Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:05:28 +0100 From: "MH" <nomailnospamere.no> Subject: Re: REPOST: Vintage SAAB Quiz: What's wrong with this picture?
> How was the swap over to driving of the RHS of the road done? Was there a > specific time on a specific day when people swapped over? From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_the_road ; Sweden had left-hand traffic (V”nstertrafik in Swedish) from approximately 1736. It continued to do so well into the 20th century despite the fact that virtually all the cars on the road in Sweden were actually LHD. Also, Sweden's neighbours, Norway, Finland and Denmark already had cars driving on the right side, leading to confusion at border crossings. In 1955 a referendum was held on the issue, resulting in an 82.9%-to-15.5% vote against a change to driving on the right. Nevertheless, in 1963 the Swedish government passed legislation ordering the switch to right-hand traffic. The changeover took place on a Sunday morning at 5am on 1967-09-03, which was known in Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the 'H' being for H–gertrafik or right-hand traffic. Since Swedish cars were LHD, experts had suggested that changing to driving on the right would reduce accidents, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Sweden1967.jpg -- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96 '91 900i 16 http://go.to/saab96