“Traffic can be steered with money”

Germany should not ponder diesel bans, e-car quotas, and other interventionist policies to achieve the transformation of its transport sector. Instead, it should consider how car traffic volumes can be reduced altogether, Martin Kesternich and Martin Achtnicht write in a guest commentary for Zeit Online. “The true reasons for a high concentration of pollutants in cities are congested roads and high traffic volumes”, the traffic researchers say. The consistent application of flexible inner city toll schemes, coupled with a CO₂ floor price that also covers the transport sector, would be a much more efficient way to reduce emissions and improve air quality than prescribing or prohibiting certain technologies, they argue.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector for more information.