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The Stockholm congestion charges-5 years on. Effects, acceptability and lessons learnt
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Congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm in 2006, first as a trial followed by a referendum, then permanently from 2007. This paper discusses what conclusions can be drawn from the first five years of operation, until mid-2011. We show that the traffic reduction caused by the charges has increased slightly over time, once external factors are controlled for. Alternative-fuel vehicles were exempt from the charges through 2008, and we show that this substantially increased the sales of such vehicles. We discuss public and political acceptability, synthesizing recent research and Swedish experience. We conclude that objective and subjective effects on the traffic system, as well as general environmental and political attitudes, formed the basis of the strong public support, while institutional reforms and resolution of power issues were necessary to gain political support. Finally, we briefly discuss implications for the transport planning process in general.
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... These adverse effects have led planners and decisionmakers to propose and implement congestion-charging schemes to restrain tra c during rush hours and reduce these adverse effects. Good examples of congestion charging schemes in cities around the globe that worked well include but are not limited to Singapore (Phan & Toh, 2004), London (Santos et al., 2008), and Stockholm (Börjesson et al., 2012). ...
... Their ndings were later con rmed by Eliasson et al. (2009). Five years later, Börjesson et al. (2012) evaluated the workings of Stockholm congestion charging. Of relevance for our purpose, they found that the tra c reduction caused by the charges increased slightly over time and that the usage of alternatives to conventional fuel vehicles, exempt from the congestion charges, showed a substantial increase in sales. ...
... These factors would only impact bicycle share and walking and, to a certain extent, public transport. Furthermore, for studies such as this, it is not clear that a longer period would have been better, as many other confounding factors occur over time, making it more di cult to disentangle the real impacts, as in the case of a shorter period (Börjesson et al. (2012). Consequently, we use a simple comparison of observed data before and after two years and compare numbers to obtain an overview of how the transformation worked. ...
This paper assesses how transforming a cordon toll ring with flat toll rates to a congestion charging scheme works in achieving its intended objectives. The contribution to the literature on transportation is that few studies have examined how such transformations fulfill their main policy objectives. We use the City of Bergen in Norway as a case study to infer the extent to which policy objectives were achieved two years later. In early 2016, the city council transformed its flat-rate cordon toll ring into a congestion charging scheme. It entailed an increase in toll rates during rush hour and a decrease during non-rush hour periods. The primary aim was to reduce traffic levels entering the city center during rush hour and improve the inner city's air quality. A secondary objective was to maintain income at the current level to complete the preplanned and already sanctioned investment projects. We use traffic counts, NO2 and PM10 emission measurements, and annual toll income to evaluate how the congestion scheme performed two years after implementation. We find that (i) traffic levels during rush hour and non-rush hour periods were reduced by 12% and 2%, respectively, giving a grand reduction of 6%; (ii) the emissions in NO2 and PM10 were reduced by 6.3% and 11%, respectively; (iii) the toll income dropped by 13%, meaning that preplanned investments would not be implemented on time; and (iv) the use of other modes of transportation increased. Overall, congestion charging worked according to transportation economists' longstanding suggestions.
... Over the years, these adverse effects have become a matter of concern to the City Council of Oslo. In addition, studies have observed good results in, for instance, Singapore, London and Stockholm (Börjesson, Eliasson, Hugosson, and Brundell-Freij, 2012;Phang andToh, 2004 andSantos, Button, andNoll, 2008). Therefore, in October 2017, the City Council of Oslo transformed its cordon toll scheme into a congestion charging scheme. ...
... Although economists have advocated congestion charging for decades, few cities have implemented it (Lindsey and Santos, 2020). Examples of how implemented congestion charging in cities helped reduce congestion include, e.g., Phang and Toh (2004) in the case of Singapore, Santos et al. (2008) in the case of London, and Börjesson et al. (2012) in the case of Stockholm. ...
... Those who experienced less congestion after the transformation to congestion charging are less likely to have a totally negative attitude towards the transformation to congestion charging. This finding shows that "real life experience" helps people understand that congestion charging reduces congestion, which also corresponds to the findings in Stockholm (Börjesson et al., 2012;Schade and Schlag, 2003;Winslott-Hiselius et al., 2009). One major reason why people oppose congestion charging is the uncertainty about its effectiveness (Gu, Liu, Cheng, and Saberi, 2018). ...
... The studies are often based on identifying factors influencing willingness to accept these measures. [12,[27][28][29][30]. However, measure acceptability does not usually translate to a willingness to support. ...
... It could therefore be the basis for introducing an UVAR measure. This measure can subsequently be improved or expanded after implementation based on the empirical evidence that acceptability and support improve post-implementation of UVAR measures [27,28,86]. ...
Unlabelled:
In cognisance of the urgent need to decarbonise the transport sector to limit its impact on climate change and to internalise other negative transport externalities, regulating vehicle access in urban areas is essential. However, urban areas often struggle to implement these regulations due to concerns relating to social acceptability, heterogeneity of citizen preferences, lack of information on preferred measure attributes, and other factors that can boost the acceptance of urban vehicle access regulations. This study explores the acceptability and willingness to support Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVAR) in Budapest, Hungary to reduce transportation emissions and promote sustainable urban mobility. Using a structured questionnaire, which includes a choice-based conjoint exercise, the study finds that 42% of respondents were willing to support a car-free policy measure. Results were analysed to elicit preferences for specific UVAR measure attributes, identify population subgroups, and assess factors influencing willingness to support UVAR implementation. Access fee and proportion of revenue earmarked for transport development were the most important attributes to respondents. The study also identified three distinct subgroups of respondents with differing preferences, which could be characterised based on access to passenger cars, age, and employment status. The findings suggest that for effective UVAR, access fees for non-compliant vehicles should be excluded from measure designs, and the attribute preference approach highlights the importance of considering the heterogeneity of residents' preferences in UVAR measure planning.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12302-023-00745-0.
... Unfortunately, individuals are less likely to accept these measures, since they involve higher costs or travel times as well as a perceived restriction of their personal freedom to move (Steg 2003). Thus, many researchers recommend combinations of 'push' and 'pull' strategies to accomplish a modal shift that is both effective and acceptable (Steg 2003;Gärling and Schuitema 2007;Börjesson et al. 2012). ...
... More than two thirds of the respondents support the car lane to cycle lane conversions, 56% the parking management package and 45% the Mainkai closure. Furthermore, and similar to previ-ous studies (Steg 2003;Gärling and Schuitema 2007;Börjesson et al. 2012), combinations of 'push' and 'pull' measures are more popular than 'push' measures alone as the support for the package of parking measures (56%) in comparison with parking fees alone (19%) shows (section 4). ...
Facing the challenges of motorised traffic, many cities around the globe started implementing measures to transform their urban transport systems. One of the major challenges for the success of adequate policies is not only their effectiveness but also whether they are accepted by city residents. With a quantitative case study in four neighbourhoods in Frankfurt am Main (N = 821), this article investigates the acceptability of three measures: (i) parking management, (ii) the conversion of car lanes into cycle lanes and (iii) the closure of an inner city arterial road to car traffic. The results show a surprisingly high acceptability for all measures if the benefits for local residents are tangible. Thus, successful policy packages may combine push measures with either pull measures, as suggested frequently in the literature, or with improvements for other land uses (e.g. re-using former car-parking spaces for non-transport purposes, such as greenery or seating areas). Furthermore, the perceived effectiveness, daily travel practices and intentions to reduce car use, the built environment and, to a lesser degree, socio-demographics explain differences in acceptability by population group.
... Nevertheless, a number of strategies may help in this regard, including innovative policy mixes or packages (see for example Givoni et al., 2013) rather than individual measures, the use of demonstration schemes (e.g. Börjesson et al., 2012) and marketing and communication techniques (see for example Eliasson & Jonsson, 2011). ...
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) can potentially bring about major changes in cities. Anticipatory planning approaches may provide valuable opportunities for fostering desirable transitions and pre-empting undesirable impacts. This research employs a combination of two methods to define the key policies to support a transition to the desirable driverless urban futures: the backcasting approach and the participatory Q-method. The combination of these techniques aims to identify different viewpoints about policies with the purpose of determining more effective and more acceptable options. The article analyses viewpoints from 20 citizens and 10 experts. The results point to the existence of two main viewpoints about the most and least desirable policies. The first viewpoint centres around increasing pedestrian mobility and promoting a more compact city. The second viewpoint centres around expanding transit-oriented development (TOD) and new networks of green spaces. Meanwhile, support for regulation-oriented policies to discourage the use of private motorised vehicles was relatively low. This research not only sheds light on the different viewpoints on the policies to achieve more desirable urban visions, it also illustrates the tensions and disagreements that may arise in the process of policy-making.
... The economic theory behind it states that road pricing can be used to economically optimise the use of transport infrastructure, to minimise the demand for additional road capacity and to make the infrastructure quasi-congestion-free. Nowadays, several practical examples, with Stockholm (Börjesson et al., 2012) being the best case comparable to the Brussels metropolitan region, show that this model works. ...
In April 2021, the Flemish government published their plans for the redevelopment of the R0, the larger ring road around Brussels. These plans include a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) and an environmental impact assessment report (EIA) in which the pros and cons of various plan alternatives are weighed against each other. The current paper is a critical analysis of both official documents, and assesses to what extent recent academic insights regarding induced travel are being dealt with in the planning process for this motorway redevelopment project. Drawing upon a literature review, it is concluded that the existing body of knowledge on induced travel is largely ignored by the planning documents scrutinised, which suggests that the SCBA overestimates the economic benefits of the project, while the EIA underestimates the environmental impacts. While a road pricing scheme would potentially support the achievement of the stated planning objectives, it is not included in any of the proposed plan alternatives.
As private car usage has negative effects, such as traffic congestion and air pollution, the effectiveness of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) policies could be considered as any reduction in car usage. However, the efficiency of TDM policies could be addressed by a combination of their effectiveness and public acceptability. Policy packaging is treated as a way to get more benefits from a set of policies in form of a package. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of a package containing a push TDM policy, which is usually effective but not acceptable, introducing a pull policy that is generally acceptable could be of interest. This research aimed to evaluate the efficiency of two packages of TDM policies containing a push policy (either cordon or parking pricing) and a pull policy (transit system development). Therefore, 535 working-purpose car commuters were interviewed to examine the trade-offs between the acceptability and effectiveness of each package. According to the results, although the transit development policy causes a 1.52% reduction in car usage, it significantly affects the acceptability of cordon pricing and transit development package. Finally, a discussion is provided regarding how to use the policy packages to achieve the highest potential effectiveness at a specific level of acceptability.
Studies of the “stated preferences” of households generally report public and political opposition by urban commuters to congestion pricing. It is thought that this opposition inhibits or precludes tolls and pricing systems that would enhance efficiency in the use of scarce roadways. This paper analyzes the only case in which road pricing was decided by a citizen referendum on the basis of experience with a specific pricing system. The city of Stockholm introduced a toll system for seven months in 2006, after which citizens voted on its permanent adoption. We match precinct voting records to citizen commute times and costs by traffic zone, and we analyze patterns of voting in response to economic and political incentives. We document political and ideological incentives for citizen choice, but we also find that the pattern of time savings and incremental costs exerts a powerful influence on voting behavior. In this instance, at least, citizen voters behave as if they value commute time highly. When they have experienced first-hand the out-of-pocket costs and time-savings of a specific pricing scheme, they are prepared to adopt freely policies which reduce congestion on urban motorways.
