The two Nordic countries Norway and Sweden have launched governance regimes for the early phases of transport infrastructure investments after experiencing frequent cost overruns and low cost-benefit ratios. This study seeks to find out if these governance regimes have reduced the escalation of costs from early estimates to finalized projects and influenced the choice of projects away from those with lower benefit to cost ratios. We have compared governance regimes for major transport infrastructure investments in the two countries and examined the development and content of quality assurance activities, the involvement of internal and external parties, their duties and responsibilities, their stage gate models, and how decisions are made. The findings are that both countries have introduced formalizations of their governance regimes that mandate project reviews during the planning process and quality assurance, both of which have increased early cost estimates. One difference was that in Norway, the Ministry of Finance manages the quality assurance scheme and imposes external quality assurance requirements, while Sweden has no corresponding ministerial oversight. Therefore, on the one hand, the process is more strictly formalized in Norway, but on the other hand, cost-benefit ratios appear to have more weight in Sweden. Furthermore, although both countries have done several ex post evaluations, neither country has introduced a formalized ex post evaluation process allowing for systematic examination of the causes of cost overruns and low benefit to cost ratios. Even so, politicians may manoeuvre projects with lower benefit to cost ratios around the governance systems in both countries. Finally, some projects in both countries still have experienced significant cost escalations despite these processes.

We analyze the long-term effects on the car fleet and welfare distribution of three car-related policy instruments intended to reduce CO2 emissions: increased fossil-fuel taxes, an intensified bonus-malus system for new cars, and increased mandated biofuel blending. The effects on the car fleet are analyzed in terms of energy source, weight, and CO2 emissions. Distributional effects are analyzed in terms of income and geographical residence areas. The increased fuel taxes reduce CO2 emissions by 36%, mainly through less driving of fossil-fuel cars. The intensified bonus-malus system for new cars reduces CO2 emissions by 5%. Both these policies shift the car fleet toward increased shares of electric vehicles and increased average weight. Increased mandated biofuel blending has no estimated effect on the car fleet unless prices increase differently from in the reference scenario. The two first policy instruments are weakly progressive to slightly regressive over most of the income distribution, but barely regressive if the highest income group is also included. The fraction of each population group incurring substantial welfare losses is higher the lower the income group. In the geographical dimension, for all policies the rural areas bear the largest burden, small cities the second largest burden, and large cities the smallest burden. The burden in the long term versus the short term is lower for high-income earners and urban residents.

This paper evaluates the welfare effects of optimizing bus service fares and frequencies in small cities by modeling street congestion and crowding in public transport vehicles. The model is calibrated to the Swedish city of Uppsala. A simple demand model is used. Sensitivity analyses suggest that this is sufficient for representing important welfare effects. The results indicate that there would be large, robust welfare gains from reducing public transport supply in Uppsala, especially in the outer zone of the city where reductions of supply would be large compared to the current situation. The welfare gains from adjusting fares would be smaller.

Studies of cities which successfully have shifted mode choice from car to more sustainable modes, suggest that coordinated packages of mutually reinforcing policy instruments are needed. Congestion charges and parking fees can be important parts of such packages. This paper aims to examine the introduction of welfare optimal congestion charges and parking fees in a model calibrated to Uppsala, a small city in Sweden. The results suggest that welfare optimal congestion charges in Uppsala are as high as EUR 3.0 in the peak hours and EUR 1.5 in the off-peak. In a rough cost-benefit analysis it is shown that the introduction of congestion charges in Uppsala are welfare improving if operating costs of congestion charges are proportional to city population size (compared to Gothenburg). The model can be used to assess when it is worthwhile to introduce congestion pricing.

There is scope for generating welfare effects by changing parking fees, where knowledge on price elasticities are central elements in the implementation of an efficient parking policy. In this paper, we estimate price elasticities of demand for five parking garages in the central business district of Stockholm, using transaction data and a price increase implemented in January 2017. The econometric results for the purchased parking hours show an average elasticity estimate at -0.60, while the effect on the decision to park is -0.45. These elasticities vary for the different parking garages, showing that there is a considerable heterogeneity between garages, even within the central business district, which needs to be considered for an efficient parking policy. Based on our estimated elasticity for garage parking (-0.60) and a willingness to pay a premium for curbside parking in previous research, we calculate a proxy for the elasticity of curbside parking in Stockholm, which is found to be -0.39.

Detta arbete analyserar motiv för subventionering av lokal och regional kollektivtrafik, baserat på ekonomisk teori och på numeriska modellberäkningar, med den huvudsakliga slutsatsen att det är samhällsekonomiskt lönsamt att subventionera kollektivtrafik och att öka turtätheten där efterfrågan är hög. Att lokal och regional kollektivtrafik subventioneras i första hand med skattemedel är vanligt i de flesta industrialiserade länder, ofta i storleksordningen 40–60 procent. I dag subventionerar regionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheter i Sverige kollektivtrafiken med mellan 44 och 80 procent av kostnaderna.

Det vi framför som det huvudsakliga samhällsekonomiska motivet för subventionering är att kollektivtrafik utmärks av en positiv extern effekt som kommersiella operatörer inte beaktar (är extern för dem) beroende på deras behov av finansiell vinst. Den positiva externa effekten, ofta kallad Mohring-effekten, består av att befintliga trafikanters väntetid minskar om priset sänks och ytterligare trafikanter motiverar ökad turtäthet. Med optimal nivå på pris och turtäthet täcks inte ens kollektivtrafikens rörliga kostnader, varför kompletterande finansiering via beskattning krävs.

För att uppskatta det optimala priset och den optimala subventionsnivån gör vi beräkningar för varje linje med dels en särskild optimeringsmodell för en kollektivtrafiklinje dels en simuleringsmodell för efterfrågberäkningar. De numeriska modellberäkningarna söker välfärdsoptima för priser, turtätheter (frekvenser) och subventioner med hänsyn till väntetider och trängsel i fordonen. För att finna dessa optima kombineras beräkningar med simuleringsmodellen och optimeringsmodellen.

Pris, turtäthet och subvention har optimerats för sju olika linjer i Stockholms läns kollektivtrafik, allt ifrån en lågbelastad busslinje i landsbygd till de hårdbelastade linjerna: busslinje 4 i Stockholms innerstad samt en tunnelbane- och en pendeltågslinje. De optimeringsmetoder som används är generellt användbara. De kan dock förväntas ge olika resultat beroende på lokala efterfrågenivåer, tidsvärderingar och driftskostnader. Jämfört med utgångsläget innebär välfärdsoptimum lägre priser än i dag för samtliga sju studerade linjer och högre frekvenser för de flesta, med undantag av busslinjer i mindre tättbefolkade områden med låg efterfrågan.

Känslighetsanalyser visar att antaganden om väntetidsvärderingar och samhällsekonomisk kostnad för skattefinansiering (skattefaktor) spelar stor roll för nivån för optimal subvention, pris, turintervall och för välfärdsförändring. Med lägre tidsvärderingar och/eller större skattefaktor är optimal subvention mindre, optimalt pris högre och optimal turtäthet lägre.

This report examines motives for subsidisation of local and regional public transport, based on economic theory and numerical calculations, with the main conclusion that it is economically efficient to subsidise public transport and to increase service frequency where demand is high.

Local and regional public transport in most industrialised countries is subsidised in the range of 40–60 per cent. In Sweden today regional authorities in charge of public transport are subsidising, between 44 and 80 per cent of the costs.

What we regard as the main economic motive for subsidisation is that public transport is characterised by a positive external effect, which commercial operators ignore (is external) due to their need of a financial surplus. This positive external effect, often called the Mohring-effect, is that the passengers waiting times decrease when frequencies are increased which requires the operations to be subsidised. With the optimal level of price and frequency the variable operating costs cannot be covered with ticket revenue, requiring some external form of supplementary financing.

The numerical calculations seek welfare optima for price, service frequency and subsidy with regard to invehicle congestion and waiting times. In order to find the optima a combination of a simulation model and an optimisation model has been applied, where the optimisation model was developed within this project.

Price, frequency and subsidy have been optimised for seven lines with different characteristics in the county of Stockholm, from a bus route low demanded in a rural area to routes with high capacity use: bus line 4 in Stockholm inner city as well as one underground line and one commuter rail line. The methods used are generally useful. They can, however, be expected to yield different results depending on local demand levels, time values and operating costs.

Compared with the initial situation today the welfare optima suggest lower prices for all seven lines, and higher frequency for most, except for bus lines in areas with less population density and low demand.

Sensitivity analyses show that assumptions on waiting time valuations and cost of public funds have large effects on optimal subsidy, price and frequency and for welfare change. With lower valuations of wait time and/or with a higher cost of public funds optimal subsidy is lower, optimal price is higher and optimal frequency is lower.

Syftet med detta projekt är att klarlägga möjligheterna och behovet av att göra en pilotstudie med syfte att mäta marginalkostnaden för trängsel på cykelbanor. Målet med mätningarna skulle enbart vara att kvantifiera värderingen av fördröjningen som en ökad belastning ger upphov till. Ytterst är målet att kunna värdera åtgärder för att bredda eller på annat sätt förbättra framkomlighet i cykelinfrastruktur.

Denna promemoria beskriver variation i cykelflöden över längre tid, över ett år och över ett dygn (under månader och dygn med höga flöden) i Stockholm och Göteborg, med sikte på att uppskatta när mätningar bör göras av utbredningen och intensiteten i betydande trängsel på cykelbanor.

Cykelflödena varierar med cirka en faktor 4 i Stockholm under året på platser med stora flöden och något mindre i Göteborg cirka en faktor 3. Under högtrafikmånaderna varierar cykelflödena kraftigt över dygnet med kortare perioder med höga flöden morgon och eftermiddag.

Förekomsten av kostsam trängsel kan därför väntas vara ganska kortvariga i Sveriges två största städer. Ett räkneexempel indikerar att vid 20 procent av alla cykelpassagerna över Liljeholmsbron i Stockholm upplever cyklisten att det är många cyklar. Detta räkneexempel gör dock inte anspråk på att vara representativt vare sig denna eller för alla andra platser i Stockholms innerstad.

The purpose of this project is to clarify the possibilities and the need for a pilot study aimed at measuring the marginal cost of congestion on bicycle paths. The goal of the measurements are exclusively to quantify the value of the delay caused by one further cyclist being present on the bicycle path. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to evaluate measures to broaden or otherwise improve the bicycle infrastructure.

This memorandum describes variations in cycle flow over a longer period of time, over one year and over a day (during months and days with high flows) in Stockholm and Gothenburg, with the aim to estimate when measurements should be made of the extent and intensity of significant congestion on bicycle paths.

Cycle flows vary by approximately a factor of 4 in Stockholm during the year in places with large flows and slightly less in Gothenburg, about a factor of 3. During peak hours, cycling flows show large variation during a day with shorter periods of high flows in the morning and afternoon.

The presence of costly congestion can therefore be expected to be quite short in Sweden's two largest cities. An example indicates that at 20 percent of all bicycle passages across the Liljeholmen bridge in Stockholm, the cyclist experiences high levels of presence of other cyclists. However, this example is not claimed to be representative either this or other locations in the inner city of Stockholm.

We analyse distributional effects of four car-related tax instruments: an increase of the fuel tax, a new kilometre tax, an increased CO2-differentiated vehicle ownership tax, and a CO2-differentiated purchase tax on new cars. Distributional effects are analysed with respect to income, lifecycle category, and spatial dimensions. The analysed taxes are progressive over most of the income distribution, but barely regressive if the highest and lowest incomes are included. However, the fraction of the population who suffer substantial welfare losses relative to income is much higher in lower income groups. We also study revenue recycling schemes; when these are included, the combined effect of tax and recycling is progressive. Considering geographical differences; rural areas carry a larger burden of fuel and vehicle taxes than urban areas, and satellites/suburbs carry a larger burden than central cities. However, rural areas are affected remarkably similar regardless of where in the country they are located.

We apply the method presented by Johansson (2018) to estimate a volume delay function and marginal cost for bicycle traffic on cycling paths separated from motorized traffic based on point measurements of speed and lateral positions from seven sites in Sweden. The results indicate that a quadratic volume – delay function fits the data well in the observed range of volumes, and that there are significant delays already at volumes far below the capacity due to the heterogeneity of the desired speed over the population. The total marginal cost of delay per unit flow is estimated to €9×10-5 h/km.

The Swedish Public Transport Association has adopted recommendations on incentives for increased ridership in tendered contracts, though there is little evidence on how public transport contracts should be designed to reach this goal. This study begins amassing the needed evidence by analyzing the performance of four Stockholm Region bus contracts spanning seven years, examining the new E20 contracts intended to increase ridership, customer satisfaction, and efficiency. These contracts employ 100 percent of payments to operators depending on the number of boarding and paying passengers. Using mostly monthly data, outcomes in E20-contracts in four areas (formerly governed by gross cost contracts) over three years are compared with outcomes in the years before the E20 contracts were implemented, and with two gross contracts running parallel to the E20 contract. Compared with gross cost operators in comparison areas, E20 operators performed better in terms of costs, customer satisfaction (initially worse but then better), punctuality, and canceled departures, but worse in number of departures and no better in number of passengers.