Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service. Today we're

taking you back to 1967 and a massive e-turn that brought Sweden's traffic system to a complete

standstill.

The day after a revolution. Yesterday Sweden quit that large minority of the world which

drives on the left hand side of the road and joined the two to one majority that now drives

on the right hand side of the road.

On the 3rd of September 1967, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians across Sweden had to

relearn how to navigate the road system as the entire country in unison switched over

to a right hand drive system and what had become known as Dagenhall.

Every major road junction, every halt sign, every roundabout has had to be changed ready

for the moment when the traffic does its about turn. It's been the biggest and the most

costly conversion ever carried out and to make it more complex it's had to take place

without interfering with existing traffic.

Dagenhall or H.D. referring to the Swedish word Herger, meaning right, had been a monumental

task four years in the execution and meticulously planned.

Outside my school I saw it about three times that the car went on the wrong side and then

it was very close that I hit school children.

Beyond Sylvan was a young boy growing up in Stockholm in 1967. He remembers the mood of

his friends and family.

They talked about it very much and they were frightened that there should be lots of accidents

and so on so they were very worried.

But Beyond's father, who was a car salesman, was concerned for different reasons.

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