Christmas is always a special time of the year for me - a time to meet the nearest and dearest. This year the holiday is to the favour of the employer rather than the employee - as it should be, because sometimes it is the other way around.

Still, it is a bit odd to return to work just after boxing day. The trains are empty, traffic is slow. The rushedness of the days before Christmas is replaced by a slower pace, suitable to observe what you usually fail to notice.

Today, on returning to work, I noticed that the large parking lot near my office has turned into a ‘free’ parking area as a part of the ‘Stockholm Trial’. You can park your car there for no extra fee, provided you have a valid period ticket for the local public transportation system.

The Stockholm Trial is, for some political parties on the national level, the preferred way to counter traffic sclerosis and emission levels from car traffic in central Stockholm by means of introducing a toll. This is called a ‘congestion charge’. The number plate of your car is photographed, and you are billed a fee tax depending on when you passed the toll station. Ring roads to offer an alternative to passing the city centre are not provided as a part of the trial. No construction is under way either, so that would take some time.

Furthermore, the measure was introduced in a dubious way, at the very least morally, since on the local level the current majority was elected under the premise that no congestion charges were to be introduced, but for the sake of forming a stable governement on a national level, the social democratic party on the national level forced the local social democrats to retreat on this promise.

I make only two observations;

  • The ‘free’ parking lots could have been introduced much earlier. Why not try that at first and see how much effect that offer would give? Certainly a lot less costly than the entire trial! No! The sentiment is that the stick is more important than the carrot!
  • The Stockholm Trial makes a suitable pun when put in English (The Swedish term ‘Stockholmsförsöket’ does not have that ambiguity).

I do not have a car, but still I think this is a dire trial for the Stockholmers!