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Samoa switches to driving on left
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- duck 16y agoAnd Ubuntu Lucid made people freak out about the change of sides for the window buttons?
- alaithea 16y agoThis makes me think of how small countries can (potentially) have the ability to be so much more progressive than huge countries like the U.S. We can't even get on the frickin' metric system.
- riklomas 16y agoJust a warning, this article is from September 2009
- hugh3 16y agoIt does seem a pretty random sort of subject, especially if it's actually "not news".
- Rabidgremlin 16y agoI was on holiday there at the start of the year. Most of the cars are still set up for driving on the right (driver sitting on the left). This makes it hard to judge the where center line is, so people tend to drift over it! Luckily the speed limit is 50km/h but it is still pretty "exciting" to be a front-seat passenger, it feels like a continuous game of chicken :)
- dennisgorelik 16y agoIt looks like it's not too late to switch back to right side and keep importing used buses from the US :-)
- Rabidgremlin 16y agoActually I think the plan is to be able to import cheaper vehicles from Japan, Australia and New Zealand. As for the buses in Samoa, they are truly unconventional and works of art: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spider415/2/1258606382/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spider415/2/125... (see pics at the end)
- jeebusroxors 16y agoIt's interesting they chose 6:00am rather than a less populated time. I think my first instinct would be to make the switch at like 3:00am on a Sunday a la DST, but I guess this way there was no avoiding it.
- alaithea 16y agoI think it would be best to do that sort of thing when you can prepare a good chunk of your populace to really try it out. "Hey everyone, start driving on the left on your morning commute tomorrow!" That way, you have a concerted effort to do it right, and lots of people driving on one side or the other would reinforce the behavior. That's all as opposed to having a few bleary-eyed drivers in the wee hours potentially get a surprise.
- CWIZO 16y agoI come from mainland Europe where we drive on the right, and I was in the UK couple of months ago, and was forced (due to the volcano) to drive from London to Glasgow. At first it was all really wired and scary, but once I drove off the rent-a-car parking lot onto a road where there ware other cars it was easy. My point is that other cars help you if you "suddenly" have to drive on the other side of the road. I did, however, drove a car with the steering wheel on the right side, so that might help (unlike here where the driver sits at the edge of the road).
- hugh3 16y agoPossibly because 6am is the least populated daylight time. Switching at night would be far more dangerous, since it's hard to see what side of the road an oncoming pair of headlights is on. And Samoa is in the tropics, so the sun rises at roughly 6am every day of the year.
- philwelch 16y agoSweden switched at 6 AM after banning nearly all traffic between 1 AM and 6 AM. More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
- bosch 16y agoI've always wondered why everyone can't drive on the same side of the road? That would make automobile production much more efficient. Is there a certain reason England decided against driving on the left side of the road?
- calcnerd256 16y agoAmerica invented the car, not the buggy.
- baxter 16y agoNo. Karl Benz, a German, is regarded as the inventor of the first automobile.
- calcnerd256 16y agoThank you for the factual correction. My point still remains, however, that driving wasn't invented here.
- pkulak 16y agoThey do drive on the left...
- bosch 16y agoI actually meant the right... with the rest of Europe on the other side, they're the odd ones out.
- robin_reala 16y agoWe have no direct road links with the rest of Europe. Even the Channel Tunnel has no road: to take a car across you drive onto a train and off it at the other end.
- davidw 16y agoI'd settle for electric sockets/plugs. Even within the European Union.
- ritonlajoie 16y ago"Bus drivers have also protested that their doors will now open on the wrong side, in the middle of the road." OK that is a good point .. Good luck to them !
- cameronmccloud 16y agoIn my final year Theoretical Physics exam we were asked the question: If Ireland switched from driving on the left to driving on the right, what effect would this have on the Earth's rotation?