Dagen H

There were various arguments for the change:

• All neighbouring countries drove on the right, including Norway and Finland, with which Sweden shares land borders, with 5 million vehicles crossing annually.
• More than 90 percent of Swedes drove left-hand-drive vehicles,{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdYnAQAAIAAJ&q=%2290+per+cent+of+their+cars+have+the+conventional+left+hand+drive%22 |title= Réalités| magazine = Réalités |issue=200–205 |publisher=Société d'études et publications économiques |year=1967 |page=95}} and this led to many head-on collisions when passing on narrow two-lane highways. City buses were among the very few vehicles that conformed to the normal opposite-steering wheel rule, being right-hand-drive (RHD).{{cite web|title=Transport in Stockholm in the 1960s|url=http://www.vintag.es/2014/03/wonderful-color-photographs-of.html}} Includes photographs of a RHD bus in Odenplan, 1962 and a RHD trolleybus in Vattugatan in 1964.

However, the change was unpopular; in a 1955 referendum, 83 percent voted to keep driving on the left. Nevertheless, the Riksdag approved Prime Minister Tage Erlander's proposal on 10 May 1963 of right-hand traffic beginning in 1967, as the number of cars on the road tripled from 500,000 to 1.5 million and was expected to reach 2.8 million by 1975.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDfTAAAAMAAJ |title=News from Sweden, Issues 840-858 |publisher=Swedish Information Service, Swedish Consulate General |year=1963 |page=35 }} The Swedish Commission for the Introduction of Right-Hand Driving (Statens högertrafikkommission, HTK) was established to oversee the change.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWQXAQAAMAAJ |title=Riksdagens protokoll |publisher=Kungl. Boktr. |year=1966 |page=8 }} It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists.{{cite magazine | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204075934/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C941144%2C00.html | archive-date=4 February 2007 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C941144%2C00.html | title=Switch to the Right | magazine=Time | date=15 September 1967 | url-status=dead | access-date=25 September 2018 }}

The public information campaign leading up to Dagen H included extensive advertising, road markings, and even distribution of reminder items like gloves and stickers to ensure everyone was aware of the change.

The campaign included displaying the Dagen H logo on various commemorative items, including milk cartons and underwear.{{cite web|url=http://hem.bredband.net/b132258/hogertrafik/Dagen_H.htm |language=sv |title=Dagen H|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118033333/http://hem.bredband.net/b132258/hogertrafik/Dagen_H.htm |access-date=2 October 2014|archive-date=18 January 2007 }} Swedish television held a contest for songs about the change, and the winning entry was "Håll dig till höger, Svensson" ('Keep to the right, Svensson') written by Expressen journalist Peter Himmelstrand and performed by The Telstars.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ODZtwkBYPs |title=The Telstars – Håll dig till höger, Svensson|date=2013-02-23 |access-date=2024-08-14 |via=YouTube}}

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. A parallel set of lines was painted on the roads with white paint, then covered with black tape. Before Dagen H, Swedish roads had used yellow lines.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} Approximately 350,000 signs had to be removed or replaced, including some 20,000 in Stockholm alone.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vf0hAAAAMAAJ |title=Report of the Fifth World Meeting of the International Road Federation |location=London |year=1966 |page=144 }}

Vehicles had to have their original left-hand-traffic headlamps replaced with right-traffic units. One of the reasons the Riksdag pushed ahead with Dagen H despite public unpopularity was that most vehicles in Sweden at the time used inexpensive, standard-size round headlamps, but the trend towards more expensive model-specific headlamps had begun in continental Europe and was expected to spread through most other parts of the world. Further delay in changing over from left- to right-hand traffic would have greatly increased the cost burden to vehicle owners.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

On Dagen H, Sunday, 3 September 1967, all non-essential traffic was banned from the roads from 01:00 to 06:00. Any vehicles on the roads during that time had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again (to give others time to switch sides of the road and avoid a head-on collision) before being allowed to proceed at 05:00. In Stockholm and Malmö, however, the ban was longer{{snd}}from 10:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday{{snd}}to allow work crews to reconfigure intersections.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-H5AAAAAIBAJ&pg=4015,455407 |title=Sweden Makes Change-Over to Driving on Right |newspaper=The Herald|location=Glasgow |date=4 September 1967 }} Certain other towns also saw an extended ban, from 15:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

One-way streets presented unique problems. Bus stops had to be constructed on the other side of the street. Intersections had to be reshaped to allow traffic to merge.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

The relatively smooth changeover saw a temporary reduction in the number of accidents.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gjcjAQAAMAAJ&q=Iceland+drive+right+1968 Et tu, Iceland? Another change to right hand driving], Autocar, 23 May 1968 On the day of the change, only 157 minor accidents were reported, of which only 32 involved personal injuries, with only a low number being serious.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lp8tAAAAIBAJ&pg=4803,566394 |title=Swedish Motorists Move To Right|work=Montreal Gazette|date=5 September 1967}} On the Monday following Dagen H, there were 125 reported traffic accidents, compared to a range of 130 to 198 for previous Mondays, none of them fatal. Experts suggested that changing to driving on the right reduced accidents while overtaking, as people already drove left-hand drive vehicles, thereby having a better view of the road ahead; additionally, the change caused a marked surge in perceived risk that exceeded the actual level, and thus was followed by very cautious behaviour that caused a major decrease in road fatalities. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result, and the number of motor insurance claims went down by 40%.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

These initial improvements did not last, however. The number of motor insurance claims returned to "normal" over the next six weeks and, by 1969, the accident rates were back to the levels seen before the change.{{cite book |title=Risk and Freedom: Record of Road Safety Regulation |first=John |last=Adams |publisher= Brefi Press |year=1985 |isbn= 978-0948537059}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/dagen-h-the-day-sweden-switched-sides-of-the-road-photo/2012/02/17/gIQAOwFVKR_blog.html|title=Dagen H: The day Sweden switched sides of the road|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=17 February 2012|access-date=2 October 2014}}{{cite book |title=Behavioural Adaptation and Road Safety: Theory, Evidence and Action |date=24 May 2013 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn= 978-1-4398-5667-3 |page= 67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F8HfuHnFbCMC }}

Trams in central Stockholm, in Helsingborg and most lines in Malmö (which ultimately abolished its tram system in 1973) were withdrawn and replaced by buses, and more than 1,000 new buses were purchased with doors on the right-hand side. Some 8,000 older buses were retrofitted to provide doors on both sides, while Gothenburg and Malmö exported their left-traffic buses to Pakistan and Kenya.{{cite web | url=http://hem.bredband.net/b132258/hogertrafik/Kollektivtrafiken.htm |language=sv |title=Kollektivtrafiken drabbades |date=22 February 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927071747/http://hem.bredband.net/b132258/hogertrafik/Kollektivtrafiken.htm |archive-date=27 September 2020 }}

Although all road traffic in Sweden changed to the right-hand side, railways and the metro system in Stockholm did not switch to the new rule and continued to drive on the left, with the exception of tram systems. Additionally, many of them were abandoned as a result of Dagen H; only the trams in Norrköping and Gothenburg and three suburban lines in the Stockholm area (Nockebybanan and Lidingöbanan) survived. Gothenburg faced high costs for reconfiguring trams, while Stockholm's budget only covered purchasing new buses, since the remaining lines had bidirectional trams with doors on both sides. In any event, most trams in Stockholm were replaced by the metro, a decision made long before the Dagen H decision.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Fellow Nordic country Iceland changed to driving on the right on 26 May 1968, on a day known as H-dagurinn.

• 730 (transport)
• Switch to right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia
• Transport in Sweden

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlQ12KjvPQ8 Television coverage of changeover], Sveriges Television
• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045wh07 The Day Sweden Turned Right], BBC World Service, 2 September 2016
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7XTmTGkbJ8 Border crossing between Sweden and Finland, 1967]
• [http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180417-a-thrilling-mission-to-get-the-swedish-to-change-overnight "A 'thrilling' mission to get the Swedish to change overnight"], BBC, 18 April 2018

Category:Traffic law

Category:Transport in Sweden

Category:1967 in Sweden

Category:1967 in transport

Category:Driving in Sweden

Category:September 1967 in Europe