Imagine you've been given the task to convince an entire country it's a good idea to switch the side of the road that they drive on. And then imagine that you have to implement this change. What would you do?
We found this gem of an article which shows photos of the results (hint: it's chaos!) and some clues as to the process that was followed. We liked this bit:
"On Dagen H, Sunday, 3 September, 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 follow special rules. All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again before being allowed to proceed at 05:00. In Stockholm and Malmö, however, the ban was longer—from 10:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday—to allow work crews to reconfigure intersections. Certain other towns also saw an extended ban, from 15:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday."
Interestingly though, as the article reports: There were actually less crashes than usual during the next day after the switch, and none fatal. This was likely because everyone was being particularly careful - after this the stats returned to normal.
So if you use the phrase 'chaos on the roads' in the near future, spare a thought for anyone who drove in Sweden on September 3, 1967!
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