Green urban mobility

Over the last few years, economic growth in the metropolitan area has been on an upswing. The regional gross domestic product has grown by 22% over ten years. This upswing in growth and prosperity has been accompanied by increased activity on our roads. Increasing car traffic brings with it increasing congestion, which in turn makes it difficult for traffic to reach its destination easily with minimum delays. This is the case both for private traffic as well as goods vehicles and is especially the case in the rush hours. Car traffic is expected to grow even more over the next few years unless interventions are made. The Danish Road Directorate has estimated that there will be an increase of 20-35% in traffic on all major roads in the metropolitan area over the next ten years.

Against this background, mayors from, at the moment, 16 municipalities representing 20% of the Danish population have joined forces to find out whether congestion charging could alleviate the bottlenecks on the road network around the capital. The municipalities are Albertslund, Ballerup, Brøndby, Dragør, Gladsaxe, Glostrup, Helsingør, Herlev, Hillerød, Hvidovre, København, Ishøj, Lyngby-Taarbæk, Roskilde, Rødovre and Tårnby. 

Based on the successful experiences in Stockholm, Oslo, Singapore and London, an investigation will be carried out into how to tackle congestion problems as well as to determine whether the introduction of congestion charging will be recommended. It will be technically possible to introduce congestion charging as early as 2010.