Holden's demise: Why we should drive on the other side of the road

Get on the correct side of the road. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

COMMENT:

There are probably a number of little learnings to come from the death of the Holden brand in New Zealand and Australia. But the really big one is that we should all start driving on the other side of road as soon as possible.

The demise of Holden is sad for all car enthusiasts. The heart will tell you it's because the company stopped making V8 sedans in Australia and buyers lost faith in the brand, or it failed to match its current range of SUVs to Australasian tastes and aspirations.

But the real reason we won't have Holden from next year is that right-hand drive (RHD) is a fragile thing. Especially for tiny countries at the bottom of the world.

The doors are closing at Holden because its parent company General Motors (GM) has decided it's not economically viable to make RHD cars any more. Over 70 per cent of the world's car production is LHD. For GM, RHD is just not worth it. Simple.

This is an extreme case, because GM has had virtually no presence in Japan and pulled out of Great Britain five years ago. Without really big RHD markets to generate big volume, RHD cars are not sustainable. Which is a worry for the rest of us, because no global car company has ever made a car just for the minuscule NZ market and no global car company ever will. We have to take what's available to other markets.

If we want to be guaranteed a vibrant Kiwi car industry with lots of consumer choice, we need to make the move… to the other side of the road.

Scared? Don't be. It's perfectly do-able and it just makes sense. It's been done before.

In the 1960s Sweden proposed a change from RHD to LHD to better align with Europe. Although over 80 per cent of the population were opposed, it happened anyway – in September 1967. It's never looked back; or if it did, it was over the other shoulder.

More recently the independent state of Samoa also changed sides, in September 2009 (September seems to be the month for swapping sides of the road). It actually went the other way, from a LHD infrastructure to RHD, to better align with NZ and cheaper affordable used cars from Japan. But it's further evidence it can be done. It's okay – it can always change back.

In case you're wondering why the world couldn't agree on where steering wheels should be in the first place, the RHD scenario was actually first. In feudal times, it made sense to walk or ride on the left-hand side of the road, as that left your stronger right hand free to fight when necessary.

But in 1700s France and Germany, goods wagons were often hauled by teams of horses and the driver sat on the left-rear animal, to keep that strong right hand free for lashing. So it was better to move to the right-hand side of the road.

There's also a story (possibly apocryphal) that wherever Napoleon came and conquered, he forced people to change from travelling on the left to travelling on the right – just because he could, as a show of power, but also because he was left-handed.

On second thoughts, maybe the rest of the world should change to RHD.