Stockholmarnas resvanor - mellan trängselskatt och klimatdebatt

ole in everyday life and are used to organise it, they provide the potential
to resort to previous experiences in a given situation. Habits help conserve
mental capacity and allow people to multi-task, to direct their attention in a
certain direction and reserve decision-making capacity for genuinely unexpected
situations. Habitual actions, once established, tend to be copied and
eventually institutionalised, so that they appear increasingly self-evident.
The self-evidence in habits may mainly consist of habits not being noticed
or evaluated, although it may also involve the social acceptability of questioning
them. An important feature is habits and preferences learned under
the influence of various positionings between groups and classes in society.
Together these form an internalised second nature with clear continuity,
i.e. resistant to change. Against the background of such resistance, it is
interesting to discuss where, why and how changes in habits occur.
The Stockholm trial
Part B) of the thesis concerns the Stockholm trial, a full-scale trial of congestion
charges (and improved public transport by bus) in Stockholm inner
city. The charges (technically taxes) were levied from January 3 until July
31, 2006. Traffic decreased by around 20 % within the charge zone during
the trial. The trial was followed by a referendum in September 2006 and
charges were subsequently reintroduced on a permanent basis in August
2007. At reintroduction, the majority of the revenue was earmarked for
new roads rather than improved public transport by the new conservative
government.
Using qualitative interviews and travel diaries, I charted the whole spectrum
of reactions to the Stockholm trial among residents in the region. I
found the wide variety and inventiveness of attitudes and practical ways of
coping more striking among opponents of the charges than among advocates,
perhaps because those in favour had no real need to demonstrate their
support as they had the law on their side.
Many people believed that new roads ought to be built and congestion
charging reassessed. Otherwise, the trial gave rise to ideas, suggestions and
criticisms in a number of areas, such as political manoeuvring, the cost of
the trial, other areas with which the reform should be linked (e.g. distribution
politics) and matters concerning integrity and interference in people’s
everyday lives. It is clear that people were reacting about more than the
charge and its administration. Criticisms of various aspects of the trial may
have been indirect rhetorical ways of reacting to car travel being questioned.
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