Pass the Deuce Coupe on the Right Hand Side

1. The 3rd of September 1967

My second language is German, but even that didn’t prepare me for the Swedish term “Dagen Högertrafikomläggningen”, —no offense meant, Swedes— a conglomeration of letters that looks like the product of keyboard-walking cat. [I mean doubling down on the umlaut and... not a version of the same vowel in pairs? And why the two “G”s right after? Bonkers…] Regardless, it’s the literal translation of the inconceivable act Sweden pulled on its populace just over 50 years ago: The “right-hand traffic diversion" of roadway flow (or, as we would term it, “doing it the right way”). That’s right; on Sept. 2, 1967, Swedes went to bed driving the “British way” only to wake up the next morning and find they’re now living in ‘Murrica and required to drive on the right – literally and figuratively – side of the road, whether they liked it or not.

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2. Like it they did not – by 83 percent

“Non-binding resolution” is the kind of term that makes politicians the world over squeal with delight. Here it meant that despite the fact that when asked in 1955 if the switchover was a good idea, only 17 percent of Swedes said yes. Their parliament nonetheless went ahead with the relative backwardation of Swedish roadways in 1963 anyway – and put a four-year clock on its completion for good measure. Imagine: the government tells you that everyone is going to be required to drive on the “opposite” side of the road – meaning every road in the whole country – and gives you (and the government agencies in charge of changing road signs, lines and the like) just four years to plan for and implement the change.

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3. It’s not as insane as it – or its term in Swedish – sounds

The relative sanity of Sweden’s government officials at the time is impossible for me to gauge today, but they had many sound reasons as to why the change should take place. Consider this: almost every Swedish car – including those built there – were left-hand drive, and with 90 percent of head-on collisions in the country blamed on the fact that drivers sitting by the left shoulder couldn’t see oncoming cars very well when they pulled out to the right to pass, something had to change. But as Sweden’s land-border-based neighbors were already doing it the “right” way – and LHD is the standard configuration for 65 percent of the world – it was “easier” (or at least more logical) to rework the roadways than remaining odd-Scandinavian-out and switch to RHD cars instead. [Not being a British Commonwealth member meant they weren’t beholden to anyone to retain the old way either.]

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4. But how do you “rewire” the populace? Underpants!

Yes, they used Dagen H-branded everything to prep the public, including underwear. They also commissioned a special song, introduced bi-colored gloves and arrow-themed sunglasses, and more. You name it and there it was, Sweden tried almost everything it could to get the message out. Now, one could scoff and say that within 30 or so (certainly terrifying) minutes of driving a RHD car in England almost any American could get the hang of operating in a “backwards” driving environment, but just consider how many wrong-way drivers we have to contend with that have been driving with the “LHD car on the right-hand side” rule as the only setup they’ve ever known and you’ll see why this isn’t so simple. Oh, and did I mention that the swap-over took place between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the third of September? In wintry Sweden? And that those folks couldn’t drive on the right until the very day they legally had to? Yup. No grace period, no “for funsies” days. It was a literally near-instantaneous do-or-die event for the whole nation, mitigated – barely – by the fact that Dagen H (Sept. 3) was a Sunday.

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5. Revenge of the rail-bound and (not) seeing the light

Sweden gave its biggest cities an extra few days to get things sorted out, including the fact that their otherwise stellar public transportation system was useless overnight. Just think about how a city bus works: it picks up and drops off riders on the curb side of the street so as to not have them murdered en masse by traffic. So, what happens when that curb switches sides? Pakistan and Kenya get a ton of buses for one, and companies that build buses with right-hand (or both side) doors – or convert existing ones thusly – get contracts to do, well, that. Or cities just find it easier to tear up the center of their downtown streets and solve the whole bus door side issue by installing trams and metro (underground) systems. And even if you had your own wheels, Dagen H got you too as you had to replace your headlights as the old brightness pattern would blind oncoming drivers now that you’re facing them with the opposite headlamps.

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6. Sweden accomplishes the impossible – and on time, too

While drivers got no time to prep in the real world, Swedish officials did, and they did an incredible job. Here’s just a taste of what was involved, and it’s *ahem* borrowed from Wikipedia, so you know it’s legit: “As Dagen H neared, every intersection was equipped with an extra set of poles and traffic signals wrapped in black plastic. Workers roamed the streets early in the morning on Dagen H to remove the plastic. Similarly, a parallel set of lines were painted on the roads with white paint, then covered with black tape. Before Dagen H, Swedish roads had used yellow lines.” And at the appointed time, “All non-essential traffic was banned from the roads from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Any vehicles on the roads during that time had to follow special rules. All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 4:50 a.m., then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again before being allowed to proceed at 5 a.m.” Again, some cities got leeway time-wise, but all told, it was a done deal everywhere by 3 p.m. that day. [I’m sure having Porsche 911s in police service at the time helped speed things up…]

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7. Dagen H and its influence on every day after that

If you remember why all this started – the death toll on roads where LHD cars were making right-hand passes – you’ll be happy to know it had its intended effect. For… less than two years. Seems once the novelty wore off Swedes stopped tippy-toeing around on the “wrong” side of the street and began to kill the same number of each other by 1969. Sure, some can be blamed on the increase in the number of said cars – and it was totally the right decision regardless – but it wasn’t the lasting life-saver Swedish politicians and citizens were hoping for. The overall cost is hard to measure, but it’s number one culprit is the bus door fracas (and its replacement trams). Throw in all the reconfigured intersections, rerouted one-way streets, new signage and signals, and the massive PR effort they invested in, they certainly paid a high price to be on the right side (sorry) of this issue. And as you can see, it left enough money in the coffers to keep buying Porsche 911 patrol vehicles, so it would seem that they could afford it…

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