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Dagen H: the day Sweden switched from driving on the left to the right (2018)
- fetus8 7y agoIncredible episode about this from 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/h-day/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/h-day/
- nemetroid 7y ago> The actual change took place at 4:50 AM and vehicles driving on the road at that time were instructed to change from right to left as they were driving. This makes it sound haphazard. In practice, traffic stopped at 04:50, everyone had 10 minutes to carefully change side, and traffic resumed at 05:00. Also, all non-essential traffic was banned between 01:00 - 06:00.
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoI found this really intriguing, and unfortunately can't understand the linked video in Swedish, but I'm really confused about how they did this with the huge amount of physical infrastructure that would have needed to change. After all, there are a lot of road features (e.g. many styles of ramps and turn lanes) that aren't symmetrical, so switching sides would have required a ton of construction. How did they accomplish this so quickly?
- sitharus 7y agoIt took three years of planning to accomplish. Plus it was in the 1960s when there were fewer and slower cars, fewer motorways and generally fewer explicit markings.
- alkonaut 7y agoThey were remarkably clever to realize that they needed to switch before building motorways for several decades. The costs weren’t astronomical but today they would have been.
- scbrg 7y agoYou have received replies already, but there are at least some pieces of non symmetrical infrastructure from that era that remain. I live in Gothenburg, where trams are still one of the major forms of public transportation. There's at least one (presumably more) stop where the trams turn around that's quite inconvenient because it's built for left side driving: https://www.google.com/maps/@57.6780363,12.0042818,149m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.6780363,12.0042818,149m/data... If you want to board a tram that's turned there and will go back north, you can't do so at the platform where passengers usually wait. You have to cross the street, since the tracks actually don't connect to the main route until after the regular passenger platform. All in all, things like that are quite rare. I guess a lot of our infrastructure - particularly highways, was built after the switch.
- maaaats 7y agoBuses, trams etc. would also have the doors on the wrong side, so cannot just switch side one day without any planning.
- samus 7y agoAnd indeed, the article tells that they had to replace their trams by buses with the right doors (pun intended) in some major cities, presumably until they could fix the trams.
- hrydgard 7y agoWhat actually happened in most cities was that the trams were shut down, which was really unfortunate with hindsight.
- martindbp 7y agoJust a fun fact: my father had to go to the hospital by ambulance that day to take out his appendicitis. So for my own sake I'm glad it was so well planned!
- yxhuvud 7y agoA couple of years before we had an election about what side to drive on. The right side actually lost the election. The politicians promptly (and legally) ignored it and went ahead anyhow. And that is a good thing.
- kaffeemitsahne 7y agoWhy have an election if there is no intention to respect the outcome?
- DaiPlusPlus 7y agoSo you don't end up with a Brexit situation on your hands.
- mavhc 7y agoAlso a referendum that wasn't legally binding, oh well, we banned guns so had to find another way to shoot ourselves in the foot
- alkonaut 7y agoSome referendums (most?) are advisory rather than directly legally binding. The intention of the lawmaker in situations like these could be e.g “there is a huge economic gain from driving on the same side as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but if there is a massive opposition perhaps we can’t do it.” People are also prone to prefer the status quo , something which should perhaps be accounted for in decisions that will affect people many generations into the future.
- Wildgoose 7y agoDenmark also drove on the Left. They switched at the same time. I was there two weeks before it happened, but I was only 15 months old at the time.
- frostwhale 7y agoAll of the issues people that Direct Democracy has, or people perceive it to have. And presumably, since he said legally, there are rules they have to follow to not agree with the election. That being said, like you I am curious for more details! It does seem a little strange on the face of it.
- sharpneli 7y agoAcross the bay we have some jokes about this. My favourite goes something like this: The Swedes decided to make the switch gradual to make it easier to learn. Heavy trucks switched driving directions one week before rest of the traffic.
- zemialite 7y agoIn Finland there was a joke that in Sweden they changed from driving on the left to the right by steps. Trucks and other heavy vehicles changed first and others one year afterwards.
- rags2riches 7y agoThat's a funny joke. It reminds me of how Sweden actually tried changing to the Gregorian calendar in steps, by skipping leap days for 40 years. Yes, that would make the Swedish calendar to be different from the rest of the world for four decades and the difference to the other world calendars would be changing every four years... It did not go according to plan. But it's the reason February of 1712 in the Swedish calendar did have 30 days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_calendar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_calendar
- gorm 7y agoFunny, I heard the same story in Norway so it must be realnews.
- z3ugma 7y agoA TV station commissioned a song contest for a jingle for Dagen H. Here's the (very catchy) winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ODZtwkBYPs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ODZtwkBYPs
- maaaats 7y agoNever heard of this, but my last name (and my dad's) is Svensson. Will tell him this next time I'm in the car with him on the highway and he's driving in the left lane, and see if he gets the reference.
- madsohm 7y agoThe (2018) in the title makes it seem like this happened just last year. The article describing it is from last year. Dagen H was in 1968.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoToo bad the others didn’t follow suit. Just dangerous having two sides to drive.
- viburnum 7y agoInstead of a heavy-handed centralized government mandate like this they should have used a tax incentive to encourage people to drive on the other side.
- adamisom 7y agoThis event is the perfect example of "heavy-handed" centralized government doing things right. In fact, I'm really scratching my head how you think it could be improved. edit: oh wait, this was sarcasm, right? Since obviously a tax incentive is a terrible tool for this. Sorry if I missed something.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bonyt 7y agoIt’s not your fault, Poe’s law strikes again. People are out there with pretty extreme beliefs about the power of tax cuts, so it’s hard to satirize them. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- viburnum 7y agoYeah, it was a joke about the limits of marginalism to solve coordination problems.
- oliwarner 7y agoLet people drive where they want. Free market automotivity.
- viburnum 7y agoDagen H is a good lesson for why incremental solutions to climate change aren’t enough. Sometimes you need to change a lot of stuff simultaneously and for that you need decisive coordinated action.