I smell a traffic nightmare..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8240992.stm

From the article: "Drivers in Samoa in the South Pacific are preparing to switch from driving on the right side of the road to the left after a rule change by the government."

Wouldn't the signs all be wrong?

I think it was Sweden that did something like that years ago.

Didn't they do this in Sweden about 30-40 years ago? Yeah, they had to move nearly all the signs, repaint nearly all the roads/lane markings, reposition some traffic lights...but the Swedes lived through it. I'm still amazed that there are countries that could switch, but don't. India is supposed to be such a confusing free for all for drivers, and they want to become another Japan. Seems like this is one area they could change now.

I found another article that's a little more in-depth:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8236773.stm

They're calling a 2-day national holiday (hoping people will just stay home), and making the change at 6am local time. They also estimate it'll cost about $300 million, even though the article mentions some signs being merely repainted, instead of replaced.

How do you think the civilized US would handle such a change

It would be absolute rebellion. Certainly no good reason to do it, and for Big Gov to try would lead to civil war. Just sayin'.

Wow, that is gonna be really confusing for a while...is the government doing a righties-for-lefties program or do people need to buy RHD cars? Do they manufacture cars there? Could be a stimulus plan

aussiesmg wrote: How do you think the civilized US would handle such a change

It would be BEDLAM. The fallout from such a move makes my head spin just thinking about it...

So they are switching to driving on the wrong side of the road. That's the first I've heard of anyone going that direction. I thought the world at large had mostly gone to the LHD.

copied from the article :

"It hopes that Samoan expatriates in Australia and New Zealand will now ship used, more affordable vehicles back to their homeland."

you think there is some rule / law that prevents them from driving a right hand drive car on the right side of the road and vis-a-visa ..?

if there isn't , and I can't see how there would be, since now all the left hand drive cars will be driving on the left side, that seems like a pretty lame excuse to spend $300 million

I had the oppurtunity of driving a rental car in England for several days, and lemme tell you, it's weird. Totally counterintuitive to everything I knew. The learning curve is very steep. I've never really understand any advantage, except maybe just to standardize cars the world over.

There is no way they produce cars in Samoa

It is illegal to drive a LHD car in Australia, unless the car is 25 years old and registered as a historic car. The reason comes down to overtaking, you have to cross the road center with most of the car to be able to see what is oncoming, not a good plan.

I would say that more than 90% of the cars there came from Japan, OZ or NZ so they are already RHD. The other countries in the Pacific region who produce cars are also RHD.

I suggest the numbers on RHD vs LHD aren't so unbalanced as you think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right

http://ecom.toyota-gib.com/English/Vehicles/RHD%20LHD/RHD%20-%20LHD%20Guide.htm

I drove RHD until 10 years ago when I moved here, I found the conversion to be straight-forward.

The stumbling block I noticed was crossing a road with a median. On these roads we tend to check one way is clear, move to the center then check the other way, this will lead to major problem in a RHD/LHD country you are not used to.

In my previous post I thought Samoa was going from RHD to LHD...just saw on the BBC/PBS that I was wrong.

I have driven in Japan a few times. You do EVENTUALLY get used to being on the "other side" of the car for driving, but until I did I would pull onto the road on the wrong side and try to change gears with the turn signal stalk.

Could this ever be possible in the U.S.? Look at how well we received the metric "experiment".

In the Bahamas it is right hand drive. I think that MOST of the cars there are LHD, being imported US cars. That's what I noticed. Is it right, does it work? Don't really know, except one taxi driver told me they had two kinds of accidents- little fender benders and fatalities.

I never understood why metric never took off in this country. It is SO much easier than standard

mad_machine wrote: I never understood why metric never took off in this country. It is SO much easier than standard

x2. I was a kid back in the 70s when Jimmy tried it, and my high school really pushed metric. To this day, I talk of small measurements in mm/cm, but large ones in miles/acres.

I was really surprised back when I had the English girlfriend..she still talked of inches, yards and miles (she'd be about 30 now).

aussiesmg wrote: There is no way they produce cars in Samoa It is illegal to drive a LHD car in Australia, unless the car is 25 years old and registered as a historic car. The reason comes down to overtaking, you have to cross the road center with most of the car to be able to see what is oncoming, not a good plan. I would say that more than 90% of the cars there came from Japan, OZ or NZ so they are already RHD. The other countries in the Pacific region who produce cars are also RHD. I suggest the numbers on RHD vs LHD aren't so unbalanced as you think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left_or_right http://ecom.toyota-gib.com/English/Vehicles/RHD%20LHD/RHD%20-%20LHD%20Guide.htm I drove RHD until 10 years ago when I moved here, I found the conversion to be straight-forward. The stumbling block I noticed was crossing a road with a median. On these roads we tend to check one way is clear, move to the center then check the other way, this will lead to major problem in a RHD/LHD country you are not used to.

I got the impression from the article that they were doing it because their Asian neighbors drive on the left, and cars from OZ/NZ/Japan would be easier to import. I guess everyone in American Samoa owns new gas-guzzlers or something..

I don't know about Samoa, but the islands I grew up on had mostly 2-lane roads. Maybe they all drive slowly, and never have to overtake?

aussiemg, I have to ask..do you still walk up to the "wrong" side of a parked car? An old friend of mine who moved to England says he's largely mastered medians & roundabouts, but still forgets from time to time which side to get in.

I wish we used metric in this country. I do design and custom fab work, mostly furniture and museum exhibits. It would be much easier to work in mm than 32nds and 64ths.

Given that most of the furniture and cabinet hardware out there is metric, it would make sense.

mad_machine wrote: I never understood why metric never took off in this country. It is SO much easier than standard

Here's a poll: How many people can convert all the way from teaspoons to gallons? I doubt that more than 5% of the American populace can. Using the standard system is terrible for baking: If a recipe is asking for one cup, is it asking for a loose, hard-packed, rounded, or level cup? Meanwhile, 50 grams of flour is 50 grams of flour.

friedgreencorrado wrote: aussiemg, I have to ask..do you still walk up to the "wrong" side of a parked car? An old friend of mine who moved to England says he's largely mastered medians & roundabouts, but still forgets from time to time which side to get in.

In all honesty I did it once, in LA, rushing walked up to the street side and even got into the car, I felt really stupid and was praying nobody noticed.

Everyone expects you to drive on the wrong side, that is virtually impossible unless you are a complete idiot, the rest of the traffic, the signs, painted lines, everything is there to keep you reminded you need to be on the OTHER side

MitchellC wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I never understood why metric never took off in this country. It is SO much easier than standard

Here's a poll: How many people can convert all the way from teaspoons to gallons? I doubt that more than 5% of the American populace can. Using the standard system is terrible for baking: If a recipe is asking for one cup, is it asking for a loose, hard-packed, rounded, or level cup? Meanwhile, 50 grams of flour is 50 grams of flour.

Uh, can I point out that your example is flawed?

Having a recipe that asks for a volume vs. one that asks for a mass? If the recipe asked for .5l of flour, it would be the same confusion. And if the recipe asked for .5 lb of flour, it would be good. One uses a scale, the other uses a volume- that's the big difference.

None the less, I, too, wish we were metric.

Eric

When visiting England I had no trouble at all adapting to RHD, though I will say the LHF tire took a few curbings until my peripheral vision got the hang of it. But operationally it was no problem.

mad_machine wrote: I never understood why metric never took off in this country. It is SO much easier than standard

The best explanation I have heard (other then us being lazy/stubborn), is that all old tooling and engineering drawings that are still in use are in inches.

Switching would mean converting a E36 M3 ton of drawings, and scrapping a ton of expensive and functioning machines.

aussiesmg wrote: There is no way they produce cars in Samoa It is illegal to drive a LHD car in Australia, unless the car is 25 years old and registered as a historic car. The reason comes down to overtaking, you have to cross the road center with most of the car to be able to see what is oncoming, not a good plan.

Honestly, having driven my (tiny, low) RHD Elan here in right-driving Germany for over a year without any incident, I'd say this is a complete nonissue. You don't have to pass until you're sure it's safe to make the move, and you can easily see further ahead just by leaving some space between you and the car in front. (The same goes for North-American style intersections where the two left-turn lanes face each other.) I like to think it's even "safer" than LHD because it puts me out of the way of an offside front or typical T-bone collision. Of course the safest thing is the fact that it's a small, good handling car with lots of power to avoid accidents alltogether. :D

Driving from the right of the car takes all of five minutes to get used to. Driving on the opposite side of the road takes ten, maybe. I was just in Scotland with a hire car and realized that these days, I can pretty much jump into either side of a car and drive on either side of the road with no drama. If it were that dangerous companies wouldn't rent cars to people with driving licenses issued in opposite-side countries.