Government Calls Traffic-Rule Switch 'Common Sense,'
but It Sparks Road Rage
By PATRICK BARTAAPIA, Samoa -- Sometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 7,
residents of this small Pacific island nation will stop their cars,
take a deep breath, and do something most people would think
is suicidal: Start driving on the other side of the road.
Samoa is about to become what's believed to be the first nation
since the 1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side
of the road to the other.
That's spawned an islandwide case of road rage.
Opponents have organized two of the biggest protests
in Samoan history, and a new activist group -- People
Against Switching Sides, or PASS -- has
geared up to fight the plan.
The prime minister who hatched Samoa's scheme,
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, refuses to do
a U-turn. Road-switch opponents are just trying
to rattle the government, he says.
He has compared a prominent opponent of
the switch to a local "avaava" fish -- a sea creature
that swims in shallow waters and
eats garbage, an insult in Samoan culture.
The main reason for Samoa's switch is that
two of its biggest neighbors, Australia and New Zealand,
drive on the left-hand side, whereas Samoa currently
drives on the right, as in the U.S.
By aligning with Australia and New Zealand,
the prime minister says, it will be easier for poor Samoans
to get cheap hand-me-down cars from
the 170,000 or so Samoans who live in those
two countries.
It could also help more people
escape tsunamis, says Mr. Tuilaepa.
It all "makes common sense," says Mr. Tuilaepa
in an interview in his office overlooking the Pacific Ocean
in the capital city of Apia.
Mr. Tuilaepa, who sports a wave of fluffy whitening hair
and wears flip-flops,
has run the country for more than a decade.
Opponents and some outside experts fear
the switch will turn many of Samoa's already-dangerous
roads into disaster zones.
Roads wind through mountainous jungle terrain
with sharp turns, few traffic lights and pedestrians
and dogs sharing the lanes.
Critics say the switch will add further confusion
with drivers likely to forget which side
they're supposed to be on.
The move will also add costs -- like carving new doors
into buses so passengers can get off on the opposite side
of the road -- that critics say are unnecessary in
a country heavily reliant on foreign aid.
For car owners, the switch is also expected to drive
the value of their vehicles off a cliff, since
about 14,000 of the country's 18,000 vehicles
are designed to drive on the right.
Although such cars will be allowed after the changeover,
they are likely to become less desirable.
"To be really quite frank, we find [the change] ridiculous,"
says Sina Retzlaff-Lima, whose Apia Rentals rental-car company
has 40 cars made for driving on the right side of the road.
Keep to the Left
Countries that use left-hand traffic account for about
30% of the world's population,
a sixth of its area and a quarter of its roads.
Below, the list.
Anguilla
Antigua
Australia
The Bahamas
Bangladesh
Barbados
Bermuda
Bhutan
Botswana
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Cayman Islands
Channel Islands
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Cook Islands
Cyprus
Dominica
Falkland Islands
Fiji
Grenada
Guyana
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle of Man
Jamaica
Japan
Kenya
Kiribati (Gilbert Islands)
Lesotho
Macao
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Mauritius
Montserrat
Mozambique
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
New Zealand
Nieu Island
Norfolk Island
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Pitcairn Island
St Helena
St Kitts-Nevits (-Anguilla)
St Lucia
St Vincent
Seychelles
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Surinam
Swaziland
Tanzania
Thailand
Tokelau Islands
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Kingdom
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Source: The Rule of the Road
Globally, about 70% of the world's population drives on the right-hand side
of the road. But other parts of the world -- including
many countries that were once British
colonies -- remain committed to the left.
The root causes of the gap stem from preferences
when countries developed their first road rules,
says Peter Kincaid, an Australia-based author of
"The Rule of the Road," which analyzes world traffic patterns.
Mr. Kincaid says American drivers of horse-drawn carriages
tended to ride their horses, or walk alongside them,
on the left-hand side of their vehicles so they could
wield whips with their right hands.
That made it necessary to lead carriages down
the right side of the road so drivers
could be nearer the center of the street.
A handful of countries have switched over the years,
mainly to match up with neighbors that had different standards.
Several former British colonies in Africa, including Nigeria,
went from left to right in the decades after
World War II. Sweden switched sides, from left to right,
in 1967, while Myanmar, formerly known as Burma,
did the same in 1970 for reasons
that even today remain unclear.
Since the 1970s, says Mr. Kincaid, international
road rules have remained largely
the same -- until Samoa.
With only about 200,000 people and a handful
of traffic lights in downtown Apia, Samoa
is the western neighbor of American Samoa,
an American territory.
It is known for its close proximity to the international
date line, which makes it possible
for some visitors to arrive in Samoa
the day before they left.
Samoa settled on right-hand traffic in the early 1900s,
when it was under German control.
But doubters long thought it made more sense to line up
with Australia and New Zealand,
and the prime minister agreed, unveiling his plan in 2007.
The idea caught on in some villages, where residents
figured it would become easier
to get old cars from relatives.
"In the beginning it will be hard, but
we'll learn -- we're not stupid," says Leau Apisaloma,
a 54-year-old village chief who
collects entrance fees from visitors at a beach an hour from Apia.
In Apia, though, opponents are determined to fight the change.
Having just taken delivery of an expensive Toyota Tundra
from America in late 2006,
local lawyer Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa shifted
the resistance into high gear.
With allies, he formed PASS and helped
lead two protest marches, including one
featuring a petition with more than 30,000 signatures.
The government refused to budge. Mr. Toleafoa
launched his own political party, with plans
to contest the next election in 2011.
Supporters also took the plan to court, on the grounds
that it breaches citizens' right to life by making Samoan
roads too dangerous. The case is pending.
With the deadline approaching, the government is
speeding ahead.
It has added road humps to slow traffic and erected
signs that, when unveiled Sept. 7,
will remind drivers to stay left.
In a TV address about the road change last week,
the prime minister warned that "the only thing
to fear is fear itself." He listed
a series of other steps, including declaring Sept. 7
and 8 national holidays.
The government has also set up a "training area" near
a sports stadium where drivers
can practice the fine art of driving on the left side of the road.
One recent Sunday morning, a bus was seen barreling
down the right side of the road in the training area,
the driver apparently oblivious to the fact that
it was the wrong side.
After nearly running head-on into a sport-utility vehicle,
the bus driver swerved then returned
to the wrong side of the road and chugged on.
Write to Patrick Barta at patrick.barta@wsj.com
Link here--
J-L K.
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