A Blueprint for Beating Traffic

At some point, cities in the United States will adopt congestion pricing to reduce traffic. When they do, their policies should be informed by the programs in existence today — and preferably by the longest-running ones, like those in London and Stockholm. In London, the jury on road pricing is still out. One recent analysis questioned whether or not traffic had been reduced in the city, and wondered if improving the bus system alone would have been more cost-effective.

Stockholm's program, however, looks to be a unanimous success. That's the conclusion reached by a group of Swedish researchers in an upcoming issue of the journal Transport Policy. Their evaluation of the city's pricing policy, which began in 2006, found that it accomplished three core goals: congestion has plunged without rebounding, sales have grown for exempt fuel-efficient vehicles and both public and political opinion has pivoted from cynical to strong.