New environmental zones for passenger cars

This studie was performed in December and January 2018-2019 on behalf of The Swedish Transport Agency to study the premises for public compliance with environmental zone regulations based on theories aboute attitudes and norms. Along with indicators of attitudes and norms, the study maps out relevant questions regarding traffic behavior, legal compliance towards traffic rules in general and environmental zone regulations in particular. The empirical data consists of a survey study and a semi-systematic literature review.

Svensson and Björkenfeldt portray informal- and formal social control on the one hand and legal compliance on the other, and the overreaching question of the report, therefore, address the correlation of these two. The study shows that attitudes and subjective norms towards the upcoming environmental zone regulations are not strong enough to bring about legal compliance. However, with active efforts of creating obstacles in breaking the regulations, the law´s single value is strengthened, and in time, it is likely that social norms will also grow stronger.