The Stockholm congestion pricing syndrome: how congestion charges went from unthinkable to uncontroversial

Jonas Eliasson ()

No 2014:1, Working papers in Transport Economics from CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI)

Abstract: Congestion pricing was introduced in Stockholm 2006, first as a trial followed by a referendum, and permanently from 2007. Public attitudes to the charges became more negative during the period from the decision to the start of the system. Once the system started, public attitudes became dramatically more positive over the following years, going from 2/3 against the charges to more than 2/3 in favour of the charges. While the traditional explanatory variables self-interest and belief in the charges’ effectiveness strongly affect attitudes at any given point in time, we show that they cannot explain the change in opinion. Moreover, self-reported changes in behaviour and attitudes considerably underestimate actual changes. About 3/4 of the decrease in car trips and more than half of the change in attitudes seem to have gone unnoticed by respondents, ex post. We discuss how the debate and the shift in attitudes can be understood as a public and political reframing of the congestion pricing over time.

Keywords: Congestion pricing; Acceptability; Attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 H54 R41 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2014-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Eliasson, Jonas, 'The role of attitude structures, direct experience and framing for successful congestion pricing' in Transportation Research A, 2014, pages 81-95.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2014_001

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