Strange but True · Published October 5, 2026

September 3, 1967: Dagen H, the Morning Sweden Switched Sides of the Road

By TodayInHistory.wtf Editorial Desk. Reviewed by TodayInHistory.wtf Editorial Standards.

Early on Sunday, September 3, 1967, traffic all over Sweden stopped dead. At 4:50 a.m., drivers who were still out on the roads stopped, moved slowly across to the other side and waited. At 5:00 they set off again, this time on the right.

The day is known as Dagen H. It went ahead even though most of the voters who had been asked about it said no.

Why Sweden drove on the left

By the 1960s Sweden was the odd one out in its neighborhood. The BBC describes the goal as putting "Sweden on the same path as the rest of its continental European neighbours, most of which had long followed the global trend to drive cars on the right."

There was a practical snag, too. Many Swedes already drove cars built for right-hand traffic. "Despite driving on the left, many Swedes already owned cars with the steering wheel on the left-hand side of the vehicle," the BBC explains. Lars Magnusson, a professor of economic history at Uppsala University, told the BBC: "The market for cars in Sweden was not so big and so we tended to buy left-driven cars." He added: "But that meant that you would be sitting on the opposite side to what made sense… and you were looking down into the ditch!"

Swedish Radio's own anniversary piece, in Swedish, lists the same reasons: more foreign drivers, a wish to match the rest of Europe, road safety, and the fact that left-hand-drive cars gave drivers a better view when overtaking. It also notes, in our translation, that "Sweden had right-hand traffic between the years 1718 and 1734."

The voters said no

The public wanted no part of it. Radio Sweden reports that "the majority of Swedes feared driving on the opposite side of the road would be more dangerous and disruptive. In a 1955 referendum, 83 percent of Swedes voted against change."

The Swedish-language Sveriges Radio piece has the fine print. The vote was advisory and held on October 16, 1955. In our translation: "53 % of the people took part. The answer was a resounding no of 82.9 %. The yes side got 15.5 % and 1.6 % voted blank."

Parliament did it anyway. According to the same piece, "Despite the No side winning, the Riksdag decided on 10 May 1963 to switch to right-hand traffic" (our translation). Radio Sweden says lawmakers were "swayed by growth in the car industry."

Selling it to the public

Next came a long sales job. Radio Sweden describes "A four-year campaign" to "win hearts and minds with a name and logo created for the big day."

Elisabeth Edberg, a Swedish Radio traffic reporter, told Radio Sweden that the H logo was everywhere: "It was on car stickers and on the back of milk cartons. There was even Dagen Höger his and hers underwear. There was even a song, 'Håll dig till höger, Svensson,' which was very catchy and popular."

That song, "Keep to the right, Svensson," was chosen in a contest. The BBC says it was "selected in a national vote and reaching number five on the Swedish hit parade." The Swedish Radio piece names the winners as The Telstars.

The BBC puts the information campaign at "around 43 million kronor (out of the total 628,349,774 kronor spent)." Peter Kronborg, a traffic consultant who wrote a book about the day, told the BBC: "The politicians realised that it wasn't enough to have an information programme, they needed a propaganda campaign!"

Rebuilding the roads

The physical work was huge. "Some 360,000 street signs had to be switched nationwide," the BBC reports, "which largely took place on a single day before the move to right-hand driving, with council workers joined by the military and working late into the night."

Buses were a special headache, since their doors were on the wrong side. "Hundreds of new buses were purchased by municipalities around the country, and around 8,000 older buses were reconfigured to provide doors on both sides," according to the BBC.

Jan Ramqvist, then a young traffic engineer in Malmö, shared responsibility for moving about 3,000 signs in that city. He told the BBC: "We found ourselves eating cake and drinking coffee in the middle of the night!"

The switch

The timing was down to the minute. The Swedish Radio piece says, in our translation, that "A general traffic ban applied across the whole country from 01.00." Bicycles, taxis, scheduled buses, trams and other exempted vehicles were to stand still at 04:50, then cross to the right side of the road and wait until 05:00. Other road users had to wait until 06:00.

In some cities the ban started much earlier. Radio Sweden reports that non-essential traffic was ordered off the roads "from 10 am on Saturday in several places including Stockholm, to give the thousands of volunteers deployed around the country time to remove the plastic bags covering the thousands of new traffic lights, road signs, and bus stops."

"Then at 4:50 am, all vehicles were ordered to stop, move slowly to the opposite side, and wait," Radio Sweden says. "Ten minutes later, the all-clear was given for traffic to start moving on the right-hand side of the road."

Olof Palme, then the minister of communications and later prime minister, went on the air to mark the change. The BBC quotes him: "I dare say that never before has a country invested so much personal labour, and money, to achieve uniform international traffic rules."

What happened next

The pileups people had feared never came. The BBC reports that "As Swedes began their working week on the day after H-Day, 157 minor traffic accidents were reported around the country, slightly less than average for a typical Monday. Nobody died."

For a while, the longer-term numbers looked even better. "A total of 1,077 people died and 21,001 were injured in 1967, the year of Dagen H, down from 1,313 and 23,618 respectively in 1965," the BBC says. The usual explanation is caution: the drop was "largely considered to be a result of the extra caution taken by Swedes." The effect faded. "It took another three years before accident and fatality rates returned to their original levels."

Why it is remembered

Dagen H is remembered partly because it went so smoothly. A country reversed a habit that every driver had learned, in one morning, without a wave of deaths.

It is also a case study in how to win people over. Most voters said no in 1955. Twelve years, one parliamentary vote and a large information campaign later, the country switched sides and adapted quickly.

What the record supports

Sources