One in five would ditch their car if they had to pay

Forty-four per cent of people who drive regularly in Budapest would rather pay a daily toll of 500 forints (1.4 Euros) than be stuck in a traffic jam. A further 20 percent of respondents would not drive in the capital if they had to pay that much, and 35 percent would not pay even if congestion would otherwise remain. These are the results of an opinion poll commissioned by the Clean Air Action Group. According to the NGO, the environment would improve significantly if one in five cars were taken off the road.

The representative survey of 1,000 people asked the following question: “How many forints per day would you pay in distance- and pollution-based tolls (similar to the tolls paid by trucks on many roads in the country) when driving in Budapest, so that you would not have to drive in traffic jams?” 29 percent of the respondents who regularly drive in the capital city would pay 500 forints a day, and a further 15 percent would even pay more if they could drive without traffic jams. Twenty percent said that they would not drive at all or would drive much less often in Budapest if they would have to pay 500 forints a day.

András Lukács, President of the Clean Air Action Group said: “If the 500-forint fee would reduce car traffic in Budapest by 20 percent, then congestion would be essentially eliminated. Such a reduction could be considered realistic, as the introduction of the congestion charge in Stockholm has led to exactly the same reduction in traffic, even though the daily charge there is only €1-2 a day (depending on the time of day) which is a negligible amount compared to Swedish incomes.”

Traffic on one of Stockholm's access roads before the introduction of the toll, one day after its introduction and one week after its introduction
(Source: https://www.toolsofchange.com/en/case-studies/detail/670)

Márton Vargha, the organisation’s transport policy officer, added: “With a well-established distance- and pollution-based toll, traffic can be made more fluid in places and at times where congestion now occurs every day. It would eliminate those who choose a cheaper route or time of day, so that there would be only as many cars as the capacity of the roads could cope with. Not only those would benefit from congestion-free travel who would get to their destination faster than today, but everyone, as the air pollution from continuous traffic is much less than that from cars which are inching along.”

The Clean Air Action Group has launched a petition on the issue. They want the city administration to carry out a feasibility study on the introduction of a toll in Budapest.

The Road toll for Budapest! campaign website:
https://www.levego.hu/en/campaigns/utdijat-budapestre/

The petition is available here:
https://szabad.ahang.hu/petitions/csokkentsek-a-budapestiek-terheit-a-fovarosi-utdij-bevezetesevel

Top photo: Everyday sight in Budapest (Photo: Clean Air Action Group)