Skip to main content

Sweden's Gothenburg introduces congestion charging

Sweden's second city Gothenburg will is to introduce a road toll for all motorists entering or leaving the city, similar to one already in place in the capital Stockholm. The system, aimed at financing infrastructure investments, reducing greenhouse gases and cutting traffic in Gothenburg's city centre by around 15 percent, will include some forty toll stations around the city. According to Eva Rosman of the Swedish Transport Agency, the system introduced in Stockholm in 2007 has led to a 15-18 percent redu
January 2, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Sweden's second city Gothenburg will is to introduce a road toll for all motorists entering or leaving the city, similar to one already in place in the capital Stockholm.

The system, aimed at financing infrastructure investments, reducing greenhouse gases and cutting traffic in Gothenburg's city centre by around 15 percent, will include some forty toll stations around the city. According to Eva Rosman of the 2124 Swedish Transport Agency, the system introduced in Stockholm in 2007 has led to a 15-18 percent reduction of traffic in the city centre.

Gothenburg, located on Sweden's west coast, has some 520,000 inhabitants. Motorists entering and leaving the city Monday to Friday will pay between US$1.2 to US$2.75, depending on the time of day. The holiday month of July will be free, as are evenings and weekends.  Emergency vehicles and cars with foreign licence plates and will be exempt.

Overhead cameras will register the licence plates of cars entering or leaving city limits. Motorists can either have the amount automatically deducted from their bank account or pay a bill in some shops or by internet. Motorists who don't pay will be fined.

Related Content

  • June 14, 2018
    Road pricing is inevitable – because the ‘user pays’ principle is fair
    We pay for roads through our taxes: the poor pay proportionately more, and effectively subsidise the rich. It would be fairer to accept the ‘user pays’ principle, says Dr John Walker. Road pricing is already used worldwide to combat congestion and pollution, to compensate for falling revenues from fuel duty (‘gas tax’), to provide an alternative (and fairer) means of charging motorists than the 80-year old fuel tax and to improve the efficiency of and expand transport infrastructure. However, it could and s
  • January 18, 2012
    Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by
  • June 5, 2018
    Russia 2018 World Cup: ITS can win it
    Teams and supporters will cover vast distances in Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Stephane Clauss from Sony Europe’s Image Sensing Solutions division examines how the latest camera technologies can be deployed to help things run smoothly over the next month or so... For one month, from June 14, Russia is hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup. This is the largest country in the world and the distances between venues will be larger than at almost any other World Cup - bar the finals in the US and Brazil.
  • June 4, 2015
    Greenowl brings bespoke traveller information one step closer
    Greenowl’s voice-only congestion warning smartphone app alerts drivers to problems ahead and could be the way ahead for traffic information. If there is one point Matt Man, CEO of Canadian company Greenowl, wants to make clear from the start, it is that his company’s app is not a navigation system. He says: “Our system does not direct drivers to their destination because we mainly focus on commuters who know how to get to where they are going and only need information about any delays and incidents ahead of