Stockholmarnas resvanor - mellan trängselskatt och klimatdebatt

The authorities and politicians involved seemed ill-prepared for the
wide range of reactions aroused. The value of trialling reforms at full scale
should thus be considered, e.g. in relation to other areas of politics. The
unusual circumstances of the trial also shed light on routines and habits, for
example in terms of which trips were actually cancelled, thus decreasing
the total number of trips. It transpired that it was not routine trips such as
work, food shopping and service that were cancelled, but trips for social or
leisure reasons. It was rather occasional activities and trips in the process
of being developed or tested that were cancelled. The trial appears to have
contributed to interrupting habit-forming processes regarding these.
The Stockholm trial also brought about a shift in the balance between
various positions in the area of transport and environmental politics. In
previous conflicts regarding e.g. the building of new ring roads, the environmental
lobby felt justified in describing itself as disadvantaged, and
often highlighted unsatisfactory circumstances, injustices and other problems
associated with political decisions. With the Stockholm trial, however,
it was the motoring lobby that led the conflict against the politicians.
Overall, a relatively large number of people accepted the charges and
eventually voted yes in the referendum, perhaps because traffic in Stockholm
is an area in which the general public want political action and concrete
measures, as shown by the strongly negative and the mildly positive
reactions. The fact that many of those critical of the charges provided
detailed ideas for alternative measures confirms this assumption.
The trial extended the scope of politicians’ and local residents’ ideas
about possible solutions to the problems created by Stockholm traffic.
Thus in the longer term, it could well have paved the way for other types
of new initiatives in the region’s traffic politics.
Families with and without a car
Part C) of the thesis showed that car-owning families in suburban residential
areas employed specific strategies for planning their travel. They had
different timetables for different activities and performed a great deal of
their activities ‘en route’, especially in connection with compulsory work
trips, in contrast to the households with less car-dependent travel patterns.
The timetables for planning different activities ranged from a few weeks
to days or minutes, depending on the activity involved. Using examples
from the interviews and travel diaries, it can be discussed whether e.g. a
mother’s visit to a skin specialist, as entered in the diary, is more prioritised
178 Summary