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Answer of the DayWhich side of the road do they drive on in Sweden? Since this date in 1967,
Swedes drive on the right. In an action called
Dagen H (H Day), the traffic pattern changed overnight from driving on the left to driving on the right. The H stands for
Högertrafik, the Swedish word for "right-hand traffic." It was a long process of re-educating drivers to "think right" that included the posting of ads everywhere from milk cartons to billboards, and the creation of jingles and catchphrases. Bus stops needed to be moved to the other side of the road and new buses — with the entrance on the right side — were purchased; traffic lights and signs all had to be changed. Then, on September 3, the roads in most of
Sweden were closed to all nonessential traffic from 1 A.M. to 6 A.M. Since in most of the cars the driver already sat on the left, sticking to the right side of the road provided greater visibility and actually reduced the number of traffic accidents for a while. There were no fatalities attributed to the switch. Some eight months later,
Iceland made the same change on
H-dagurinn.
Quote"I had to stop driving my car for a while... the tires got dizzy." — Steven Wright
Word of the day (© )
Today's History
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Richard the Lion-Hearted
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Today's Birthdays
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Charlie Sheen
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- Edward Filene (1860-1937): eponymous retailer and a developer of the "bargain basement"; merchant Mark Hopkins (1814-1878) shared this birth date
- Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951): auto designer
- Mort Walker (87): cartoonist, Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois
- Alison Lurie (84): Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Foreign Affairs; also, writers Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) and Caryl Churchill (72)
- Ruth Orkin (1921-1985): photographer and filmmaker
- Charlie Sheen (45): actor, Two and a Half Men; other actors who celebrate a birthday today include Helen Wagner (1918-2010), Anne Jackson (84), Eileen Brennan (78), Pauline Collins (70), Valerie Perrine (67), Steve Schirripa (53), Costas Mandylor (45) and Nick Wechsler (32)
- Shaun White (24): skate- and snowboard gold medalist
