The Samoan Government has decided to switch driving to the other side of the road from next week, threatening the sort of traffic chaos that cities such as Rome have managed to introduce very successfully without any need for formal legislation.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the Prime Minister of the South Pacific island, has gone ahead with his plan to change from driving on the right-hand side of the road to the left in the teeth of protests and legal challenges. But Mr Tuilaepa calculates that the benefits outweigh any potential havoc. By bringing Samoa into line with Australia and New Zealand, Samoans will be able to import right-hand drive cars, rather than the pricey left-hand-drive American ones they currently use. The Government hopes to encourage some of the 170,000 expatriates who live in Australia and New Zealand to ship their old saloons back to relatives in Samoa.
Samoa becomes only the sixth country in four decades to change traffic lanes. More significantly, it marks a rare instance of a country switching from right to left, rather than from left to right. Sweden for many years tried the best of both worlds by driving on the left, but with left-hand-drive cars (the idea was that, this way, they could keep an eye on the edge of the road). It gave up and switched to driving on the right in 1967.
By changing lanes Samoa will join the Commonwealth fellowship of left-hand-lane drivers (of which Japan is an honorary member). So if all goes well, a Briton finding himself behind a steering wheel in Samoa next week should find the traffic reassuringly familiar. But if a visiting Roman motorist also feels like he’s home from home, then you’ll know that the switch didn’t go so smoothly.