San Francisco Eyes Stockholm, Congestion Pricing Success

"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."