Useless fact of the week
Welcome to the fourth episode of my weekly fact series. Today we will take a look at one rather uncommon event - the day in which Sweden changed it's complete traffic from left-handed to right-handed.
In 1734 a regulation was enacted, determine the official traffic side in Sweden to left-handed. This wasn't a problem, until the number of automobiles increased rapidly. Most of the cars driven in Sweden had their steering wheel on the left side, causing huge problems while safely overtaking other cars. The call for a change began to rise, with the west European driving system as a role model. After almost 20 years since the first suggestion a plebiscite was held, where around 83% voted for the change.
The date of the change was set for 3. September 1967 - therefor known as "Dagen H" which can be translated to "The right-hand traffic diversion". After a long preparation phase, including a 30 site paged brochure for every household, every private traffic with cars was strictly forbidden since 1 am this morning. The next 4 hours were used to change all traffic signs, resulting in a expensive event. Without any delay all remaining traffic was stopped at 4:5o am, forced to slowly change the side of the road waiting for the official signal over radio. This signal came punctual at 5 am and every car than began to slowly and carefully drive, acclimating in the new setting. Unlike estimated the number of accidents in the first days after the change was lower than the days before, due to of the increased intention of most driver. This effect doesn't lasted long as the number begin to increase again to the normal level within a week. It's still an outstanding event that reminds us how difficult it can be to change exiting structures like traffic in a hole country at once. I hope you learned something new today!
Hope I see you next week, have a nice day :)
Former episode: Mysterious oxygen on Mars!
https://steemit.com/uselessfacts/@braindeadjm/useless-facts-today-mysterious-oxygen-on-mars
