Stockholmarnas resvanor - mellan trängselskatt och klimatdebatt

Abstract
Greger Henriksson: [Travel habits of Stockholmers – congestion charging and
climate debate]. Doctoral dissertation at Lund University, Department of European
Ethnology. Full text in Swedish with a summary (9 p.) in English. Date of issue,
October 24, 2008.
This thesis examines the concept of travel habits, public responses to large-scale traffic
congestion regulations and how travel patterns of urban dwellers can be made environmentally
sustainable in the long term. It also examines the interrelationships of different
scientific disciplines dealing with urban travel. The main conclusions relate to the scientific
concept of habit. This concept and the associated behaviours are not well-studied
in the social and cultural sciences. Indeed, in some contexts the concept is bereft of
meaning, e.g. when the notion of travel habits is used to represent the travel patterns of
an entire population. This study demonstrated the (traffic and environmental policy)
significance of non-habitual travel, but also showed habitual travel to have inherent
resistance to change, i.e. with habits acting as a buffer between experience and response.
Case studies revealed travel habits to be a cultural phenomenon, since acceptable travel
habits are expressed in a restricted local and social context. People develop their (travel)
habits in mutual and only partly conscious interactions with each other and their material
surroundings. The case studies also showed how changes occurring during critical
points in the course of a life (primarily as regards housing, employment and household
composition) brought about particularly clear changes in individual travel habits. Stability
and sustainability in urban travel patterns could be achieved through the promotion
and gradual spread (geographical, between age classes, etc.) of certain types of travel
habits that are already in use at the individual level. Thus habits should be regarded less
as an obstacle and more as an opportunity for sustainable development.
A case study of the Stockholm congestion charge trial showed wide variation and
ingenuity in how Stockholmers dealt with this new feature of their daily lives. For
example, many stopped using their cars in order to demonstrate, to themselves and
others, their disagreement with the charge and the political circumstances surrounding
its introduction. Interestingly (and paradoxically), this probably contributed to the
overall major reduction in traffic, perceived at a societal level as evidence of the success
of congestion charging. However, regarding the scope for sustainable development of
urban travel, the conclusion from this appraisal of the Stockholm trial was that environmental,
congestion-reducing and possibly traffic-controlling political measures appear
to be in public demand.
Efforts in this thesis to interrelate the scientific perspectives of the different disciplines
studying the various levels of urban travel (e.g. sociology, human geography and ethnology
in relation to transport economics and psychology) indicated that further collaboration
is required. As with the concept of travel habits, there are numerous concepts that
could benefit from being developed and tested through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Key words: Travel habits, habits, mobility, congestion charging, the Stockholm
trial, policy instruments, traffic policy, interdisciplinary research, city of Stockholm,
Stockholm county, urban transport, environmental aspects, actor network theory,
climate change