Road Congestion Pricing In Europe

. . . this book is an interesting collection of papers on the topic of road congestion pricing. . . The reader should find this collection to be both interesting and informative, but also quite thought-provoking. . . The papers also provide some very useful information about projects that have not worked or have not been implemented for various reasons and lessons that can be learnt from failures to implement and failures of pricing schemes. Peter R. Stopher, International Planning Studies In February 2003, the London Congestion Charging Scheme was introduced and in 2006 a similar policy was introduced in Stockholm. In both cases automobile traffic entering the cordon declined by about 20 percent. This book evaluates these and other similar programs exploring their implications for the United States. While there is increasing interest in road pricing in the US in many individual states, the motivation is often highway financing rather than congestion relief. The contributors argue that the prospects for extensive implementation in the US remain uncertain. Nevertheless, this book illustrates that the European experience suggests political feasibility is much less of a hurdle than was once considered and that congestion pricing would have a significant impact in reducing traffic as it did in Europe. This study s value lies in the fact that it examines road pricing in the real world and not simply from a theoretical viewpoint. As a comparative study it will appeal to both policymakers and academics in transportation economics and planning, urban economics, planning and economic geography.

This Round Table defines congestion and determines the scale of the problem. It addressed the trends in congestion and the consequences of those trends. The Round Table then considered possible solutions to the congestion problem.

This work deals with the problem of pricing passenger and freight transportation within Europe. It argues that legislation affecting pricing and regulation is increasingly less successful in dealing with market failures and externalities such as congestion, air pollution, noise and accidents.

Offers policy-oriented, research-based recommendations for effectively managing traffic and cutting excess congestion in large urban areas.

Economic growth and globalisation create traffic growth, leading to congestion, which again increases travel times and costs. Road pricing is an instrument that may efficiently reduce the negative impacts. This volume is a collection of research papers on the use of road pricing. The focus is on passenger transport, and the papers cover a wide range of approaches, including theoretical modelling and empirical studies of road pricing experience from different cities.

This book presents the results of the study "Infrastructure Capital, Maintenance and Road Damage Costs for Different Heavy Goods Vehicles in the EU" which was commissioned by the European Commission, DG VII. This study supported the preparation of the white book on transport infrastructure charging. The study an European consortium consisting of DIW (German has been conducted by Institute for Economic Research, project leader and responsible for the country reports for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden), INFRAS (responsible for the country reports for Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal and Greece), Consultancy Dr. Herry (responsible for the country reports for Austria, Finland, France and Italy) and NERA (National Economic Research Associates, responsible for the country reports for the UK, Ireland and Spain). The project ran from November 1997 to March 1998 and was monitored by a steering committee with representatives of the EU-member states. This book is dealing with the calculation of costs for road infrastructure and congestion and the allocation of these costs to vehicle types. It focuses on heavy goods vehicles. This is a topic of high relevance for transport policy both on the national and the EU-Ievel with a long tradition of political and scientific debate. The study contains a comprehensive methodological comparison of existing models for calculating road capital values and capital costs and for allocating infrastructure costs to vehicle types.

Traffic congestion affects towns and cities everywhere and in some places it is regarded as one of the most urgent and important problems in need of a solution. Road pricing is undoubtedly recognised as an effective traffic demand management tool. The recent London congestion charging scheme seems to be showing that public and political opposition is not insurmountable. Thus, the ghost that prevented the introduction of a policy supported by transport economists for over 80 years seems to have disappeared or at least, weakened.The book contains twelve papers useful to different types of audience, such as researchers and postgraduate students, civil servants, policy makers and consultants. The first part is mainly theoretical and concentrates on second-best congestion pricing including pricing in urban contexts, the impact on the performance of the road network, optimal locations and charge levels, dynamic aspects such as time variation of tolls, potential impacts of road pricing on costs and service quality of public transport buses, and efficiency costs and transport sector effects of different types of pricing when they guarantee a balanced budget per mode.The second part contains chapters that describe the schemes in place around the world such as Singapore, Norway, London, and the US. The volume is an update of the state of the art on the subject and the first one to have been written and appear after the London scheme was implemented and to contain an assessment of its preliminary impacts.