It is 5am on the 3rd of September 1967 in Sweden. The radio has just counted down to one of the biggest changes in the countries history. Every driver countrywide shift from the left side of the road to the right. This switch was influenced by growing safety concerns to match road directions with the rest of Sweden's European neighbours. The operation would become possibly one of the largest infrastructural projects in history. Sweden accomplished this feat with a population of 1,976,248 million cars on Swedish roads. In my personal opinion this event is possibly the greatest display of human organisation and coordination in human history.

 

Curiously, Sweden started out driving on the right side of the road during the mass implementation of horses and carriages in 1718. They first changed to the left side in 1734, the reasons for the switch are speculated with the most plausible being due to the ready access of a sword when entering a conflict (majority of people were right handed when operating a sword). This is the very same reason the United Kingdom adopted the left lane to begin with. The left handed traffic law was implemented into legislation in 1916 and became quickly debated over the next two decades as the number of automated vehicles rapidly increased all over the world. By this time Scandinavia and the rest of Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) had adopted the system of right handed traffic. The first time Sweden attempted to introduce right handed driving was through a 1955 referendum, resting the decision on the populations shoulders. With this decision being circulated throughout the Swedish population, naturally a great divide came about between the 'yes' and 'no' campaigners.  For the right hand driving advocates, the argument was based in the practicalities of matching the neighbouring Scandinavian countries road regulations but also safer overtaking and simplifying Swedish car manufacturing. For the left hand advocates, they campaigned on maintaining the norm and challenged a lot of the logistics for how the change could be done without causing serious harm and fatalities. The referendum returned with 83% of the Swedish population voting to keep driving on the left hand side. Perhaps the lesson here is in the methodology of referendums and how the population generally votes to always keep the status quo. Perhaps it was simple too early for the country to imagine such a change. Nonetheless, the idea had already been seeped into the countries collective imagination. Following the referendum the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) took it upon themselves to legislate the introduction of right hand traffic on November 10 1963, setting the plans for changing which side drivers would take and imposing it upon the population of Sweden. A body was established for planning named Statens högertrafikkommission ("the state right-hand commission) to work on the monumental task of the countrywide lane change over. They began a four year journey of learning and logistics planning in order to figure out the issue from a number of different angles. A national campaign began under the name of Dagan H, utilising the crafty logo (shown at the bottom of the page) to help remind and get the population comfortable with the massive changeover process. This logo was circulated countrywide on everyday household items.

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The day of Dagen H was set for Sunday 3rd of September 1967. Non essential traffic was banned from travelling between the hours of 1am-6am to allow for the large list of processes enacted before changing lanes. Before and during this blocked out period of time, each local municipality was charged with changing road markings, relocating bus stops and traffic lights while also redesigning roundabouts, intersections, bicycle lanes and one way streets. The scale proved immense as even buses needed to be redesigned so that doors could be accessed on both sides of the bus. 300,000 street signs had to be redesigned or relocated nationwide. The hard work of this task rested with the council clergy and military to make sure the operation was achieved by the time Sunday morning had come. The operation was an overwhelming success as Swedish drivers cruised down the right lane following the radio countdown reminding drives to make the necessary change. The project ended up costing the Swedish government 25 billion kronor ($2.97 billion USD) and accounted for 5% of the budget announced only 2 years earlier. Lars Magnusson an economic historian, claims that this total cost figure turned out to be relatively small given the massive scope as the largest infrastructure project in Swedish history. He continues on to explain that this achievement was largely due to Sweden's commitment to a reputation of excellence in efficiency and planning. On the first Monday that Swedes returned to work, the project became a great safety success in spite of the fear mongering campaign against it. Only 157 minor traffic incidents occurred with no fatalities, a steep decline in comparison to the usual average. In the three years following Dagen H road deaths and injuries dropped dramatically. The speculation for this trend is largely due to the care and consideration drivers took following the lane changeover. By the end of these three years road accidents and fatalities sharply rose back to their normal averages. This trend coincided with Swedish drivers becoming comfortable to the right hand lane and a dramatic rise in the amount of cars on the road. 

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Personally, I find Dagen H to be a demonstration of human cooperation and ingenuity to the highest degree. This is a prime example of how a common goal con be achieved through a unified effort of people from a variety of backgrounds. I think about how the Swedish government could have dragged their feet, been ill prepared and changed the lane system one municipality at a time with multiple budget blowouts. Instead through a brilliant example of delegation and a sheer force of will, the entire country was able to perform this momentous change over night. I wonder how a project with much more dire consequences could be a uniting project for the collective human race to overcome. If we could possibly translate this to a grander, existential problem societies all over the world face such as climate change, worldwide poverty or world peace. We certainly have witnessed the evidence of people coming together to enact large scale change. I hope that over the past century the story of Dagen H can provide a certain kind of inspiration for what human can be and what we can achieve when we challenge ourselves. In a time where people are so divided and looking for drastic change we need leaders who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and take on a problem directly through a master stroke of planning, communication and getting on with job to be done.

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Dagen H Logo:

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