Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - XIII. Internal Communications - 2. Town Communications - 3. Country Roads. By J. P. Velander, Ph. C., Stockholm
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COUNTRY ROADS.
995
town, and several reforms and enlargements have now been carried out in
connection whith the transition to electric running. The length of lines at present
amounts to 30 kilometers and, in 1903, the number of passengers to 10" 6 3 million,
thus about 80 inns per inhabitant. — Besides Stockholm and Gothenburg,
Malmö and Helsingborg are the only towns in Sweden where tramways are
at present to be found; yet, such are in preparation in Norrköping and some
other towns. The length of lines in Malmö, in 1903, was 5’35 km. and the
number of passengers 1-5 8 million; in Helsingborg the length of lines is
likewise 5*35 kilometers.
That the telephone system in our Swedish towns has attained a high degree
of perfection will be shown below.
3. COUNTRY ROADS.
At the end of 1895, Sweden had 59,550 kilometers of country roads
or, on an average, 13-3 km. per a hundred sq. km. of its land surface.
In the six most northerly Läns, there were, however, only about 4-3
km. of country road per a hundred sq. km., whereas in the middle and
southern parts of the kingdom the corresponding figure amounted to
31-9 km. For the Län of Malmöhus, the proportion runs up to 64 km.
country road per a hundred sq. km. but stops in the Län of
Vesterbotten at 0*5 and in that of Norrbotten at 0-3. (A kilometer = 0-621 mile).
In a thinly populated country with a configuration so hilly as that of Sweden,
the construction of roads between the farms and village communities and their
keeping in repair, must have been a heavy burden on the people. For this reason
it was not possible in olden times and during the whole of the Middle Ages to
get anything but a small number of roads constructed that were practicable for
vehicles. The »Eriksgata», i. e., the road used by the newly elected King when
making his progress to receive the homage of his people, formed a circuit through
the middle parts of the kingdom, enclosing the lakes of Vettern and Hjelmaren
and the western part of the Mftlaren. But even this road was in times of old
certainly nothing but a horse-path. From various points of that »Eriksgata», roads
opened out towards circumferential parts of the country, e. g., one south-easterly
to Kalmar, one south-westerly to Halmstad, a westerly one to the estuary of Göta
elf, a north-westerly one to Kopparberget in Dalarne, and a north-easterly one to
the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. In the time of Gustavus Vasa, it was decreed
by the Riksdag at Vesterås (1544) that all public roads should be cleared by the
help of the common people and at their expense, »so that all the roads might be
passable without any risk, both from Ny-Lödöse (now the Gamlestad of Gothenburg)
towards Kalmar and from there to Stockholm, likewise all the other roads
necessary», further that the peasantry of northern Vestergötland should »clear the
Tiveden forest (between the provinces of Vestergötland and Nerike), so that people
easily might come across with carriages». In spite of this, it is rather unlikely
that a drive was really constructed across the Tiveden. Far into the 16th century,
assemblies of importance were almost exclusively held in towns that could be
reached by boat. According to a description still extant and written by a
German traveler about his journey from Helsingborg via Jönköping and Norrköping
to Stockholm, in 1586, the way was in wintertime generally laid across frozen
lakes and plain ground, whereas in summer the way by water was preferred,
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