The Brussels government has listened carefully to transport economists and traffic experts: they have argued for years that a variable price yields the best results. A higher kilometer price during rush hour eases traffic pressure when the infrastructure is most overloaded. A higher starting or toll amount for cars with a strong capacity can contribute to better air quality and achieving the climate targets, as long as you also take into account the real emissions of, for example, hybrid cars when determining the tax rates.
In this way, Brussels also goes further than Stockholm, which uses the same toll amount regardless of the environmental class or the power of the vehicle. In doing so, it not only pursues environmental objectives, but also appears to be starting from the hypothesis that lower-income households generally drive modest cars so that they do not have to pay too high a starting amount when they really need their vehicle.
The political decision finally put down by the Brussels government therefore seems to meet the earlier internal criticism of the majority party PS, who was concerned about the impact of higher user charges on families with less widespread use. This is not unimportant, by the way: transport economists are very good at demonstrating the argument that variable transport costs contribute to a more balance in the use of infrastructure, but their discipline usually does not answer the social consequences of road pricing for people with smaller budgets.
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