Stockholm legislates for more sustainable city transport

Stockholm has a new city government that has now outlined its plans for the future of transport in the Swedish capital. By 2030, all traffic in the city centre of Stockholm is to be emission-free, and car traffic is to be reduced by 30 per cent compared to 2017.

Parts of  Stockholm’s city centre are to be declared a Class 3 environmental zones in 2024, in which only electric cars and the most fuel-efficient combustion vehicles will be allowed, while some hybrids will be permitted for heavy-duty vehicles.

To reduce car traffic, some streets are also to be converted into pedestrian-only zones or bicycle lanes. In general, public transport is to be advanced while personal mobility in the city is to be improved for pedestrians and cyclists, so that car trips are largely unnecessary. Heavy investments are to be made in cycling infrastructure.

The new city zones will be introduced gradually from 2024 and should be fully implemented in 2026. The exact streets to be included in the zones will be decided in 2023. Better infrastructure for electric vehicles is to be provided by installing 100,000 charging points in the city by 2030.

The Swedish capital has already made a lot of progress in terms of charging infrastructure. In July, for example, the operator Stockholm Parkering announced that it would procure another 10,000 charging points within four years in addition to the 5,000 charging points the company has already installed.

Åsa Lindhagen, one of the Green Party’s new mayors in Stockholm explained: “Stockholm will become a green walking city and Europe’s leading bicycle city, and we will make sure that buses arrive faster, and create space for things that Stockholmers demand, such as more trees and greenery. We will make Stockholm a city for people.”

Stockholm is just one of many cities in Europe and abroad following this trend in city planning. Most notably, Paris has become famous for its people-centric infrastructure and reduced traffic in the inner city, introduced by Mayor Anne Hidalgo. More recently, Paris simply banned polluting vehicles from greater city areas. In Spain, the Catalan government was a relatively early mover, introducing a tax for polluting vehicles in 2019 and building out (electric) public transport and infrastructure for micromobility.

Like in Stockholm, the Paris decarbonisation efforts have also included the city’s waterways. So too, in Stockholm: earlier this year, Candela unveiled the design of its P-12 Shuttle electric hydrofoil. The marine public transport vessel is scheduled for tests in Stockholm’s public transport system next year.

di.se, mestmotor.se, expressen.se (all in Swedish)