Charging drivers a fee to use busy roads at busy times, so traffic thins out and remaining trips flow more freely.
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Congestion pricing charges drivers a fee to use busy roads at busy times, on the logic that a scarce resource — road space at rush hour — should carry a price. The aim is to nudge some trips onto public transport, off-peak hours or other routes, so the traffic that remains flows more freely.
Singapore built the template: its Electronic Road Pricing system has tolled drivers electronically since 1998 (and manually since 1975), holding expressway speeds in a target band. London brought the idea to Europe with a flat daily congestion charge in 2003 — read by number-plate cameras it later reused for a clean-air low-emission zone — and Stockholm added time-of-day pricing and put the scheme to a referendum in 2006.
Two honest caveats. Support usually arrives only after drivers experience the results — most Stockholmers opposed the charge before it began and backed it afterwards. And a flat fee can be regressive, hitting lower-income drivers hardest, while the congestion gains can erode over years unless the price is periodically recalibrated.
Added 2026-07-16 · Part of the growing Smart City Glossary