50 Years Ago, Sweden Switched Sides
The largest logistical event in the history of the country, Sweden's "H Day" represents the day the country converted from driving on the left, to driving on the right side of the road, following the their neighboring countries.
1. The right-handed traffic diversion.
"Dagen H", "Hogertrafik Day", or H Day refers to September 3, 1967, now 50 years ago. The was the day Sweden converted all their roadways, and forced drivers to a right-sided driving pattern. It was chaos! The reason for the switch? All of Sweden's geographical neighbors already drove on the right side of the road, and millions of them drove across Sweden's borders on a daily basis, causing confusion. Swedish voters had actually voted against the switch, but Parliament chose to go against the grain with their ultimate decision.
2. The fallout of change.
This picture shows the signs posted to remind out-of-towners that Swedes drove on the left side of the road, before the big switch in 1967. The morning of the change there were plenty of accidents and mass confusion in the streets. Ninety percent of Swedes drove left-handed vehicles, like America and most of Europe, so switching to driving on the right put the drivers in the middle of the lane, like most countries. Still, this did lead to countless head-on collisions while passing in the decade afterwards.
3. How it all went down.
The day of the lane switch was a Sunday, and all non-essential traffic was banned from being on the roadways between the hours of 1am and 6am. At 4:50am, all vehicles still on the road were required to come to a complete stop and switch from the left to the right side of the road, then were allowed to proceed at 5am. In urban areas like Stockholm and Malmo, traffic was banned from the roadways for much longer to afford time for workers to switch all the road signs, with no one driving between 10am on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday.
4. Growing pains showed unsteady numbers.
Sweden chose to change its driving patterns to try and decrease the number of collisions in the country. The confusion between neighboring countries driving on the opposite side of the road, and 90% of Swedish drivers being on the left side of the vehicle, was causing more traffic accidents than would be expected in a country that size. The change showed initial reduction in a number of traffic accidents in the country, and most experts chalked it up to drivers being extra cautious. It only took a brief six weeks for the numbers to return to their previous levels, though fatalities did decrease, both of motorists and pedestrians.
5. Buses were retrofitted for entry on the right.
The single greatest expense of this huge logistical change? Retrofitting buses (and street cars) for doors on the opposite side. Over 1,000 new buses were bought in anticipation of the change, and 8,000 older buses had to be modified, now with a door on both sides. The citizens of Pakistan and Kenya also benefited, as all the buses that were not changed over were sold and exported to be used there. Except for the street cars and trams though, the rest of the Swedish rail system continues to operate on the "wrong" side of the tracks.
6. Sweden joined the majority when they began driving on the right.
The majority of the world's countries drive on the right-hand side of the road. The red countries on the map represent right-handed drivers, and the blue countries represent left-handed drivers. Japan, England, and most of the former British Empire are typically found driving on the left side of the road, but Japanese car companies have always had their eyes on the world market. It is the rare Japanese vehicle, the Nissan Skyline comes to mind, which is not engineered to allow left hand drive versions.
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