Evaluating urban traffic planning schemes in their effect on air quality: A policy comparison between Stockholm’s congestion charges and Berlin’s low emission zone.

Sammanfattning: Despite the large theoretical corpus on approaches to dealing with negative externalities of road transport, there is a remarkable lack of connection to practically implemented road transport schemes. This thesis gives two implemented road transport management systems, the congestion charging scheme as introduced in Stockholm and the low emission zone as introduced in Berlin, their place in the literature on negative externalities in road use. The need for a more differentiated evaluation and valuation of their effects on air quality is discussed by comparing analyses of air quality developments in the two cities, and by suggesting a life satisfaction approach to environmental quality in the analysis of the effectiveness of environmental transport schemes. The evaluation is then related to possibilities to ascertain public support. I find that integrated planning schemes, like the congestion charging scheme, that address transport demand over various channels and incentivize road users to change their travel behavior in the long run, promise higher improvements of air quality than single-minded schemes like the low emission zones.