"Since being implemented on Jan. 6, downtown traffic in Sweden's capital has plunged 25 percent and transit usage has increased by about 40,000 riders per day, dramatically decreasing rush-hour travel times, data released today shows.
'It's fabulous,' said San Francisco County Transportation Authority Executive Director Jose Luis Moscovich, who hopes a similar system might be implemented in The City. The transit authority in January won a $1 million federal grant and has contributed another $200,000 toward studying the feasibility of so-called congestion pricing over an 18-month period."
"The idea is to put [the money from the fees] right back into public transportation," Moscovich said. "If we make it more expensive to take a car then we have to provide [people] other choices, or else we're imposing a hardship and we don't want to do that."
"Installing the Stockholm system, with a population of about 1.2 million in the metropolitan area, cost the equivalent of about $454 million, and included transit improvements of 12 new express bus lines, expanded service for nearly 20 other bus lines and about 1,800 new park-and-ride lots, said Todd Appel, of IBM business consulting services."
