Licentiatavhandling Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2007

Kommunikationsväsendets utveckling är ju obestridligen ett af de mest framträdande dragen i 1800-talets materiella historia”1 konstaterade Eli F. Heckscher, och syftade med detta på järnvägen samt på de effekter som följde med den. Samma konstaterande skulle även kunna användas för 1900-talet, vilket Erik Dahmén menade var den motoriserade mobilitetens århundrade: det sätt på vilket bilen kommit att påverka både den ekonomiska strukturen och det vardagliga livet stod i en klass för sig.2 Redan 1950 hade Sverige det högsta antalet bilar per capita i Västeuropa.3 ”Utvecklingen har gått mycket snabbt” konstaterar Sven Andersson 1956 i Har vi råd med bilen?, där han sedan fortsätter: ”bilägare finns nu i alla samhällsklasser och vi är på väg att rasera de skrankor som ännu finns kvar”, ”frågan är om inte bilismens utveckling är det mest påtagliga i vår tids demokratisering”.4 Idag har Sverige inte längre det högsta antalet bilar per capita i Västeuropa, men det finns inga tydliga tendenser på att bilen kommit att minska i betydelse för individ eller hushåll. Dess påverkan på den ekonomiska tillväxten och strukturen är också den fortfarande påtaglig.

This licentiate thesis, with the English title Automobility towards Regional Equality? Studies of the geographical and socioeconomic diffusion of the private automobility in Sweden 1950-2000, has the overall aim to investigate the interaction between the private automobility and the Swedish socio-economical development in general. Firstly, the diffusion of private car ownership in Sweden is mapped both geographically and economically at the national level covering all citizens above the age of 18. Secondly, a comparison with the Norwegian diffusion pattern shows how automobility has interacted with two partly different national contexts. This aim will be dealt with in two articles. Since the diffusion of private cars in Sweden has not yet been examined in a long run and national perspective covering all individuals, the first article, Driving from the Centre to the Periphery? The Diffusion of Private Cars in Sweden 1950-2000 with focus on 1960-1975, investigates how the diffusion of private cars followed the over all socio-economic and geographical changes from 1960 to 1975; did changes in car ownership per capita primarily follow changes in incomes or changes in population density (urbanisation)? Swedish traffic and regional policies in the 1960s aimed at making the car an instrument for national integration and regional equality, and make it available throughout the country. In the article the effect of that policy is tested. The analysis is based on Swedish census material that includes all car owners for the years 1960, 1970 and 1975. Our conclusion is that income levels were more important than other explanations to the diffusion of private cars in Sweden between 1960 and 1975. Since Norwegian private car density has lagged behind the Swedish and did not reach the same national levels until the late 1980s, despite the same GDP per capita levels, the second article, Two Sides of the same Coin? Private Car Ownership in Sweden and Norway since 1950, compares car diffusion in Norway and Sweden in both historical time and model time in order to find specific explanations for the national and regional patterns of car diffusion. Can both the time lag and the diffusion process be explained with national differences in income, institutions, infrastructure, and population settlements? Or have regional differences in income and population density affected the outcome? Our conclusion is that car diffusion in Norway and Sweden displays two sides of same coin; the national levels converged, but the process did not follow the same regional pattern. Regional differences in income and population density have in general been a significant explanation for car density in Sweden but not in Norway. Thus, the licentiate thesis shows how private car ownership in Sweden from the 1950s has interacted with increasing regional equality, especially concerning geographical diffusion.