Editorial: Logical change in direction

OPINION: Among the heavily flagged elements like a change in the driving age, the most intriguing thing about yesterday's road safety strategy announcement by the Government was the signalling of changes in our give-way road rules.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce dropped that little nugget into the announcement of the 10-year strategy, saying changes would be considered later in the year and public input sought.

That means a planned change to the rule that stipulates that a vehicle turning right takes precedence over one turning left at an intersection and that when two cars are both turning right at a T-intersection, the right of way would revert to the car turning off the main road.

It's a change that has been debated from time to time in recent years, but without the possibility gaining significant momentum. Now, however, it looks set to happen.

A column published in 2008 in the Automobile Association's magazine Directions, and still available online at www.aa.co.nz, argued for the change. The article said it had "been known in official circles for 10 years" that the give-way rules were a factor in the country's numerous intersection crashes, but the efforts of numerous agencies to change the rule "have been voted down by a Cabinet concerned it would be too hard for the public to cope with".

Perhaps that Cabinet had a point, because changes to significant road rules obviously affect every one of the country's drivers, most of whom would have done all of their driving under the existing rules, in place since 1977. But was it simply a case of putting it in the too-hard basket, through an assumption of widespread difficulties that may not come to pass? By putting the change in its strategy, the current Cabinet has indicated it thinks so.

Concern about how the public would handle the change sounds a little like all the hype that surrounded last year's much more significant change in Samoa, when the country switched from driving on the right to the left. As with Y2K, the prophets of doom had a field day ahead of the switch, but we've heard very little since it went through.

Changing the give-way rules is a good move for a couple of reasons. They were imported from Victoria, where they were originally used to assist trams in Melbourne but, the AA article reports, Victoria changed back in 1993 with a decline in intersection crashes.

That makes the rules unique to us, potentially confusing for millions of tourists who visit every year, and therefore hazardous.

With right of way reverting to those turning left, it would end the confusion that often sees left-turning drivers sit and wait to allow a right-turning vehicle through, while a stream of oncoming traffic going straight makes it impossible for that driver to turn. A change would initially create an element of risk as drivers adjust, but a carefully targeted education campaign before the change should help to keep that risk to a minimum.

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