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. 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. 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. == Road types ==