EVs in bus lanes — Controversial incentive

Electric vehicles are becoming a usual sight in the streets of Oslo. Thousands of commuters have chosen and EV because they are comparable in price to a conventional vehicle, and offer substantial savings in time and money. As new models, especially from Nissan and Mitsubishi have hit the market from late 2010, the sale of EVs has gone up significantly. This growth is expected to continue in the time to come, as more types and brands of EVs are coming. One of the strongest incentives is that EV drivers are allowed to use the bus lane. This incentive applies all over Norway, but saves more time for users in Oslo, and in particular in the western corridor towards Oslo. As EV numbers increase, and more models will come, there is a growing awareness that EVs sooner or later will impede bus traffic to an extent that will make it impossible to continue this incentive. At the same time, Norway has committed to goals that require a sharp increase in the sale of EVs by 2020. It will be necessary to quickly come up with new powerful and robust incentives to continue the positive trend in Norway in the years to come. In this paper we will present the result of an EV count in a bus lane in Oslo, compared with a similar count in 2009. Though the increase is perhaps less than anticipated, there are now more EVs than buses in this selected bus lane. As it is likely that this development will lead to the termination of the incentive not too far into the future, and it is necessary to prepare a transition to a new package of incentives now.