The Gothenburg congestion charge. Effects, design and politics

•A time-of-day dependent cordon pricing system was introduced in Gothenburg 2013.•Traffic across the cordon was reduced by 12% during charged hours.•Adaptation strategies are very similar to Stockholm despite lower transit shares.•Differences exist for congestion, design issues, forecast accuracy and public support.•Whether congestion charges are introduced is not determined by public support.

This paper summarizes the traffic effects of the Gothenburg congestion charges introduced in 2013. The system is similar to the system introduced in Stockholm in 2006; both are designed as time-of-day dependent cordon pricing systems. We find that many effects and adaptation strategies are similar to those found in Stockholm, indicating a high transferability between smaller and larger cities with substantial differences in public transport use. However, there are also important differences regarding some of the effects, the accuracy of the model forecasts and public support arising from different topologies, public transport use, congestion levels and main objectives communicated to the public. Finally, the Gothenburg case suggests that whether congestion charges are introduced or not depends on the support among the political parties, and that this is determined primarily by the prevailing institutional setting and power over revenues, and to a lower extent by the public support, and benefits from congestion reduction.