Rumors of Lane Changes in the UK

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Olly <yahoo at ...> wrote:
>
> > Steve wrote:
> >> Sorry, to dwell on this topic, but I vaguely heard a rumor that
> >> the UK was thinking of changing the side of the road that it
> >> dives on. Any truth to that?
> >>
> >> I believe Swede has already done it. As I remember at 12 noon
> >> one day the police went out to every intersection and stopped
> >> traffic, and directed them to the opposite lane. Seems like
> >> a daunting task.
> >>
> >> So, to anyone in the UK, have you heard these rumors, and is
> >> there any truth to them?
> >>
> >> I think perhaps one of the reasons might be to standardize
> >> automobiles around the world. How many other countries still
> >> drive on the 'wrong' side of the road?
> >
> > Miles wrote:
> > Miles
> > Well, Japan seems to be the most important one, India is another. As 
> > always,
> > wikipedia provides the answer - and a map:
> > 
> > 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_directionality#Places_where_traffic_keeps_to_the_left 
> > 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_directionality#Places_where_traffic_keeps_to_the_lef
t>
> 
> Olly
> There have been no rumours that the UK is changing the side of the road we
> drive on.  However, there are talks about making the driving test harder,
> so naturally that also means that it will cost more.

Geoff:
The idea of the UK changing sides has been mooted a number of 
times in the last few years but has been rejected on the grounds 
of cost.

It is a fact though that in the big motorway and trunk road building 
programmes of the 1970s and 1980s, most of these roads were 
designed so that a change of side could be achieved with no physical 
changes required except for signing.

With regard to Sweden, they changed the rule of the road in 1967 
(which was part of the cause of the above thinking by the UK 
government).

IIRC, it was called H-Dag - the H being the initial letter of "right" 
in Swedish? It was not as simple a you suggest. Again, IIRC, all 
traffic stopped on the first day and from the second day only 
public transport and official traffic was allowed with the public 
being let loose again on the third day.