Roads in Iceland

This article covers road transportation in Iceland.

History
As late as 1900 Iceland had only a few miles of roading suitable for wheeled transport, mostly located in the southern regions of the island. A network of bridle paths permitted travel and transport elsewhere. In 1884 a Norwegian expert was brought in to organise the construction of proper roads. Beginning in 1888 a series of iron bridges were constructed to cross major rivers. In 1894 a Road Act was passed classifying Icelandic roads into four categories. The first were "High Roads" (also called "National Roads") that were entirely funded by the state. The second were "Provincial Roads" that were funded by the provinces except where they were could be used for carriage-transport, in which case there were subsidised by the state for up to half their cost. The third category was that of "Parish Roads" which were of local importance and funded by individual parishes. The fourth category was "Mountain Roads", which cross mountainous and upland regions and were largely bridle-paths marked by stone-cairns erected at the expense of the state.

Annual expenditure of road-building rose from 23 thousand krónur on average between 1876 and 1893 to 1,859 in 1939, and between 1899 and 1929 a total of 159 bridges of 10 metres in length or longer were constructed. In 1913 the first motor-vehicles arrived in Iceland, with the number reaching more than 400 in 1925. By 1933 around 3,000 km of motor-routes had been built on the island, with around 3000 motor cars being in use on Icelandic roads by 1935 according to one estimate. A different estimate published by the British Royal Naval Intelligence division put the total length of roads in Iceland in 1936 at 4,400 km, of which 2,800 km were motorable, with nearly all the motorable roads being in the coastal regions in the west of Iceland. The same Naval Intelligence study put the total number of motor vehicles on the island at 2,225 in 1940, of which 835 were motor cars, 1,120 trucks, and the rest buses and motor cycles. This network of motorable roads linking Reykjavik to Akureyri was central to the German invasion plan under Operation Ikarus, which relied on motorised troops landed at Reykjavik and Akureyri to advance quickly along it in order to take control of the island in four days.

By 1942 regular bus-services were operating between Reykjavik and Akureyri on the northern coast, with the journey taking two 12-hour days if conducted entirely by bus. At the same time a private company also operated an internal bus service for the Reykjavik area called Strætisvagnar Reykjavikur, operating around 20 single-decker buses.

National roads
Roads belonging to the national highway system are maintained by the Icelandic Road Administration. They are categorized into the following types:


 * Primary Road (S) - all roads belonging to the so-called Grid Icelandic transport.
 * Primary highland road
 * Secondary road (T) - are the roads that connect institutions and tengivegi, and are generally over 10 km in length.
 * Local access (H) - Roads to individual farms and regional connections that do not qualify tengivega (district roads with four-digit numbers are not listed here).
 * Highland (L) - ways that can not be considered for any of the above standards, as well as all mountain roads.

Other roads
F roads are unpaved tracks that may only be driven in vehicles with four-wheel drive. Some include unbridged rivers that must be forded. Trying to drive on an F-road with a normal passenger car means a large risk of being stuck outside of phone coverage and is a breach of Icelandic traffic law, for which one can get a fine.

Road numbering scheme
The Icelandic road numbering scheme is made up of eight numbering zones which divide the island and mostly follow the division into regions. Each numbering zone has a number which determines what the first digit of the number is.

Division by zones
The first digits of the numbers are divided as follows (see Regions of Iceland):
 * The Ring Road which circles Iceland has the number 1 and it is the only number starting with number 1 (there are no such numbers as 10-19 or 100-199).
 * Numbers starting with 2 are in Eastern South Iceland, which is divided by the Þjórsá river.
 * Numbers starting with 3 are in Western South Iceland, which is divided by the Þjórsá river.
 * Numbers starting with 4 are in Reykjavík and vicinity and on the Reykjanes peninsula.
 * Numbers starting with 5 are in West Iceland.
 * Numbers starting with 6 are in the Westfjords.
 * Numbers starting with 7 are in Western North Iceland, which is divided in the middle of Tröllaskagi peninsula.
 * Numbers starting with 8 are in Eastern North Iceland, which is divided in the middle of Tröllaskagi peninsula.
 * Numbers starting with 9 are in East Iceland.

Categorization by digits
There are no numbers other than for the Ring Road (number 1) consisting of only one digit (there are no such numbers as 2-9). Other numbers can have two or three digits. They are divided as follows:
 * Numbers with two digits are used on the main roads of the road system (other than the Ring Road).
 * Numbers with three digits consist of other roads of significant length in the areas.
 * There are also some numbers with the prefix F with either two or three digits, usually derived from similar non F-numbered roads (they can be an extension of said road). These numbers stand for roads which are generally impassable for vehicles which are not capable of four-wheel driving.

Roads with three-digit numbers
The first number (2 to 9) indicates the region of Iceland where the road is located.