Towards zero emissions from Swedish urban transport

Report from the project ‘To buy or not to buy’.

In this report we analyse how urban transport policies can help Sweden achieve its environmental goals. We combine theory from urban economics and economic geography with welfare economic analysis and an econometric study of the outcome of the Gothenburg congestion charge.

We cannot rely on electric vehicles alone to achieve the 2030 climate target for the transport sector: we must get fossil cars off the road. Car ownership is relatively low in cities, even though urban drivers do not pay the full costs of congestion, local pollution, and parking; plugging these gaps would help further reduce ownership and driving. However, the low sensitivity of urban Gothenburg’s car owners to the congestion charge suggests that the key reason for lower car ownership in cities is not higher costs but lower perceived benefits, hence the key to pushing down car ownership should be to further increase the speed and convenience of alternative modes of transport. We therefore need a package of measures including higher priority for public transport and cycling, and lower priority for private cars. Such measures would also encourage the further development of centralized cities, leading to more efficient labour markets and more productive firms.