The Stockholm Investigation

Special investigation on public transports

2

Transports in Stockholm, an

art of living

Main constraint: the weather’s

conditions

In a country where snow is present at

least half a year, how do the authorities

manage to guarantee a good working of the

transports? Only a trip to Stockholm, one of

the most important city of Scandinavia, could

give us a precise answer to this question. First

and one of the most amazing thing, even the

ferries continue to assure the consumers

satisfaction. What is their secret while few

centimeters of snow may be a terrible proof in

France, another European country? Is it

anticipation? Fitted equipment? Surely both,

indeed they are not simple boats but ice-

breaker, as it can be seen in Canada or in

Russia where we are more likely to see them

breaking the ice for other boats rather than in

Stockholm where they are used for carrying

people!

However few Stockholm people take it

often for “they mainly stop at museum places”

complained Deniz, a teenager who was asked

“and we do not have much time”. Just to

please the tourists? “No in summer it is very

nice”. Very nice this feeling of open space, of

fresh air, the view of the water, instead of the

darkness of the metro’s stations, this opposed

feeling of being locked. Besides it would be a

pity not to enjoy the geography of the city,

which is, remember that, a small archipelago!

Less impressive, yet very useful for the

inhabitants of the suburbs of Stockholm where

the metro may runs outside and is exposed to

the weather’s caprices, are the extra busses.

Available when too much snow covers the rails

for the metro or the trains to work, “people

really enjoy them when they have to go

working” a consumer recognized. However in

Stockholm itself problems are very rare

whatever means of communication it is, due to

the law implying that during the whole winter

carrying approved snow tires is compulsory.

Eco for ecology or economy?

Swedish people are well known for

being particularly ecological: sorting of loss,

recycling, save of energy by using solar

panels,…. Following London which adopted

this means first (it was in 2003), Stockholm

since August 2007 has adopted a congestion

tax, which is charged for cars driving into and

out Stockholm between 6:30 a.m and 6 :29

p.m but only during weeks, weekends are let

free as public holidays. The cost is not very

high for marginal uses, if you take your car

every day to go to work it may quickly become

expensive, for it fluctuates from SEK 10 to 20

with a maximum amount which is SEK 60 per

day. But are there any exceptions? Indeed

there are many: emergency vehicles of course,

but also diplomat-registered vehicles or

A ferry boat connecting Skeppsholmen

3

foreign-registered vehicles as well as

motorbikes.

These years, a ten percent decrease of

the traffic in the town has been noticed.

Consequences of the tax? Of the crisis? Of the

increase of the oil’s price? Or simply a sudden

awareness of the pollution’s dangers?

Probably a little of all of them, besides it favors

the public transports ‘use.

As ecology is in vogue, a mean of

transport is coming back into fashion, with no

surprise it is the bike, easy to use. Paris has its

velibs, London its Boris bikes and Stockholm

has its society, the Stockholm city bikes, which

provides people cards who want to rent bikes

in stands all around the city. Advantage is the

possibility to ride in good conditions, with a

nice view of Stockholm and the river.

Nevertheless, of course there are some

inconvenient, in Sweden, you cannot rent a

bike the whole year: there is a season! It lasts

six months, between April and October! So if

you plan to ride around Stockholm with a

rented bike, your trip must be during this time!

Designed for everyone

To have a good relationship with the

citizens, it is important that authorities do the

best to give them pleasant environment. And

Stockholm's leaders have understood that!

Indeed the most striking aspect of the

transports in Stockholm is probably the

equipment established in order to make them

easy to take for everyone. Imagine, you are

blind, you have to go working, or just going in

town, then, unless you found someone to

drive you, you have to take public transports

but how do you know where to stop if you

cannot see the name of the station? You

quickly understand when you hear a repeated

beep while fire turns red and allows you to

cross the road, or simply in the metro when

the name of the station and the

correspondences are said by a feminine voice,

certainly nicer than a robot one, especially for

men!

Now you may think public transports in

Stockholm are just perfect, like heaven? It

would be utopia, and utopia does not exist! Of

course, all is not perfect! For instance, in the

metro, plans are not set in obviousness,

instead on walls near the doors and as they are

small it is not that easy to have a look at them,

mainly when the metro is full of people!

Besides when you are a stranger or just an

inhabitant of another city and you do not

know perfectly the underground lines it may

causes problems since the plans indicate all

the lines, and not just the one you are taking.

Yet in the same time the destination is written

in a way everyone can see it as the

correspondences that may be taken in some

stations, practical for people who do not pay

many attention, who are just waking up for

example.

Bicycle path in Stockholm

4

The metro: more than a transport, a

masterpiece

Stockholm's metro, tunnelbana in

Swedish, is a unique place in the world.

Different of the Moscow's one which looks

more like the inside of a baroque's palace, it is

the only metro where you can see works of art

of about 140 Swedish artists. It is generally

abstract art, painted directly on walls of the

underground stations. A work very surprising

and amazing that people know in the world

through its nickname "the world's longest art

exhibition" or "the world's largest museum"

for it extends in the three underground's lines,

so around 110 kilometers of the metro's walls

are the properties of Swedish artists. A good

mean for the government to highlight what its

citizen do and to make these places, which are

underground, not very aerated, a little

depressing that has to be recognized , nicer.

Yet they did more than that, now it is

considered as a museum and a real curiosity by

people from all the world.

This concept demonstrates very well

the principle that people can have fun, enjoy

something and learn as well. Indeed that is

what Stockholm inhabitants do by taking the

metro every day, they look around them, see

these paints and open themselves to culture,

other ways to express feelings, ideas, other art

forms...

Actually it is not surprising to notice

such initiatives in a Swedish city where a lot of

decisions are made in order to make people's

life pleasant with "educational" things.

Moreover in a country where winter is present

more time in a year than summer, it is

important to bring happiness to people, which

is rather well done. Many passengers who

were waiting for the metro told me that "

[they found] it nice and that [was] a good

thing".

So taking public transports in

Stockholm seems to be great compared to

situations in other countries: they are pleasant

to take, instructive, amazing, and plenty of

other good qualifiers.... Yet people ask first for

efficient transports, do not they? Then is

Stockholm a model that should follow number

of countries, even others in European union?

For what I have seen there I would just answer

"Yes".

Anouk Dehaudt-Delville

Inside Fridhemsplan station

Hallonbergen station