand. As well, Samoan expatriates may be encouraged to send used cars to their relatives.
That may compensate for going against the international current. Less than one third of the Globe's population of almost 7 billion drive on the left, and in the past, countries that changed over have been invariably going to right side driving. For example, Ethiopia changed to the right in 1964, Sudan in 1973, South Yemen in 1977.
Samoa got its right driving habit from German colonization, which ended after the First World War. It maintained this through its occupation by New Zealand, which lasted until 1962. Its shift back to the left will have some effects that may cause unforeseen problems.
For example:
Bus drivers are complaining that their doors will now into the middle of the street. Traffic with a mix of right-side-steering and left-side-steering vehicles will experience considerable confusion and inevitably life threatening situations.
An incident this writer experienced some years ago in the Bahamas is a case in point. Ahead of our bus from the airport, a car with left-side steering was attempting to pass a truck. The bus driver, with his right side position, could see oncoming traffic. The car driver could not. He actually moved left to see ahead between the ditch and the truck, then moved right to pass and found himself head-on with another car.
The horrified bus passengers gasped. They saw it all coming and thought death was in the offing.
The car driver avoided a collision, but it wasn't pretty. It might easily have been recorded as a one-vehicle loss of control crash, or it could have been a disaster for everyone in the oncoming car, the driver of the overtaking car and probably about 30 holidaymakers in the bus.
The voice of experience
International columnist Gwynne Dyer wrote this in his column just before the Samoa change-over:
"It's much ado about nothing; I switch back and forth several dozen times a year. My work takes me to both sides of the road, and my family connections divide right down the middle: Canada right, Britain left, France right, South Africa left, and Argentina both (left until 1946, right since then). If the steering wheel is on the left side of the car, you drive on the right side of the road, and vice versa. A monkey could do it."
However, from the standpoint of someone who has taught about driving, studied traffic safety and experienced different driving alignments as Gwynne Dyer did, The changeover is not a job for a monkey. There will be lapses and there will be crashes.
If Professor Wilde is right there won't be any greater crash rate than before, but who would want to be one of those changeover victims. Avoiding such a fate is going to take considerable alertness and work by Samoans over the coming weeks and months.
And a last note of caution. It won't be just drivers at risk. Pedestrians, cyclists, animals will also be amongst the casualties. It may turn out to have been less expensive to offer citizens a grant to change those steering wheels over.
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Jim,
Lucas,
It's OK if oly a few cars have "wrong side" steering position becuase usually those drivers are very careful with it and are often highly expereiced drivers who are car buffs. on the other hand, a large mix of LHD and RHD cars could be a real probrlem. A lot will depend on what kind of drivers Samoans are
