• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Talk about a cluster f***k

W

Wheezer

Diamond Member
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32637562/

APIA, Samoa - The South Pacific island of Samoa will be the first nation in decades to switch traffic flow from one side of the road to another, though drivers predict chaos next week when they make the move.

The prime minister said Monday a special Cabinet meeting had decided the switch to the left side will go ahead as planned, despite earlier protests where 30,000 marched through the streets. Around 500 people protested again Monday in the capital, Apia, saying drivers have not been properly prepared.

The government wants to bring Samoa in line with driving customs in Australia and New Zealand, where steering wheels are on the right side of vehicles, to encourage some of the 170,000 expatriate Samoans living there to ship used cars back to relatives.

That would lower vehicle prices in the nation of 180,000 people, allowing more rural residents to buy them.

Samoa will be the first country in decades to switch the flow of traffic. Iceland and Sweden did it in the 1960s, and Nigeria, Ghana and Yemen did it in the 1970s.

Samoa's switch was delayed from July 2008 to prepare. It will take place next Monday during a special two-day public holiday to keep threatened traffic mayhem to a minimum.

"A repeated request to government from the wider public is to start the switch on the scheduled date to make it quicker for the country to become familiar with the changes," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in a statement after Monday's meeting.

But opponents, including a protest group called People Against Switching Sides (PASS), have accused the government of pushing the change through without adequately preparing drivers.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge from PASS.

In a last-ditch appeal, PASS president Lefau Waikaremoana So'onalole on Monday urged Tuilaepa and his Cabinet to delay the switch again until all road safety requirements are in place.

But Tuilaepa said the government has already widened roads, added new road markings and signs and installed traffic-slowing speed humps on key roads on the main islands of Upolu and Savai'i.

Other opponents include bus companies that face having fleets of unusable vehicles because passenger doors are on the wrong side. The government will continue to allow vehicles with left-side steering wheels after the changeover.
Click to expand...
 
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
 
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You need to ease people into it. For a while, you should have to drive right in the very center of the street, dodging oncoming vehicles as needed.
 
Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You need to ease people into it. For a while, you should have to drive right in the very center of the street, dodging oncoming vehicles as needed.
Click to expand...

I can only see this ending in failure unless the severely limit speed.
 
Wait... they want to switch what side of the road they drive on so they can accommodate right hand drive cars???

Umm... Why can't they drive right hand drive cars on the right hand side? Mailmen do it all day long!!

I don't get the point of having to have the driver towards the center line of the road. Back in the day, it was so you could use hand signals to tell oncoming traffic if you were turning, but the turn signal was invented in 1907!!
 
Originally posted by: Snapster
Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You need to ease people into it. For a while, you should have to drive right in the very center of the street, dodging oncoming vehicles as needed.
Click to expand...

I can only see this ending in failure unless the severely limit speed.
Click to expand...

i can only see this as sarcasm, sorry.
 
Originally posted by: Fayd
Originally posted by: Snapster
Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You need to ease people into it. For a while, you should have to drive right in the very center of the street, dodging oncoming vehicles as needed.
Click to expand...

I can only see this ending in failure unless the severely limit speed.
Click to expand...

i can only see this as sarcasm, sorry.
Click to expand...

^^ Surely you jest?

 
"encourage some of the 170,000 expatriate Samoans living there to ship used cars back to relatives."

Hey lets spend a shit ton of money changing things around so expats will send grandma a clunker. BEST IDEA EVER!
 
Originally posted by: Gunbuster
"encourage some of the 170,000 expatriate Samoans living there to ship used cars back to relatives."

Hey lets spend a shit ton of money changing things around so expats will send grandma a clunker. BEST IDEA EVER!
Click to expand...

lol thats when you know for sure your country is a flaming pos🙂
 
Originally posted by: Snapster
Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You need to ease people into it. For a while, you should have to drive right in the very center of the street, dodging oncoming vehicles as needed.
Click to expand...

I can only see this ending in failure unless the severely limit speed.
Click to expand...

*whoosh*
 
What a dead beat nation. Some people are just thick as pig shit and now there's a whole island of them.
 
Originally posted by: Wheezer
But Tuilaepa said the government has already widened roads, added new road markings and signs and installed traffic-slowing speed humps on key roads on the main islands of Upolu and Savai'i.
Click to expand...

Would you "switch sides" for a "speed hump?"

 
Originally posted by: Gunbuster
"encourage some of the 170,000 expatriate Samoans living there to ship used cars back to relatives."

Hey lets spend a shit ton of money changing things around so expats will send grandma a clunker. BEST IDEA EVER!
Click to expand...

Would have been cheaper to ship used cars from Japan.
 
Originally posted by: kranky
Expecting people to adopt that instantly is stupid. They need to have a transition period where you can do it either way.
Click to expand...

I think you're not serious, I hope you're not serious. Checking sarcasm meter as I write this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top