Is it possible to convert one nation to driving on the other side of the road? Yes. In one day literally? Yes. Let's look at Sweden in the. On September 3, 1967, Sweden's government changed all of the signs and everything to change the nation from driving on the left to on the right. It was known as Högertrafikomläggningen, or right-hand traffic diversion. The goal was to put Sweden on the same track as the other European neighbors that all drove on the right side.
Sweden wanted to boost its reputation worldwide and to ensure road safety. Within a decade the number of vehicles basically more than doubled from almost 900,000 to 2,000,000. Another problem was that many cars that people drove were left-hand-drive vehicles, and even domestic manufacturers like Volvo produced left-hand-drive cars as well. You can imagine the trouble it cause. In fact, fatal road accidents were rising.
So how did it all work out? Well of course not everything happened in one day. Obviously road markings had to be repainted, lights had to be changed, and whatnot. In the end, it cost around 301,457,972 kronor, or about $36 million in 1967, which is about $267,379,285.7 today. The extra caution actually lowered traffic deaths by about 250 in 1967 compared to 1965. However, a lot of money was actually spent on communication. About 43 million of the 628 million was on TV, radio, newspaper ads, and of course school campaigns.
It didn't seem feasible, but it worked, and today Sweden places a heavy weight on traffic city. In fact, just 270 people died in 2016. Now of course, that number is deflated because their population is so small, but still, it is much less than 1313 in 1966, even with drastically more cars on the road.
Now of course, doing that today does not seem that likely because the infrastructure is way too heavily developed. Changing them just would not be worth it. Maybe in a place like Hong Kong is likely, but at this point there is no point in changing because everyone's already used to it.
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180417-a-thrilling-mission-to-get-the-swedish-to-change-overnight
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