No traffic jams through the city center: city tolls would be a blessing for Munich

A city toll for motorists could free German inner cities from endless traffic jams. The Ifo Institute thinks that such a fee would make sense in Munich, for example. Will drivers have to pay in future if they want to drive into the city center?

Munich is Germany's traffic jam capital: anyone who drives into the city center of the Bavarian capital in the morning stands more than just driving. Last year, every single commuter spent an average of three and a half days in traffic jams, according to Inrix, the traffic data provider. Drivers are not making any headway, but buses are also stuck in traffic jams, and cyclists have to wiggle past traffic. Everyone is annoyed, stressed and irritated. And almost nobody is on time.

The Ifo Institute has therefore investigated whether a city toll in Munich could help. "Even a very simple and moderate anti-traffic jam fee can make a significant contribution to reducing traffic in large cities," says Oliver Falck, one of the authors and head of the Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies at the Ifo Institute. in the ntv podcast "something learned again".

An "anti-traffic jam fee", as the institute calls it, is intended to make driving in the city center more expensive and therefore less attractive. The researchers have found that a daily rate of six euros would ensure car traffic within the middle ring in Munich by almost a quarter. At peak times even by a third.

Many road users would rather save money and use public transport instead, explains Oliver Falck. A necessary condition, however, is a sufficient expansion of public transport: "If the alternatives are not available, an anti-traffic jam fee will have no effect."

Oliver Falck heads the Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies at the Ifo Institute.

Local public transport, however, is not the only alternative to driving by car, adds the scientist and names alternatives: "You can think about the possibilities of car pooling and how you might work from home on a few days." The city toll would burden public transport much less than mandatory or discounted annual tickets because "there are other alternatives".

Good experience in London and Stockholm

According to the Ifo study, the toll for the city center has a significantly stronger traffic-directing effect. It could be a recipe for success for downtown Munich. Fewer cars mean less traffic jams, less noise and less stress. That becomes evident when looking at international pioneering cities, says Falck. "In Europe, London and Stockholm in particular have many years of experience with it. They have achieved a significant traffic reduction of around 20 percent." Since the relationship between traffic volume and the probability of a traffic jam shows "a very strong non-linear relationship", a 20 percent reduction in traffic would "massively reduce traffic jam probabilities", adds the Ifo researcher. "And at the same time, we see a high level of acceptance for such a fee in these cities that have had experience with it for a long time." In addition, fears that the retail sector would suffer as a result did not materialize.

For Munich, the researchers even found the opposite: an anti-traffic jam fee would make shops and service providers in the city center more attractive because they could be reached more reliably and quickly, they write in their study.

The ADAC, however, says that a city toll would be socially unjust. Especially when there are no exceptions for residents. The fee would put people on a low income at a disadvantage. The Ifo Institute holds against it: An anti-traffic jam fee would even be more socially balanced than other measures, because it would primarily benefit delivery traffic, taxis and public transport. Less stress and time savings would be the benefits, according to the researchers.

In individual cases, however, it depends on the design of a city toll. In Sweden, where there are tolls in Gothenburg and Stockholm, the cost depends on the time. Entrance and exit into the priced zone are charged. If you drive into the city center between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and leave it again between 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., you pay the equivalent of around 6.70 euros. For Munich, however, the Ifo researchers recommend a daily flat rate of six euros in order not to make the system unnecessarily complicated. "It is important that you do not do this once a year, but think every day about what alternatives I have? On some days it is a good idea to stay in the home office. On other days you can get together with a colleague and Form a car pool. And then there are certain days, maybe rainy days, when you prefer to drive the car. "

Increasing parking fees alone is of little use

Oliver Falck does not consider the technical recording of such a fee to be a major problem. There is no need for toll stations in German cities, as we know them from motorways abroad. Even cameras that read the license plates are now an outdated recording system. "We can now track people quite well over the cellular network. In newer cars this is also possible via the built-in SIM card, with which sensors regularly send data to the automobile manufacturers."

So far there is no traffic jam fee in any German city. However, people in Berlin are thinking about it a lot. The red-red-green Senate wants to promote the traffic turnaround and therefore commissioned a study. The result: a city toll could contribute to the future financing of public transport. But this would require further measures, including higher parking fees. These are regularly raised in many cities in order to ruin the city center for motorists. But such individual measures are not particularly useful, say the Ifo researchers. "In Munich we saw that around 30 percent of journeys within the Mittlerer Ring are caused by the residents. In addition, they do not catch through traffic with parking fees. They also do not catch commercial traffic with parking fees because they don't buy a parking ticket. And of course you won't catch anyone who leaves their car in private parking lots, for example in the employer's garage, "explains Falck.

To make inner cities more pleasant – without traffic jams, noise and dirty air – a whole package of measures is required. An anti-traffic jam fee is part of it, but it does not help if bus and train lines are not expanded accordingly – not even in Munich.

You can find all the episodes of "Wieder Was Learned" in the ntv app, at Audio Now, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. For all other podcast apps you can use the RSS feed. Copy and paste the feed url and simply add "Again Learned" to your podcast subscriptions.

"Again something learned" is a podcast for the curious: How does the transport turnaround in Luxembourg work? Which states decide the US election? Can money convince vaccine skeptics? Listen to it and get a little smarter 3 times a week.

. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Transport Policy (t) Ifo Institute (t) Mobility Concepts (t) Auto (t) Local Transport (t) Munich