Congestion Charging in Gothenburg - Political and Design Process

During informal political discussions in June 2009, the idea of introducing a congestion charging scheme in Gothenburg was formed. In September 2009, the design process started and in only 3 months, the entire process of designing a congestion charging system was performed, while at the same time gaining broad political acceptance. The congestion charging proposal was approved by the Swedish Parliament during the spring of 2010 and is now a part of national law. The system is currently under construction and will start operating in January 2013. In this paper the authors describe the political process and the planning process from the first initiative that was made to investigate alternatives for congestion charging in September 2009 up till the state of affairs in January 2011. Besides the process and actors involved they also discuss what made it possible to go from a blank sheet of paper to a congestion charging proposal with broad political acceptance in only 3 months. Finally, some lessons learned with focus on the efficient design process and that it is possible to get positive societal cost benefit effects even in smaller cities (around 1 million inhabitants in the Gothenburg metropolitan area) with limited congestion problems.

• Record URL:
  http://itswc.confex.com/itswc/WC2011/webprogram/Paper2376.html
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://itswc.confex.com/itswc/WC2011/webprogram/start.html
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Ohman, Bjorn
  • Thorsson, Tobias
• Conference:
  • 18th ITS World Congress
  • Location: Orlando Florida, United States
  • Date: 2011-10-16 to 2011-10-20
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p
• Monograph Title: 18th ITS World Congress, Orlando, 2011. Proceedings

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Congestion pricing; Implementation; Planning methods; Policy making; Political factors; Road pricing; Traffic mitigation; User charges
• Geographic Terms: Goteborg (Sweden)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; I10: Economics and Administration; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01484828
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 25 2013 8:55AM