Changing Frames of Mobility through Radical Policy Interventions? The Stockholm Congestion Tax

Abstract

The introduction of a congestion tax was a significant moment in the management of mobility in Stockholm. This paper critically examines this apparent consensus on confronting car based mobility, by analysing how mobility was framed at key stages in policy making, from the 1970s through to the trial in 2006 and subsequent implementation. Changing transport objectives are compared, and winners and losers are traced in relation to motility and environmental quality. The paper argues that a car-based automobility frame survives, even in the implementation of a radical policy of congestion taxation.