The Stockholm Congestion Charging Trial

vv

Gunnar Johansson, Road User Charging

Budapest | November - 2006 © 2006 IBM Corporation

The Stockholm Congestion Charging Trial

BACKGROUNDSOLUTION DESIGNMAIN CHALLENGESPERFORMANCEIMPACT ON PUBLIC OPINIONTRAFFIC IMPACT LESSONS LEARND

2

Stockholm Congestion Charges

Budapest | November 2006 © 2006 IBM Corporation

Situation in Stockholm

Inhabitants 1,9 million in the county of Stockholm 760 000 in the city of Stockholm 275 000 in the Stockholm inner city

Travel & transportation 560 000 vehicles cross the inner city

cordon per working day 73% of all personal trips across the inner city

cordon during rush hour is by public transport 2,5% car ownership increase per year Lack of capacity in between the northern and

the southern halves of the region (road and rail)

BACKGROUND

3



Situation in StockholmBACKGROUND

4



73% of all personal trips to the inner city during rush hour is by public transport - but the road congestion still cause the society huge damages

External impacts Congestion estimates cost 600 to 800

million Euro per year 361 severely injured & 18 traffic deaths 10 – 100 cases of cancer caused by

atmospheric pollution 50 000 inhabitants exposed

to over 65 dBA

BACKGROUND

5



Mission: Find a way to keep the congestion at the present level but take into account the estimated socio-economic and demographic changes for the future

“Present situation” Future

Estimated traffic speed relatively to free flow speedClassifications of speed reduction; RED = 65 -100% BLU = 50 - 65 % GREY = 0 - 50%

BACKGROUND

6



There are now way to sustainable reduce the congestion in the City of Stockholm without Congestion Charges

Conclusion: Just building new road lanes generate more traffic

and new bottlenecks – takes long time to implement and cost a fortune

Improved public transport services do not reduce congestion as it do not attract car users significantly - and cost a fortune

A combination of Congestion Charges, road investments and improved public services is needed to reduce congestion - and is a win-win solution

BACKGROUND

7



The Stockholm Trial project Trial period from Jan to July 2006 Referendum Sept 2006 Revenue used for public transports Charges

– Variable charges, 0-2 Euro per passage in or out of the city

– No charges during low traffic period– Max charge 6 Euro per day – Lidingö exemption rule

SOLUTION DESIGN

Congestion Charges

Improved Public Transport

New Park & Ride

8



How does the system work?

2Information is matched with registered vehicle. Fee is added to the owner’s account

Call-centre operations managed by IBM

The gateway registers the vehicle

A

1 Picture is taken of the vehicle’s licence plate.

ABC 123

B

IBM has designed, built, implemented

integrated and runs the congestion charging system

3 Way of payment• Transponder/direct debit• Bank/Giro• 7-eleven/ Pressbyrån

9



MAIN CHALLENGES

To design a “state-of-art” OCR solution to meet the agreed service levels was a challenge

10



City of Stockholm Transport of Stockholm Swedish Road Administration

Tax AuthorityIBM

Ministry of Finance

Enforcement

Courts

Brav

ida

Conn

ecta

Elan

IT R

esou

rce

eWor

k

Man

powe

r

Nord

eaPo

sten

Reita

n Se

rvice

hand

el S

verig

e AB

Riz

ITSAP

Stok

ab

Swec

o VB

B AB

VÄG

BELY

SNIN

G I

SVER

IGE

AB

FORT

UM D

ISTR

IBUT

ION

ABNOFA

VÄG

VERK

ET P

RODU

KTIO

N

Focu

s Ne

on

Ministry of Industry …Q

-Fre

e

MAIN CHALLENGES

To coordinate partners, 200 change requests and deliver an “end to end” solution & service in time was a challenge

11



Payment channels Transponder/direct debit 63% 7-eleven/ Pressbyrån 24% Bank/Giro 13%

Transaction and appeal volume Passages at control points 46 500 000 Passages liable for the tax 33 500 000 Number of tax decisions 14 400 000 100% Appeals to the tax Authorities 13 000

0,09% Appeals to the County Administrative Court 665

0,005%

Efficient payment cannels and low number of appeals (Jan-July 2006)

PERFORMANCE

12



99.99% operational reliability is a result of built in redundancy

Total number of lane hours 148 174Lost operational time, number of lane hours 57 (0,038%)Non-identified vehicles 1%

PERFORMANCE

14



Media was very critical before ”go alive”System launching day Focused on the expected chaos

IMPACT ON PUBLIC OPINION

15



The congestion charging policy and solution was a target for media

Before the launching date Solution, transponders and project costs


16



Immediate positive press focused on the huge impact

One day after

17



System performance exceeds all expectationSome weeks after System performance exceeds all expectation


18



The swing in the opinion came after 3 monthsIMPACT ON PUBLIC OPINION

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Sep05

Oct05

Nov05

Dec06

Jan06

Feb06

Mar06

Apr06

Maj06

Jun06

Good ideaBad idea

Referendum in the City och Stockholm

YES: 51,7%

NO: 45,6%

19



Number of passages reduced by 90 000 to 115 000 per day (20 – 25%) compared to last year

0

100 000

200 000

300 000

400 000

500 000

600 000

2005

2006

End

of t

rial p

erio

d

TRAFFIC IMPACT

20



0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000Innerstadssnittet

Tidpunkt

Flöd

e (fo

rdon

/h)

April 2005April 2006

Peak traffic was reduced and accessibility improved

TRAFFIC IMPACT

21



The impact exceeded all expectationsImprovements also for non car users 40,000 new daily public transport passengers Congestion reduced by 30 – 50 % in the City Centre Increased efficiency in public bus transports Taxi drivers increased revenue by 10-20% Inner-city retailers not negatively effected Better environment - emission reduced by 12-14% in the

City Centre Attitudes was changed from negative to positive Revenue EUR 90 M per year

TRAFFIC IMPACT

22



Why is the Stockholm project a success?

Policy and scheme design The clear defined objective was exceeded The charging scheme was simple and fair The impact was visible for everybody and

well communicated

Technical system The users were well informed before the

start The system worked from day one Very low number of errors generated by

the system

LESSONS LEARNED

23



Documents

The Stockholm Congestion Charging Trial