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Dagen H
Dagen H (H-day), today usually called "Högertrafikomläggningen" (lit. 'the right-hand traffic reorganisation'), was on 3 September 1967, the day on which Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The "H" stands for "Högertrafik", the Swedish word for right-hand traffic. It was by far the largest logistical event in Sweden's history.
There were various arguments for the change:
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. The Swedish Commission for the Introduction of Right-Hand Driving (Statens högertrafikkommission, HTK) was established to oversee the change. It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists.
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. 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.
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. Approximately 350,000 signs had to be removed or replaced, including some 20,000 in Stockholm alone.
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]
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 – 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.[citation needed]
Dagen H
Dagen H (H-day), today usually called "Högertrafikomläggningen" (lit. 'the right-hand traffic reorganisation'), was on 3 September 1967, the day on which Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The "H" stands for "Högertrafik", the Swedish word for right-hand traffic. It was by far the largest logistical event in Sweden's history.
There were various arguments for the change:
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. The Swedish Commission for the Introduction of Right-Hand Driving (Statens högertrafikkommission, HTK) was established to oversee the change. It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists.
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. 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.
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. Approximately 350,000 signs had to be removed or replaced, including some 20,000 in Stockholm alone.
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]
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 – 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.[citation needed]
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