Samoa this week moved its drivers from the right-hand side of the road to the left. Why is the world still so divided and should Ireland consider a switch the other way?
FOR SOME TIME it seemed the world was moving slowly, steadily, towards the right. Then came the news this week that Samoa was headed the other way. At last, the lefties are fighting back: at least when it comes to driving.
This week the Samoan government made the switch from driving on the right to the left-hand side of the road to bring the country in line with Australia and New Zealand, where some 170,000 expatriate Samoans live, and to facilitate the importation of cheap used cars with right-hand steering wheels. It thus becomes the first country to switch sides in three decades, since Nigeria, Ghana and Yemen switched from left to right in the 1970s, following on from Sweden and Iceland’s switch in the 1960s.
So how did it come about that we were all on different sides in the first place? Theories abound, with suggestions that the habit of driving on the left developed from the medieval requirement for a rider on horseback to keep his sword hand free and ready to use on passers-by. The same, apparently, applied to samurai, which some use to explain why the Japanese drive on the left.
Other theories point to the fact that riders tend to mount from the left-hand side, making left-side progress a more practical option. On the other hand, Americans driving large wagons pulled by teams of horses sat on the left rear horse with the whip in the right hand to control the steeds, meaning that others had to pass on their left. Thus, the US, over time, continued to favoured the right-hand side for driving when cars came on the scene.
One big pusher of the right-hand rule was Napoleon, who allegedly required all countries he conquered to conform to the French practice of driving on the right. He wasn’t the only coloniser to have an influence on driving practice – many of the countries that still drive on the left do so as former members of the British empire, while Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary all changed to the right after Germany invaded.
HERE IN IRELAND, suggestions last year by Senator Donie Cassidy that Ireland should examine the possibility of driving on the right-hand side of the road – to reduce the risk of road accidents by immigrants, and to appeal to tourists – have so far come to nought.
According to Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, there are good reasons to stay on the left.
“Our entire road network is configured for driving on the left,” he says. “For example, roundabouts, signage, junctions, motorway intersections . . . there would be very significant infrastructural issues.” Brett points out that there are 2.5 million registered vehicles in Ireland, considerably more than in Samoa, which boasts a total population of under 200,000. “Every one of those would have its steering wheel on the wrong side if you changed over. So, it isn’t on the agenda for Ireland.”
Add to this the fact that Ireland shares a land border with Northern Ireland, and that the movement between Ireland and Britain is also considerable, and the possibility of a changeover becomes even more complicated.
Not so for Samoans, apparently, who were informed that they were to switch sides by prime minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi. “After this announcement you will all be permitted to move to the other side of the road, to begin this new era in our history,” he told the nation, though he did include a warning. “Only those over 21 should drive, and don’t drive if you are sleepy, drunk or have just had a fight with your wife.”