Reader Rob Jackson calls attention to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about the experiment in Stockholm, Sweden, with congestion pricing. It seems that the Swedes, for all their skill in urban planning and their investments in mass transit, are suffering from traffic congestion. Better yet, they’re adopting a market-driven remedy. Socialist though they may be, Sweden’s politicians apparently have a firmer grasp of economics than Virginia’s.
The Greater Stockholm region has nearly two million people. The central city, built upon an archipelago of islands linked by bridges, is particularly prone to congestion. Under contract with IBM, the national government has set up 23 tolling points which, used in conjunction with transponder boxes, laser detectors and cameras, tracks the path of every car in the city. Each time a car with a transponder passes through a toll, the charge is automatically deducted from the driver’s bank account. Tolls vary at different times of the day according to the level of congestion, ranging from the equivalent of $1.38 to $2.76 per hour.
The goal was to alter motorist behavior — and that’s exactly what has happened. Rather than drive to and from work at the same time every day, some Stockholmites (Stockholmers?) are varying their commuting times. Some are taking different routes. Some are riding bicycles. And many are availing themselves of mass transit. As the WSJ explains:
Before the trial began, Stockholm spent about $180 million on improvements to public transportation. It bought about 200 new buses and added rush-hour trains, express bus routes and more park-and-ride lots. But the changes had little impact on the number of people who left their private cars at home. In spring 2006, however, during the trial, use of all forms of public transportation jumped 6% and ridership on inner-city bus routes rose 9%, compared with a year earlier.
Now that the six-month trial has ended, the city has scheduled a referendum to let voters decide whether to make the congestion-pricing scheme permanent. A June poll found that 52 percent of voters favored the plan.
So far, the idea of congestion pricing in Virginia hasn’t gotten past the talking stage. It strikes me as remarkable that our transportation policies are more socialistic than Sweden’s.