LEGO Historian Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 In doing some of my old research about old LEGO, I became quite intrigued with Sweden. Reason is that on Sept. 3, 1967 Sweden went from being the last country in continental Europe that drives on the left side of the road... to switching over to the right side. This happened at 5AM Sunday 3 September... and took many years of planning for Sweden's governmental units to prepare for. The irony is that the people of Sweden voted in a primary NOT to switch over... but the lawmakers switched it anyway. There are a few LEGO items that TLG produced that are a relic of the pre-switchover left driving days in Sweden. When TLG came out with a soft plastic rollup Town Plan board in 1955... they came out with a right driving board fo Denmark and Norway, and a left driving board for Sweden. Here is one of those soft plastic boards... with the traffic lines on the left side of the road... In 1956 TLG switched to a smaller plastic board, but without any right/left markings. 1956 also saw the introduction of Masonite 1 piece Town Plan boards. For Sweden the blocks had a yellow border, instead of white... but again without road markings to differentiate it... Then in September 1959, when the new 1960s style cardboard folded Town Plan board was introduced.. TLG once again made a left driving version for Sweden that year... and also for a short time for Britain and Ireland in 1960 (until Britain started having their own boards made). Here is the left driving 1960s board that Sweden used from 1960 until 1967. Here is the entire very fascinating history of the switch from left to right side driving for Sweden in 1967... the entire story is very interesting... http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/history/driving_on_right.shtml These images are from Chapter 3 - LEGO Town Plan Sets & Boards (1955-70)... of my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download. Enjoy! Gary Istok Quote
LEGO Guy Bri Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 Why would the put the parking places opposite, like this // , if the lane to pull in is on the other side of the road? You have to cut across a lane of traffic to pull in, or back out. Seems like a minor detail over looked? All they had to do was change the the angle from // to \\ Quote
lightningtiger Posted April 24, 2013 Posted April 24, 2013 So they went overnight to right hand side of the road driving......right, and that didn't cause problems now did it ? Funny how the road toll fell in the short term. Interesting piece of history, thanks for sharing it. Quote
LEGO Historian Posted April 25, 2013 Author Posted April 25, 2013 Why would the put the parking places opposite, like this // , if the lane to pull in is on the other side of the road? You have to cut across a lane of traffic to pull in, or back out. Seems like a minor detail over looked? All they had to do was change the the angle from // to \\ No TLG didn't overlook it... they just always take the path of least resistence... meaning that even with the UK/Australia 1960s cardboard "left driving" Town Plan board (different layout, but with same blocks)... they still use what to them would be a backwards parking scenario.... Quote
splatman Posted April 26, 2013 Posted April 26, 2013 (edited) Just back into the spaces to park, from the nearest lane. Known as Combat Parking. Problem solved. Edited April 27, 2013 by splatman Quote
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