Road-user charging and the Lake District National Park

This academic case study investigated the potential implementation of a road-user charging cordon in the Lake District National Park, examining the response of three distinct stakeholder groups: visitor, resident and business operator, to the imposition of road-user charges. Monetary preferences were elicited from all three stakeholders grouping’s using a mail-back questionnaire incorporating a contingent valuation method scenario. In conclusion, road-user charging was deemed an impracticable transport demand management strategy for the Lake District National Park due to the potential equity costs exceeding road network efficiency gains.     

Lessons from travel planning and road user charging for policy-making: through imperfection to implementation

In 1978 Gunn published a seminal paper which explained why implementation of policy is so difficult. The paper set out 10 conditions, which should be satisfied if perfect implementation is to be achieved. Whilst it is clear that perfect implementation is not possible in the real world, and Gunn has subsequently been criticised for his ‘top-down’ approach to decision-making, these conditions do, nonetheless act as an effective framework through which to evaluate good practice in the implementation of urban transport policy instruments. Two urban transport policy instruments, which form an increasingly important element of the Government's strategy in the UK for reducing the demand for private transport as set out in a New Deal for Transport (DETR, 1998), are travel plans and road user charging. Travel plans are a relatively recent policy instrument in the UK and seek to reduce trips to work by car by providing, through individual employers, a targeted, integrated package of incentives and disincentives to influence commuters' choice of mode of travel to and from the workplace. Road user charging, whereby motorists are charged for the road space they use in urban areas, seeks to reduce the congestion problem via the price mechanism, and has a longer history in the UK. To date the implementation of travel plans in the UK has been more widespread than that of road user charging. It is fair to say, however, that the widespread implementation of both urban transport policy instruments is a complex and sensitive area for decision-makers.The aim of this paper is firstly, to analyse travel plans and road user charging in the UK with respect to the conditions for perfect implementation put forward by Gunn and secondly, to highlight the elements of good practice, pertinent to the implementation of road user charging, in the process of the implementation of travel plans. Overall, the paper uses Gunn's theoretical framework as a basis for recommendations for better decision-making that will aid the wider implementation of both travel plans and road user charging internationally.     

Public attitudes to TDM measures: a comparative study

This paper presents the results of a range of data analyses of users’ attitudinal responses to various travel-demand management measures in two case-study cities in the UK: Cambridge and Newcastle upon Tyne. The analyses focus on several important aspects of implementing TDM measures, including the relationship between the perceived effectiveness and public acceptance of alternative TDM measures and how the generated net benefits, in particular the revenues raised from road-user charging and increased parking charges, are used. A number of key issues are identified for the implementation of TDM measures that are both acceptable to the public and also capable of achieving their stated objectives.     

Local authority and academic attitudes to urban road pricing: a UK perspective

Urban road pricing as an instrument of traffic management has generated a great deal of interest in the UK in recent years. Whilst this is the case there is still no urban road pricing scheme in operation in the UK. The reason for this is primarily one of ‘acceptability.’ This paper, through the use of a national survey, examines the attitudes of key stakeholder groups with respect to urban road pricing. How serious is traffic congestion and traffic related pollution perceived to be by Local Authority Councillors, Officials and the Academic community in the UK? How is urban road pricing viewed by this sub-group of the population in terms of its effectiveness and public acceptance when compared to other policy options? and how could the saleability of urban road pricing be improved? This raises issues in terms of how the revenue raised from urban road pricing should be utilised, the use of urban road pricing as part of a package of measures, the concerns expressed by the stakeholders with respect to urban road pricing, such as the invasion of road users’ privacy, and the type of technology which should be considered. Overall, the paper aims to further the debate among policy makers.     

Road pricing in National Parks: a case study in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

Road user charging is typically associated with urban contexts, however, congestion at rural attractions is of increasing concern and road user charging may be considered as a suitable policy instrument. This paper investigates the issue of rural road pricing and presents the results of a survey of car-based visitors to Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which explores the potential impacts on mode and destination choice of a road user charging scheme, combined with a park and ride alternative. The scheme was found to be acceptable to 68% of the respondents, with nearly half opting to park and ride. The results are of particular interest in the light of the 1998 Transport White Paper that encourages pilot road user charging schemes in rural areas.     

Joint implementation of tradable credit and road pricing in public-private partnership networks considering mixed equilibrium behaviors

This paper investigates joint road charging schemes in a public-private partnership (PPP) network by simultaneously taking into account Cournot-Nash (CN) players and user equilibrium (UE) players. Each joint scheme comprises a tradable credit plan for public roads and a regular tolling plan for private roads. We show that, under UE-CN mixed equilibrium, there exist anonymous nonnegative joint schemes that can support a system optimum link flow pattern. By using preemptive approach, we further design three bi-objective optimization models with hybrid implementation of tradable credit and road pricing. Numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed methods are effective in managing PPP networks.     

A socio-economic assessment of proposed road user charging schemes in Copenhagen

Road pricing, congestion charging, toll-systems and other road charging instruments are intensively discussed in many countries. Although many partial analyses of the consequences have been published, few overall socio-economic analyses have been carried out. The article presents such a socio-economic analysis of four different proposed road pricing schemes for the Copenhagen area. The purpose was to assess all benefits and costs involved, including impacts on traffic and environment, maintenance and financing costs as well as tax distortion effects. It was concluded that the socio-economic surplus of the projects depends crucially on the congestion level. With the current traffic level, road pricing will not yet be socially expedient in Copenhagen. However, if the opening year is postponed to 2015, the two most favourable schemes will turn positive. The analyses also showed that the magnitude of demand response by introducing road pricing is likely to have significant impact on the project surplus. This is an important observation because most short-term driven traffic models will then underestimate the projected surplus. Finally, it was found that the degree to which benefits outweigh costs depends considerably on the use of revenue. Although it may contribute to decreasing road congestion, recycling all of the revenue back to the transport sector turned out to be inefficient and costly.     

Built environment and potential job accessibility effects of road pricing: A spatial econometric perspective

This paper analyzes the impacts of the built environment (BE) as it relates to the potential job accessibility (PJA) effects of road pricing. The relationships between the BE elements and PJA under a road charging policy are established using a spatial econometric approach, which uses an integrated land use and transportation model (TRANUS model) and a spatial lag model (SLM). With the intent of further analyzing the differences in the PJA effects of road pricing on traffic analysis zones (TAZs) that contain different combinations of BE elements, a quantitative classification method combining factor and cluster analysis is applied. This will quantitatively categorize TAZs inside and outside the tolled areas. In exploring the relationship between changes in PJA and the road pricing policy, we found the spatial autocorrelation coefficient to be negative. This result suggests that we are unable to increase the PJA of all the regions through road pricing, but rather affect a redistribution of PJA between different regions. Results also indicate that the impacts of road charging on PJA are associated with urban BE elements. Moreover, such effects are the common result of specific characteristics of the BE. The higher the number of jobs, the better the public transportation conditions, and the better the street design (high densities of street and intersections), the less the region will be negatively influenced by a road charging policy, and vice versa. To avoid the negative effects of road pricing on PJA prior to the launch of such a policy, cities should improve public transportation networks and enhance the street design of the road pricing policy areas, especially the toll ring periphery area.     

Policy transfer and the introduction of road pricing in Valletta,Malta

Charging motorists to pay for driving at times and/or in places where there is insufficient capacity to meet the level of demand has long been recognised by transport economists as an efficient way to address traffic congestion. However, only a few locations have actually decided to use this mechanism, with Valletta one of the more recent cities to introduce such a scheme. This paper aims to present a case study of road pricing in Valletta and the role played by policy transfer in its introduction. To do this, it applies data gathered from existing literature, in-depth interviews and direct observation with those involved in the policy development. Experience of road pricing was gained from London, Durham, Edinburgh and Stockholm. One of the major barriers to policy transfer was felt to be the unique geography of the island however international events, local conditions and a political champion driving change were critical factors to the successful implementation of the road pricing scheme. Policy transfer was deemed useful in terms of policy development, relations with stakeholders, scheme design and administrative approaches. This paper concludes by identifying the contributions of the case study of Valletta to the policy transfer literature.     

Achieving genuinely dynamic road user charging: issues with a GNSS-based approach

A variety of approaches to road user charging (RUC) for reducing congestion and raising revenue to maintain and improve transport infrastructure is in place in many countries; examples of such RUC include: an Electronic Fee Collection System in Singapore, Cordon Pricing in Oslo City in Norway, Zoned Based Pricing in London and Distance-Based Pricing (also called Pay-As-You-Drive) in Germany and Switzerland. With the development of satellite technologies, the introduction of dynamic pricing becomes possible, affording an opportunity for RUC to fully reflect the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’. This paper provides critical and comparative assessments of existing road user charging (RUC) systems with reference to technological limitations and public and political acceptability. The paper then goes on to demonstrate a system architecture for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based dynamic road user charging system capable of considering dynamic variables. Finally we consider the feasibility of the proposed system in relation to technology readiness and public acceptability. We then consider some potential wider benefits from the introduction of a comprehensive system that could be highlighted to justify the cost of development and implementation as well as to improve public and political acceptability. The paper ends with conclusions and future research directions.     

Newspaper response to the Edinburgh congestion charging proposals

The media has been identified as a key player in the implementation of road pricing schemes, often against a background of low public and political acceptability. A media analysis framework was applied to the Edinburgh congestion charging proposals, to investigate newspaper response to the scheme. Newspaper coverage had been highly politicised and increasingly negative over the time period leading up to the referendum in February 2005, when the proposals were rejected by Edinburgh residents. The role of newspapers in reporting and making opinion, and the balance of positive and negative arguments towards the congestion charging proposals, are explored.     

Bounding the efficiency of road pricing

This paper deals with the following question associated with congestion pricing in a general network with either fixed or elastic travel demand: what is the maximum efficiency loss of a general second-best pricing scheme due to inexact marginal-cost pricing in comparison with the first-best pricing or system optimum case? A formal answer to this question is provided by establishing an inefficiency bound associated with a given road pricing scheme. An application of the methods is provided for the practical trial-and-error implementation of marginal-cost pricing with unknown demand functions.     

The implementation of road user charging and the lessons learnt: the case of Valletta,Malta

Whilst the theory on road pricing is well developed there are only a few schemes operating worldwide with others which have failed to be implemented. One scheme which has received relatively little attention is the Controlled Vehicular Access System (CVA) recently implemented in Valletta, Malta. This paper draws on the experience of Valletta with a move from a fixed annual charge (V-licence) for access into the city to a time-based road user charge implemented in May 2007. The aims of this paper are to identify the reasons why a fixed charge was initially introduced; to review the literature related to implementation of road user charging schemes around the world; to compare the V-licence with the CVA and identify the issues relating to the change from one scheme to another. Through the direct involvement of one of the authors in the design and implementation of the road user charge in Valletta, this paper is based on archival data, direct observation and qualitative interviews. This paper concludes on what lessons can be learnt from the case of Valletta for other cities contemplating the introduction of a road user charge.     

A vehicle quota integrated with road usage pricing: A mechanism to complete the phase-out of high fixed vehicle taxes in Singapore

This expository paper suggests a way to integrate a vehicle quota with usage based charging, including road pricing. It thereby challenges assumptions that ownership control requires high fixed vehicle costs. It focuses on Singapore, which famously has high purchase taxes and a Vehicle Quota System. These are effective but as a result of arguments against high fixed vehicle taxes, Singapore's authorities are gradually relaxing ownership control and increasing reliance on usage charges. This paper proposes a mechanism to ‘variabilise’ fixed taxes, including the vehicle permit price, in a way that is compatible with the vehicle quota. In particular, it proposes to integrate the vehicle quota with a new generation of electronic road pricing. This could make Singapore's shift to usage-based charging more efficient, complete and flexible while retaining the option to control vehicle numbers precisely.     

Delineating traffic congestion zones in cities: An effective approach based on GIS

Identifying congested areas for implementing road pricing is a complicated task, especially as traffic speed and other census data may not be readily available before a detailed feasibility study is commissioned. In this study, we introduce a spatial approach to identify areas with road traffic congestion within cities. The results obtained are validated against the empirical traffic speed data in four Asian cities, i.e. Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, from 2018 to 2020. Moreover, the findings are also compared with a more detailed conventional method of using job density to identify areas of high traffic congestion. The comparisons show that the spatial approach is both efficient and effective. Through applying the method to London, Milan and Stockholm, the study also demonstrates other potential empirical applications in reviewing the boundaries of existing congestion charging zones.     

Making urban road pricing acceptable and effective: searching for quality and equity in urban mobility

Urban Road Pricing has been proposed many times as a powerful instrument to fight congestion in urban traffic, but has systematically faced a hostile political envirionment, due to lack of confidence on its promised (traffic) results and fear of its political consequences. Lack of action in this front is contributing to stable or even growing congestion problems in most large cities.This paper tries to address the problem with a fresh look at the objectives of road pricing and at the reasons for that political hostility. For managing and developing the urban mobility system, efficiency and equity are normally taken as the basic economic objectives. Sustainability objectives may be integrated in the efficiency objective if we are able to represent adequately the costs of the resources consumed in the process. Political hostility is normally based on having to pay for what was freely available, and on the risk of exclusion for those with little revenue available for the extra cost of driving into the city.Pursuit of efficency leads to suggestion of marginal social cost pricing but this is hard to explain to the public and application of this principle is fraught with pitfalls since some components of that cost get smaller as traffic grows (noise related costs for example). Pricing is still a good option but the objective has to be something easier to understand and to serve as a target for mobility managers. That “new” objective is quality of the mobility system, with a meaning similar to that of “level of service” in traffic engineering, and prices should be managed to across space, time and transport modes in such a way that provision of service is made with good quality in all components.Pursuit of equity leads to some form of rationing, which has often been associated with high transaction costs and abuse by the administrators. But the use of electronic road pricing should allow easy ways to address the rationing process without such high costs. The basic proposition is that all local taxpayers receive as a direct restitution of their tax contribution a certain amount of “mobility rights”, which can be used both for private car driving in the tolled areas and for riding public transport.These principles are easily applicable with a variety of technical solutions for road pricing, from the simplest cordon pricing to the more sophisticated “pay-as-you-go” schemes. The paper addresses this question of implementation and argues for increasingly sophisticated schemes, as people get accustomed to the principles and finer targeting of demand segments may be needed.     

Optimizing the benefits of urban road user charging

Traffic congestion is a feature of most modern cities but attempts to control it or limit its effects have met with only modest success. There is significant and continuing interest in the concept of charging city vehicle users, although apart from the use of parking charges actual operational schemes are few and far between. In this paper, we compare three alternative charging policies using a simplified model of travel demand and supply, which we combine with cost benefit techniques. The charging policies are area-based charging in which users pay to locate in or enter an area, terminal-charging based on supplementary parking fees in residential and non-residential locations and distance-based charging which is a charge related to how far users travel. The model allows for behavioural effects resulting from trip diversion and demand suppression, as well as capacity restraint (speed-flow feedback effects based on limited route capacity). In the case study, we parameterize the model using data and geographical dimensions based on London. We show that area based charging delivers the least benefits whilst a hybrid policy based on terminal and distance-based charges delivers the most. Because it is of topical interest, we compare our results and predictions with the Mayor's strategy for London, which is an area-based scheme. We conclude that the revenue generated using a hybrid policy would be as great as for an area based scheme whilst at the same time delivering substantially greater benefits to road users in terms of travel time and other savings.     

Optimisation models for the urban parking pricing problem

Parking pricing strategies are important tools for rebalancing the modal split between private car and transit systems in urban areas. Indeed, high congestion levels are mainly due to users' preference for the private car system. In order to obtain a more balanced modal split it is possible, together with an improvement in transit system quality, to set fees on the use of private cars through road pricing and/or parking pricing strategies. Parking pricing strategies are simpler, since they can be managed without adopting advanced technologies. In this paper some parking pricing strategies are proposed and some optimisation models are formalised.     

Reducing road congestion: a reality check

For some little while now, transport policy seems to be focused on massive relative increases in public transport ridership and reduction of car use, resulting in a hoped-for reduction in road congestion. Starting with concerns with vehicle emissions as far back as the mid-1980s, and moving now into more of a focus on greenhouse gases and congestion, current transport policies are aimed at reducing two perceived externalities of increasing car use—vehicular emissions and congestion. This paper seeks to check the reality of these policy directions and question whether these are desirable, let alone achievable end states. The paper starts by looking at congestion and questions whether or not it is intrinsically bad. The negative and positive aspects of congestion are explored. The concepts of accessibility and mobility are discussed, particularly in relation to congestion and capacity increases, with the idea of trying to understand better what capacity increases or increasing congestion do to these two measures. The expectation must be that congestion levels are likely to continue to increase into the future, both as a result of increasing population and also increasing real wealth and changes in preferences. This section of the paper concludes that it is within the power of the market place to offset some of the negatives of congestion.In the next section of the paper, the potentials to increase public transport ridership are examined. An illustration is provided of the likely impacts of achieving a doubling in public transport ridership in a hypothetical city. It is found that the effects of such an achievement would be relatively small on the overall congestion of the road system, and that these effects would also be likely to be fairly short-lived. At the same time, the investments that would be necessary in the public transport system are enormous, and there is relatively little likelihood that one could achieve such an increase in ridership within current development patterns. The paper also addresses the potential of congestion pricing or road user charges to impact congestion. It is concluded that charging motorists a politically acceptable amount will probably still not make significant impact on overall system congestion, while the potential for serious impacts on the economy become large if the charges are made sufficiently high or the area covered is made sufficiently large. In the final section of the paper, a number of policy directions are put forward as suggestions for how to deal with the issue of congestion, capacity, and the declining share of market of public transport. These policy directions are not generally the ones that are being pursued today. The issue of congestion pricing is revisited, and a case is made for a kilometrage charge on road users to replace most current licensing schemes.     

Is there a case for replacing parking charges by road user charges?

The price of parking is often considered an important tool with which to influence transport choice but, since many local authorities have limited control over off-street charges and since parking charges have no direct impact on through traffic, its influence on overall travel demand may be limited. Road user charges, on the other hand, do appear to offer an effective means of influencing overall demand. The problem is that public acceptance of such charges is low unless some obvious “carrot” can be identified. This paper explores the possibility that the removal of parking charges might be that “carrot”. Our analysis suggests that, although the removal of parking charges would reduce revenues and dilute the reduction in demand caused by the introduction of road charges, the combined effect might, in certain circumstances, be more beneficial to the local economy and might still yield a net increase in revenue. Given the incidence of impacts, it also appears that a combined scheme would be more equitable and might stand a greater chance of achieving public acceptance than a more conventional road charging scheme. The paper identifies the circumstances in which a combined scheme might work well and outlines the detailed analysis that would be necessary to confirm this.