For a number of years, Norway has financed new road infrastructure by charging tolls. Initially this was done on bridges and tunnels outside built up areas, but in recent years toll rings have been introduced around major urban centres including Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. The original legislation under which these tolling schemes were introduced restricted the use of the money collected through tolls to the provision of new road infrastructure, but now it is also possible to use a proportion for infrastructure for the transit system and urban environmental improvements.Trondheim is the third largest city in Norway having a population of 150000 and the centre for an area with 250000 inhabitants. The main traffic problem in Trondheim was the lack of a main safe road system with sufficient capacity to handle the traffic demand. This caused traffic problems in the city centre and the nearby residential areas. As much as 50 % of the traffic in the city centre was just going through the centre without any stops. In the years between 1983 and 1987 a traffic growth of 25 % was registered. Although the growth decreased from 1987 to 1990, it was easy to predict a total collapse in the near future if nothing was done to improve the transport system. The solution of the problems was found to be the following : A new and better main road system outside the city centre. A safe and better road network for pedestrians and cyclists. Intelligent priority to public transit This solution was worked out in a development plan for the future infrastructure. It became a plan for extending the present main road system, building new roads around the city centre, an extended and new road system for pedestrians and cyclists and different ways of giving priority to public transport. The transportation investment plan was estimated to a cost of NOK 2.2 billion and should be financed by toll revenues (60 %) and national funding (40%). For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
Abstract