
Congestion Pricing Was Unpopular in Stockholm – Until People Saw It in Action - oftenwrong
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/11/28/congestion-pricing-was-unpopular-in-stockholm-until-people-saw-it-in-action/
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kpil
That's bullshit. What could we do? No political party were seriously against
it, and it's not a huge question to form a new political party around.

They did a 'trial run' after the investment which I guess was to make it look
more democratic, and there was a public referendum which I actually believe
was not in favor, but ignored. (Or was it in favor by only the 20% living
inside the toll gates where allowed to vote, and the surrounding 14 regions
arranged their own ignored referendums.

They spent a bizarre amount on implementing this, basically paying IBM the
complete development cost for a plate reading system but gained no ownership
rights into the product, simultaneously implemented a radio based system that
was later ditched, hired hundreds if not thousands of people working with the
billing and help desks (so how automatic was it), and campaigning on how good
this is for the society.

The cost for adding 20 something camera based toll gates were almost half of
the cost of building a 5 km long tunnel that was finished a few years before
and constitutes about a quarter of an incomplete ring road. 3 billion SEK
compared to 6 billion SEK. ($340m vs 680m)

The incomes did not cover the _running_ costs the first years and I can't find
any facts on if it's actually covering it's amortized costs now.

Coincidentally, a similarly unloved project in Gothenburg to build a
relatively unnecessary train tunnel to huge costs DID actually spawn a new
political party that gained 20% of the votes. Maybe there's hope.

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kungtotte
I think they are overlooking a very important point, and that is public
transportation costs at the same time.

The Stockholm region is divided into three public transit zones, and you have
to pay for each zone you cross. So travelling across town would cost you three
coupons, but going a few stops would just be one coupon.

The problem was you pay based on how many zones you travel in, not distance.
So if you took a subway two stops and crossed a boundary: bam! Two coupons.

When they introduced congestion charges they also imposed a "one coupon" rule:
you never had to pay for more than one coupon.

So public transit became a lot more attractive over night at the same time
that cars got more expensive. Small wonder that people switched.

Now they've gone back to three coupons though...

And anecdotally: the inner city feels just as congested now as it did before
the charges.

