The Oil Drum

Couls Sprawl also have been a defensive tactic against limited nuclear war? Spreading out the population and industry instead of having dense cities probably made it harder to bomb out USA.

But if that were a major reason every ten garage or so would be a fallout shelter with a meter of concrete in the walls and ceiling.

During the cold war we had such a planning for a threat equaling WW-2 style terror bombing or limited nuclear war. Most new apartment houses in large or strategic towns were built with bomb and fallout shelters. Old city cores were complemented with public shelters, the largest ones held 20 000 people see http://www.bunkertours.co.uk/Stockholm%20CD%20Shelter.htm
New shelters like infilling in light industrial areas and single house areas by tearing down garages and building standardised bomb/fallout shelters with garage doors were made at least untill the late 1980:s.

There were also plans duringthe early cold war to evacuate city population to the countryside. We also had a civil defence organization like the one Dresden would have needed in WW-2. All of it is gone now in the post cold war draw down, all exept some civil defence for the grid and the shelter stock that still is maintained although new houses are no longer required to be built with shelters.

Finland have kept the same type of shelter program running and still build new shelters, they probably also have an intact civil defence system. I am very impressed by the Finns, I wish Sweden were run in such a competent way as Finland. Switzerland probably have more and better shelters then Sweden.

Thinking about wasted cold war investments makes me quite sad, about 200 billion dollars over 40 years to prepair for a war that, thank a deity, never came. Wonder if we will start doing post peak oil and global warming investments with the same determination?

Back to topic, I dont think the threat of nuclear war lead to a change in city planning in Sweden.