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Samoa: Changing Sides of the Road

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DanTheMan414:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125086852452149513.html?mod=yhoofront

From the Wall Street Journal website is this interesting article highlighting that Samoa is about to do something that no country has done in a long time: Force drivers to make the change from driving on the right side of the road, to driving on the left side of the road.  The justification the Samoan government has made for the change is to get the country in line with nearby Australia and New Zealand, for reasons provided in the article linked above.

yanksfan6129:
I don't know, I think that they should keep it the same. Most vehicles in the country are set up to drive on the right side of the road, and changing the side of the road that you drive on to the left will make the cars go down in value significantly.

They don't share a land border with Australia or New Zealand, so perhaps they should just import their cars from another right side of the road country.

Not only that, but this will make driving much more unsafe.

74/171FAN:
It's too much trouble anyway just redoing the turn arrows at the intersections and whatever else they have to do not to confuse others  :-/

Alps:

--- Quote from: 74/171FAN on August 25, 2009, 04:36:14 PM ---It's too much trouble anyway just redoing the turn arrows at the intersections and whatever else they have to do not to confuse others  :-/

--- End quote ---

I'm gonna voice my doubt that Samoa has turn arrows of any sort.  Probably just street names, stripes, STOP signs and maybe a signal or two right by the airport (again, I'd doubt it).

SP Cook:
Since New Zealand controled the place from taking it over from Germany in 1917 to 1962, you would have thought they would have established the driving custom.  After all, how much road infastructure can there have been when the Germans left?

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