PHOTOS: Sweden 1967 ... Traffic Flow Switched From Left Side Driving To Right Side Driving

Retronaut ^ | 3rd September 1967 | Retronaut

[DogByte6RER]

3rd September 1967:

Traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right

“Dagen H (H day) was the day on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The change was widely unpopular, The campaign included displaying the Dagen H logo on various commemorative items, including milk cartons, men’s shorts and women’s underwear. Swedish television held a contest for songs about the change; the winning entry was Håll dig till höger, Svensson (‘Keep to the right, Svensson’) by Rock-Boris.”

[rlmorel]

No, no, no...they don't drive in the middle, that is the FINGER in the middle...

[Oztrich Boy]

I think I read here on FR that we drive on the Right because the Brits drove on the Left.

It started with Horse Drawn Wagons in the Cities after the Revolutionary War.

Merrycan drivers sat in the proper place and drove on the proper side of the road all through the 19^th century and into the early auto era

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I work in a surface mine with left-hand traffic, and switch over every day at the gate. The mine roads are unpaved, so I seldom find myself driving on the wrong side on pavement, but I often drive to the left on dirt roads now. Around here, though, most of the other people driving on the back roads also work at the mine, so they’re likely to be on the wrong side too, and it all works out.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Good point. I was nearly hit by a delivery van in London for the same reason. Glad I couldn’t understand what the driver shouted.

It works the other way, too. I remember reading somewhere that Winston Churchill was hit by a car because he looked the wrong way as he started to cross a street. I think it happened in New York shortly after WWII, but I’m not certain, and I don’t have the book around.

[Verginius Rufus]

According to the article, Napoleon issued the law in 1789. In 1789 Napoleon was 20 years old and a nobody--he did not take control of the French government until 1799.

The way I heard it, in the Middle Ages men riding horses would ride on the left in case when they encountered someone, that person was an enemy and then they would have their right hand (their sword-wielding hand) closest to the other man while trying to defend themselves.

According to that version, riding on the left was standard everywhere until the French Revolution, but the revolutionaries changed that because they were breaking with tradition in as many areas as they could. That custom then spread to many other countries, but not to Britain and its colonies (except Canada where it would be inconvenient to have the opposite of the US).

[Verginius Rufus]

I think the incident with Winston Churchill was in 1931 or thereabouts—definitely before WWII. George Will, I think it was, mentioned it in a column, reflecting on how different history might have been without Churchill as Prime Minister during WWII (if he had been killed).

[Mentat]

That is exactly what Sweden had: Cars with the steering wheel on the left, which made the switch to right-hand traffic easier. Don’t ask me why this was so. Maybe the need to overtake others weren’t as great in Sweden with its low population density as it was in England?

Anyway, it was a huge change with all the roads that had to be rebuilt and re-marked, traffic signs moved etc, etc all over the country.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Thanks for the information. I read about the incident in a biography written by Churchill’s bodyguard, but I can’t recall the book’s name. I read it at 9 or 10, nearly 50 years ago, so I’m not surprised that I remembered the details wrong.