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Congestion charge means less traffic in Gothenburg - but people are not happy

Thursday, 03 January 2013
The first day of congestion charges in Gothenburg is believed to have produced impressive results as car traffic fell declined by 25 percent, according to estimates from the Swedish Transport Agency.

"Between 6 am and 12 noon today, we had approximately 158,000 passages. Based on the analysis we have made, it is believed that there has been a decrease of 25 percent compared to the corresponding days during a similar period," Eva Rosman of the Swedish transport Agency told radio Sweden, adding that "what we saw initially in Stockholm was that there was a large decrease in the first few weeks. Later it levelled out, and is now steadily at around 18 percent decrease compared to 2005. Most likely, we will see the same trend here in Gothenburg,"

The first estimates suggest therefore that traffic in Gothenburg has been reduced by 25 percent compared with similar days. It has been compared to, for example, Christmas 2007, when the holidays had a similar nature of this year.

But it is difficult to draw any conclusions as this is the first day, which is also a middle day of the week. The big test will come on Monday, which is the first day after the holidays when traffic is expected to look like an ordinary working day.

Overall, the idea is not only that the charges will reduce congestion and air pollution aa popularly sold, it is also to raise money for a range of investments in infrastructure, the so-called Western Swedish package.
Some people interviewed by the Gothenburg based tabloid newspaper, GT were not very happy about the congestion charge.

The tabloid paper, GT has collected more that 45,000 signatures, which is required to call for a referendum claim to determine the general acceptance of the congestion charges.
But reports hold that a referendum would likely be indicative only and not binding as the City Council had enough support at the time of the proposal and establishing the congestion charge. Parliamentary decision on the congestion charge was taken in May 2010.
by Scancomark.com Team

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