There were not a lot of motorways in Sweden back then but according to Wikipedia there were at least 13 (rather short) stretches of motorway 1967. Another thing is that prior to the switch, there were normally no speed limit outside of built-up areas. The first time after the switch maximum speed was, as I recall, 60 km/h _anywhere_. This was then slowly raised as people got more used to driving on the right but the no speed limit has never been reintroduced. It must have been an absolutely MASSIVE project: Every road crossing needed to be changed, the painted line for where to stop must be redone, traffic signs switched to the other side of the road etc, etc and there are a LOT of roads in Sweden! Impressive that they managed to pull it off, really.
Same in the UK! No speed limits on motorways before the late-60s: ruclips.net/video/j1sMHcGWZ-M/видео.html It is incredible how the Swedes pulled this off, but can you imagine if they tried doing it now? I feel like this was their last chance to change, far more vehicles on the roads and infrastructure that would need to change nowadays - GH
@@MotoringChronicle In Sweden, you would have no speed limit on most roads, not just motorways, before -67. It could have been a dirt road in the forest. You were supposed to use your judgement and not go faster than conditions allowed for. (As far as I can recall at least)
A year after the switch I met a taxi on the wrong side of a motorway. One of the scariest moments in my life. One of the big problems was public transports. All buses had to be replaced. Lots of tram lines scrapped. The change also introduced lots of speed limits.
@@MotoringChronicle Yes, makes it easier and safer driving in other countries. Except of course when in the UK or Australia where I've done a few mistakes. Luckily without collisions.
Iceland followed them in 1968. Iceland switching to the right confuses me a bit, because they are an island and have no land border, and I don't see why they had to do it.
Yeah, Iceland is an interesting one. Maybe that's another video for another day, but I believe they switched for similar reasons to Sweden in that they had mostly LHD vehicles, but they have no land borders. I guess they probably wanted to be "in-line" for lack of a better term, with most of Europe - GH
They didn't really have to. I am pretty sure the main reasons was that they didn't want to stand out even more from the rest of the Nordic countries and minimize problems for and accidents with the Americans stationed at Keflavik. And since almost all visitors they had at the time came from the other Nordics countries or USA, and most Icelanders that went abroad did so to the other Nordic countries it made sense.
What was clever was how they phased in the changeover. They did it over two days. On the first day all the trucks and big vans swapped, then on the second day the cars and motorbikes swapped. 😊
Not actually true. All switched the same time, Sunday 3rd of September 1967 at 05:00. Private motoring was banned between 01:00 and 06:00 that night though. In some towns the ban was even longer. In Stockholm it was between 10:00 the 2nd until 15:00 on the 3rd.
The South Pacific Island of Samoa switched from the right to the left in 2009. They say because they could buy cheaper used cars from neighbouring countries like Japan. Australia and New Zealand who all drive on the left.
@@MotoringChronicle That was one of the main reasons Sweden switched. Lefthand driven cars were cheaper to buy in Sweden, that is why 80% were that type. Also, driving on the left side of the road in a lefthand driven car was much more dangerous. That is why the number of accidents dropped sharply in the years after the switch.
My recollection from the time is that Britain did consider changing. It was rejected on cost grounds apart from anything else. All of the major road intersections were designed with the possibility of change taken into account. Also the reason that most Swedes drove left hand drive cars was that the change had been planned way ahead.
We did! But the motorway network was already being constructed and the benfits of switching weren't deemed to be enough to warrant it. Interesting with the prep already being in place! It does make sense though, Finland and Norway were driving on the right long before then and the cars presumably would've always been majority left-hand drive like they were in the 50s and 60s - GH
No chance! As I've already covered in a video on the topic, it'd cost several billions of pounds with little to no benefit: ruclips.net/video/JCCXgf09kFU/видео.html
Not a word about the politician who suggested a transition, just to make it easier for all.?? He suggested they should start with the trucks n buses, and when peeps was used to that, then the cars would swap side. Anyone see anything wrong with that idea??
@@MotoringChronicle No, sorry. Something i read somewhere a long time ago. But if I was building motorways, I would do that. Cannot be a significant impact if you do it in the design phase.
There were not a lot of motorways in Sweden back then but according to Wikipedia there were at least 13 (rather short) stretches of motorway 1967. Another thing is that prior to the switch, there were normally no speed limit outside of built-up areas. The first time after the switch maximum speed was, as I recall, 60 km/h _anywhere_. This was then slowly raised as people got more used to driving on the right but the no speed limit has never been reintroduced.
It must have been an absolutely MASSIVE project: Every road crossing needed to be changed, the painted line for where to stop must be redone, traffic signs switched to the other side of the road etc, etc and there are a LOT of roads in Sweden! Impressive that they managed to pull it off, really.
Same in the UK! No speed limits on motorways before the late-60s: ruclips.net/video/j1sMHcGWZ-M/видео.html
It is incredible how the Swedes pulled this off, but can you imagine if they tried doing it now? I feel like this was their last chance to change, far more vehicles on the roads and infrastructure that would need to change nowadays - GH
@@MotoringChronicle In Sweden, you would have no speed limit on most roads, not just motorways, before -67. It could have been a dirt road in the forest. You were supposed to use your judgement and not go faster than conditions allowed for. (As far as I can recall at least)
A year after the switch I met a taxi on the wrong side of a motorway. One of the scariest moments in my life.
One of the big problems was public transports. All buses had to be replaced. Lots of tram lines scrapped.
The change also introduced lots of speed limits.
Scary stuff... Would you say that the change has been beneficial in the long-term, though? - GH
@@MotoringChronicle Yes, makes it easier and safer driving in other countries. Except of course when in the UK or Australia where I've done a few mistakes. Luckily without collisions.
There are two ways of driving; on the right or on the wrong side. First thing to do is recognize your mistake and second is to correct it.
Iceland followed them in 1968. Iceland switching to the right confuses me a bit, because they are an island and have no land border, and I don't see why they had to do it.
Yeah, Iceland is an interesting one. Maybe that's another video for another day, but I believe they switched for similar reasons to Sweden in that they had mostly LHD vehicles, but they have no land borders. I guess they probably wanted to be "in-line" for lack of a better term, with most of Europe - GH
They didn't really have to. I am pretty sure the main reasons was that they didn't want to stand out even more from the rest of the Nordic countries and minimize problems for and accidents with the Americans stationed at Keflavik.
And since almost all visitors they had at the time came from the other Nordics countries or USA, and most Icelanders that went abroad did so to the other Nordic countries it made sense.
What was clever was how they phased in the changeover. They did it over two days. On the first day all the trucks and big vans swapped, then on the second day the cars and motorbikes swapped. 😊
It's incredible how they managed it with minimal incidents! If they ever tried something like that in UK it'd be a national disaster! - GH
Not actually true. All switched the same time, Sunday 3rd of September 1967 at 05:00. Private motoring was banned between 01:00 and 06:00 that night though. In some towns the ban was even longer. In Stockholm it was between 10:00 the 2nd until 15:00 on the 3rd.
Sorry, but that did not happen. All changed the same day. (Using 2 days would never have worked)
The South Pacific Island of Samoa switched from the right to the left in 2009. They say because they could buy cheaper used cars from neighbouring countries like Japan. Australia and New Zealand who all drive on the left.
Yep, absolutely! One of the few examples of countries doing so, Namibia in Africa being another - GH
@@MotoringChronicle That was one of the main reasons Sweden switched. Lefthand driven cars were cheaper to buy in Sweden, that is why 80% were that type. Also, driving on the left side of the road in a lefthand driven car was much more dangerous. That is why the number of accidents dropped sharply in the years after the switch.
My recollection from the time is that Britain did consider changing. It was rejected on cost grounds apart from anything else. All of the major road intersections were designed with the possibility of change taken into account. Also the reason that most Swedes drove left hand drive cars was that the change had been planned way ahead.
We did! But the motorway network was already being constructed and the benfits of switching weren't deemed to be enough to warrant it.
Interesting with the prep already being in place! It does make sense though, Finland and Norway were driving on the right long before then and the cars presumably would've always been majority left-hand drive like they were in the 50s and 60s - GH
I think it is because our king's ancestor. He was familiar with Napoleon and probably did not want to switch to distance himself from him.
Sounds like a good guy! - GH
The Napoleon thing is an urban legend.
I don't think it would be too hard for England. You just have to flip the signs. You could do it in a day still.
No chance! As I've already covered in a video on the topic, it'd cost several billions of pounds with little to no benefit: ruclips.net/video/JCCXgf09kFU/видео.html
Driving on the left side with most cars having LHD is silly. I can understand why they did it.
Yep! Look at the chaos it causes in nations like Myanmar! Where most cars are RHD and they drive on the right... - GH
Why we changed?... because we didn't wanted to look stupid
Not a word about the politician who suggested a transition, just to make it easier for all.??
He suggested they should start with the trucks n buses, and when peeps was used to that, then the cars would swap side.
Anyone see anything wrong with that idea??
As far as I know, all motorways in the UK are prepared for switching to driving on the right.
First time I've heard this... Any sources for that? - GH
@@MotoringChronicle No, sorry. Something i read somewhere a long time ago. But if I was building motorways, I would do that. Cannot be a significant impact if you do it in the design phase.