Being the thoughts and writings of one Gustaf Erikson; father, homeowner, technologist.

This category contains posts about everything and nothing, or, in other words, I couldn't be bothered to find a category for them

Friday, 2006-01-13

Stockholm’s congestion charges

I had my first taste of the trial of congestion charges in Stockholm today.

The trip into town at 8:30 was really smooth. There was a queue of vehicles for the access tunnel to the free motorway from South to North, but the route to work was nearly empty. I kept a constant 70 kph all the way through Södertunneln, almost unheard of unless it’s a weekend.

The trip in cost 20 SEK, I paid 15 SEK on the way out (a bit earlier in the afternoon than peak time).

I like congestion charges on principle, as they put a price on a resource that’s scarce and makes the cost visible, but I can’t agree with the way the charges are implemented. As the roads are owned by the state, only the state can take care of the revenue — as a tax. Due to Sweden’s public disclosure of public records, each and every passage through a toll station is public record — tied to the vehicle’s license plate number.

This raises obvious privacy issues. As far as I’m concerned, these need to be addressed if the trial becomes permanent.

Posted at 21:14, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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