Stockholm to ban petrol and diesel cars from centre from 2025

It&#x27;s small, but it&#x27;s a start. Next, remove as many cars as possible (some deliveries, taxis, and emergency vehicles make sense, as well as microcars for people who need them, of course).<p>I&#x27;m appalled at the people here saying you need a car to lead a full life. A car-dependent life is an empty and sad one for many of us. I moved to the Netherlands with my family (two young daughters) and it has been _absolutely fantastic_ to be able to just bike.... everywhere. Or get a train. or bus. Or, sometimes, use a car-share vehicle. It&#x27;s absolute freedom. And I&#x27;m a hell of a lot less worried about my kids being killed by drivers - the leading cause of dead kids in the US.<p>Even here there&#x27;s too many Dodge Rams though. And large SUV&#x27;s - especially electric ones - are increasingly popular.

It&#x27;s a tiny part of the center of Stockholm. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;nyheter&#x2F;lokalt&#x2F;stockholm&#x2F;bensin-och-dieseldrivna-bilar-forbjuds-i-centrala-stockholm--an4nkd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;nyheter&#x2F;lokalt&#x2F;stockholm&#x2F;bensin-och-diese...</a> has a map. Roughly 4x4 blocks.

Another article in English: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thelocal.se&#x2F;20231010&#x2F;stockholm-to-ban-petrol-and-diesel-cars-in-city-centre" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thelocal.se&#x2F;20231010&#x2F;stockholm-to-ban-petrol-and...</a>&gt;<p>Maps here: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;nyheter&#x2F;lokalt&#x2F;stockholm&#x2F;bensin-och-dieseldrivna-bilar-forbjuds-i-centrala-stockholm--an4nkd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svt.se&#x2F;nyheter&#x2F;lokalt&#x2F;stockholm&#x2F;bensin-och-diese...</a>&gt; and here: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dn.se&#x2F;sverige&#x2F;bensin-och-dieselbilar-forbjuds-i-stockholms-innerstad&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dn.se&#x2F;sverige&#x2F;bensin-och-dieselbilar-forbjuds-i-...</a>&gt;. Note that the area is comparatively <i>tiny</i>; 180 000m² according to some articles, closer to 200 000m² according to my measurements – but in any case smaller than 50 acres.<p>OpenStreetMap link to the same area as the map, so you can zoom out and see the scales involved: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;#map=16&#x2F;59.33461&#x2F;18.06944" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;#map=16&#x2F;59.33461&#x2F;18.06944</a>&gt;

Interesting that this bans PHEVs, because that is a substantial share of the EVs sold in Sweden, being about a third of EV sales and a fifth of total car sales recently. It seems like this will help kill the category.

In Seattle we still allow cars at pike place market. Talk about stupid

However small it is, it seems far preferable to Berlin&#x27;s approach of building a highway down the middle while simultaneously refusing to even consider the 20<i>35</i> target.

I wonder why when Stockholm did it, it made the news, but, say Kraków did it we don&#x27;t see it. City pays for PR?

We also need to reach a point where all vehicles have technology like this [0] to capture tyre wear particles at the source.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.designboom.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;device-captures-harmful-microplastic-particles-tyres-05-19-2020&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.designboom.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;device-captures-harmfu...</a>

I wonder if this ban only includes privately owned cars. They have those amphibienbuses that uses an ICE engine:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oceanbus.se&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oceanbus.se&#x2F;en&#x2F;</a><p>I guess they will either shutdown or get an exemption somehow.

The reactions to this absolutely minimum possible move - &quot;don&#x27;t drive <i>a specific kind of car</i> in <i>this tiny high street area</i> unless <i>you really need to</i>&quot; - are ranging from disingenuous to genuinely unhinged. I have no remaining hope for transit policy.

How are you going to enforce a plan on petrol and diesel cars in certain areas?

I think it&#x27;s absolutely crazy that our society is OK with car drivers polluting the air with carcinogenic particles. I hope more cities around the world implement similar bans soon.

With the quality of life there, they can afford such measures

Sounds like they need the London treatment.

As a Swede born and raised in Stockholm but no longer live there I wonder if delivery trucks and people working (carpenters etc) will be excempt from these rules? This is a serious question because the changes comes (mainly) from a radical left wing political party that had deliveries on the subway as a serious solution to banning car traffic.<p>Personally I don&#x27;t really care since I don&#x27;t live in Stockholm anymore but that city is very hostile against car traffic in general (which is stupid in my opinion). Finding a parking space in the outskirts of the city is very hard and I have searched for a spot in like an hour when visiting my family. They build a lot of housing but no parking spaces for residents. Sometimes if you&#x27;re lucky they&#x27;ll build like 1 parking space per 20 residents when in reality 19 of these residents have a car. I know personally some areas close to my mother where they have taken areas for parking and built housing there making the actual parking spaces go negative.<p>Fine if you want to get rid of petrol&#x2F;diesel but there are alternatives and you don&#x27;t have to make things shitty for people with electric cars as well.<p>I think people will start moving from Stockholm because who wants to live in a city where housing is 3-4 times the national avg, people being shot all the time and even blown up when in bed in your own home. Then the politicians responsible cares more about making it more expensive for you to go to work which all seems more meaningless since you pay so much in taxes that goes to immigration and people not contributing to society.<p>Productive will move to the country side where they can safely drive to work and work less because working hard is just not worth it in Sweden.

It will probably make the city quieter and cleaner, but wouldn&#x27;t make it also exclusive for people that can afford an electric car?

Maybe focus on building out a competent public transport system first, rather than halving the capacity of the commuter rail. Or fix the several islands (both literal and metaphorical) that are effectively cut off from the main system.<p>It&#x27;s like these people live in a parallel reality where nobody needs to get in our out of the inner city.

The people in nordic countries seem so naive to me. They trust their governments, their authorities to do this stuff, to both determine the greater good and then implement it. The political class couldn&#x27;t possibly act immorally, for their own benefit, apparently.<p>Whereas the reality is that these actions are preplanned internationally and designed (by opaque agencies such the club of Rome and the UN) in order for individuals to have less control over their lives - shifting that control to the governance structure. Did anyone discuss the transfer of control, agree to it, vote on it?<p>It&#x27;s quite amazing to me that people are going to lose freedom of movement, will pay more etc <i>and</i> be happy to do so. Turkeys voting for Christmas.