The Statistical Office of Iceland provides a list of all urban nuclei in Iceland, that is a list of all towns and villages, large and small. One question one might ask is “which of these places lies farthest away from the capital?”

If we only look at the localities on the main island, the answer is: Borgarfjörður eystri.

The route to Borgarfjörður eystri from Reykjavík, through Akureyri and Egilsstaðir. From yournavigation.org. Map data CC-BY-SA by OpenStreetMap.

According to the route planner that comes with Google Maps, it takes 8 hours and 58 minuites to drive from Reykjavík to Borgarfjörður eystri.

If you want a full list of all travel distances from Reykjavík it can be found in the following Excel file: distancesIceland.

Here are some pictures representing the most popular bus stops in the Greater Reykjavik public transport systems. See the comparison between 8 o’clock and 16 o’clock maps. One can see how most people are getting in in the suburbs in the morning and returning home in the afternoon.

CC-BY-SA 3.0. PaBaMapa

CC-BY-SA 3.0. PaBaMapa

After dinner the traffic gets slower:

CC-BY-SA 3.0

 This is the legend: Stations with more than 25 passengers/h are shown with a label.

In fact, if you want, you can check out the picture for every hour. The can be found under the following links.

http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map7.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map8.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map9.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map10.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map11.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map12.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map13.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map14.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map15.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map16.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map17.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map18.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map19.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map20.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map21.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map22.png,
http://pabamapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/map23.png.

Note the numbering is slightly confusing, thus map22 is the map of bus traffic 21:00-21:59.

I am currently working on a project to map the bus transport in Iceland. I have a full list of all BUS stations along with their internal IDs (see here: names). Using the Nominatim geocoding tool from OpenStreetMap, tool I was able to pinpoint many of the stations to their approximate locations. In some cases the results were far off, like when the bus station Gerði was mapped to the town Gerdi, Afganistan. In some cases it threw no results, I then placed them in the Fossvogur bay, for the time being. So this is the result.

Here you can look at the map in detail. The coordinates come from OpenStreetMap/Me and that part is under a free Creative Commons Licence, the underlying map is from Google Maps and is copyrighted.

View Bus Stops Capital Area Iceland in a larger map

If you happen to live in the area and feel like adjusting the map, you can do that: It is open for all to edit under: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?vps=2&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=211352181949628755701.0004b6686d1871ab4b12a

(Note that when you click this link, Google Maps divides the PlaceMarks into four pages, which is kinda annoying, but can be lived with for such a small project.)

There you can also download the .kml file of the locations for your own purposes.

In yesterday’s post we looked a the extradition treaties made by the Republic Of Iceland. Now, essentially those “extradition schemes” come from two different Treaties, the first being The European Convention on Extradition, which has been ratified by the members of the Council of Europe, the second is a Pan-Nordic treaty on Extradition.

The COE treaty provides means of extraditing foreigners, whereas the Pan-Nordic Treaty goes a step further and, under some conditions, opens a door to extraditing, e.g. an Icelander from Iceland to Norway.

A similar a sort-of similar scheme, the European Arrest Warrant, exists in the EU. For example the following map shows the extradition treaties valid for Poland: (As of November 2011).

Extradition Treaties of Poland. PaBaMapa. Map by User:Avala. CC-BY-SA 3.0

As one can see, the European Arrrest Warrant covers the entire area of the EU.

Following recent developments, where a group of alleged robbers where caught in Poland and then set free, there has been a growing talk of Iceland participating in the EAW.

The fmr. Justice minister Björn Bjarnason claimed in an article in 2010 that the Icelandic Parliament had already given its approval for jumping on board. Apparently however, the matter is “pending” as can be seen on this official webpage of the EU. Now this raises, at least for me, a pair of questions.

Has Iceland already ratified the Treaty in Question as hinted by the fmr. minister of justice, and if that is in deed the case, what is blocking it from entering into force?

[Written in November 2011]

There has been some talk in Iceland about the non-extradition of two Polish nationals arrested in Poland for robbing a store in downtown Reykjavik. Here’s some an article about it: http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Watch-Thief-Accomplices-Will-Not-Be-Extradited.

This has pointed the attention of the public to the state extradition treaties with other countries. As of now, Iceland is not yet a part of European Arrest Warrant meaning that the situation is as follows. Most of the countries in Europe will not extradite its own citizens to Iceland and vice-versa. There is however a pan-nordic treaty en force, which goes further, allowing extradition of Icelanders to other Nordic countries and vice-versa.

Additionally, Iceland has signed bilateral treaties on extradition with some European countries. These are also shown on the map, but they also do generally not facilitate for extradition of the country’s own-nationals.

Iceland's Extradition Treaties. PaBaMapa CC-BY-SA 3.0. Map: User: Avala CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Thus generally, Icelanders can be extradited to the Nordic countries, but not other European countries. Also a non-nordic Citizen can escape extradition to Iceland by staying in his home country.