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Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

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Re: Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

#25

Post by heavenlyblue »

kinow wrote: post #6

Would be great to have - someday - everybody driving on the same side of the road. I wonder if space agencies have agreed to build space vehicles on a standardized side. I moved from a country that drives on the right lane, to one in the Commonwealth, driving on the left lane. It's interesting the amount of adjusting it takes for you as pedestrian to get used to which side to make sure to look to before crossing, and…

>> It's interesting the amount of adjusting it takes for you as pedestrian to get used to which side to make sure to look to before crossing, and as a driver (roundabouts are especially challenging in the beginning).

Agree, but I have to admit that I don’t have that issue anymore even if I change countries.

On the other hand I never remember that my native country has a strict policy on punishing jaywalking while UK doesn’t. It’s even harder to remember since the streets in the UK have way more traffic.

Re: Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

#26

Post by cwillu »

kraftman wrote: post #13
felipemnoa wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>It's interesting the amount of adjusting it takes for you as pedestrian to get used to which side to make sure to look to before crossing You should always look both ways regardless of which side a car is driving on. Reason is that bicycles sometimes drive in the opposite direction as cars. Also, sometimes cars, for whatever reason, will drive in reverse.

I think they're referring to places like roundabouts where you can cross halfway and the traffic only comes from one direction. Cars would never reverse off a roundabout and it's illegal and pretty dangerous to bike into a roundabout from the wrong direction.

The last percentage of risk is whether you bother checking for things that "can't" happen because "nobody would ever do that."

Re: Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

#27

Post by lscotte »

yegle wrote: post #22

Now I wish US can switch to the metric system with a similar endeavor, but surely it's impossible now. There was an attempt in the 60s to convert to metric in US. If you are in SF bay area, go check this out: https://images.app.goo.gl/JBqNpATVWgwi2qFh8

That went into the 70s - when I was in school we learned both metric and imperial because the USA was in the process of switching. Wish we had followed through...

Re: Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

#28

Post by lscotte »

felipemnoa wrote: post #11
kinow wrote: post #6

Would be great to have - someday - everybody driving on the same side of the road. I wonder if space agencies have agreed to build space vehicles on a standardized side. I moved from a country that drives on the right lane, to one in the Commonwealth, driving on the left lane. It's interesting the amount of adjusting it takes for you as pedestrian to get used to which side to make sure to look to before crossing, and…

>>It's interesting the amount of adjusting it takes for you as pedestrian to get used to which side to make sure to look to before crossing You should always look both ways regardless of which side a car is driving on. Reason is that bicycles sometimes drive in the opposite direction as cars. Also, sometimes cars, for whatever reason, will drive in reverse.

When crossing two-way streets in countries that are opposite my own, I found it's trickier than it sounds due to some subtle subconscious thing even when you look both ways.

Re: Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

#29

Post by 1e-9 »

A similar switch happened in 1970, when the Prime Minister of Myanmar suddenly and mysteriously decided that the country would switch to driving on the right-hand side of the road. The crazy thing is that the vast majority of vehicles today still have steering wheels on the right because the country has been buying used cars from Japan for years. Large vehicles like buses need a person acting as a spotter on the left side of the vehicle for safety! The Government finally mandated that, starting in 2017, imported vehicles must have steering wheels on the left side. Many drivers did not want to switch and thus there was a mad rush to buy cars in 2016, which the government was forced to counter by temporarily shutting-down imports.
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