Implementing the improbable urban road pricing scheme

Road pricing is a policy measure recommended by transport planners and economists, but considered infeasible by many due to political and public resistance. The Trondheim experience demonstrates how a crude road pricing scheme can be implemented in a moderately congested city while paying heed to democratic decision-making. Fair and democratic procedure requires that the planning include a responsive citizen participation process, that the political parties feed all the viewpoints of the main interest groups into the City Council decision-making, and that the public debate be open and admit all groups mass media coverage. Lessons from the Trondheim toll ring case are offered concerning (1) interests and coalition building, (2) pro and con arguments, (3) the viability of democratic procedure, (4) frequent forms of manipulation, and (5) main issues of design and revenue spending.     

A Pareto‐improving hybrid policy for transportation networks

This paper investigates an innovative Pareto‐improving hybrid policy that combines two policy instruments, that is, congestion pricing and road space rationing, and takes advantage of the synergistic effects between these instruments. Mathematical formulations for developing Pareto‐improving pure road space rationing schemes and hybrid policies are presented. Numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed hybrid policy offers greater flexibility and is more prominent in leading to Pareto improvement than both pure congestion pricing and road space rationing schemes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transformation of transport policy in Great Britain

The British Government recently issued a white paper on its future transport strategy. Its central precept is unambiguous: current trends in traffic are unsustainable, from the point of view of the environment, business efficiency, health, and the unfeasibility of providing growth in road capacity that would keep pace with predicted growth in traffic. Much of the policy logic in the white paper stems from the explicit abandonment of `predict-and-provide' as a desirable — or possible — strategy. This leads to a recognition of the importance of a co-ordinated approach to public transport, walking and cycling, together with policies aimed at reducing less necessary travel where possible; ensuring that the costs of congestion and environmental pollution are, as far as practical, met by those who cause them (in which the revenue from new pricing systems would be kept under local control and used for transport improvements); an emphasis on better maintenance and management of the road system rather than increasing its capacity; consideration of the effects on transport of other policies in land-use, health, education etc; development of institutional structures or contractual arrangements able to bring these changes about; and conditions in which people's everyday behaviour and attitudes may be in harmony with policy, finance and environmental constraints. These themes did not arise out of the blue following the general election in 1997. They evolved over many years, especially in nearly ten years of intense discussion connected with the previous two governments' recognition that the 1989 road programme (`Roads to Prosperity'), in spite of its size and expense, would still not be nearly sufficient to keep pace with traffic growth, as well as being environmentally damaging. The process of discussion and argument has not ceased with publication of the white paper. A very interesting feature of the current debate is that its central argument is widely (though not unanimously) accepted in the media, with great emphasis on the problems of implementation. The author argues that the policy shift is genuine and firmly grounded in research, though with a number of real problems in implementation, research and methodology that will have to be addressed.     

The socio-cognitive links between road pricing acceptability and changes in travel-behavior

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of road pricing on people’s tendency to adapt their current travel behavior. To this end, the relationship between changes in activity-travel behavior on the one hand and public acceptability and its most important determinants on the other are investigated by means of a stated adaptation experiment. Using a two-stage hierarchical model, it was found that behavioral changes themselves are not dependent on the perceived acceptability of road pricing itself, and that only a small amount of the variability in the behavioral changes were explained by socio-cognitive factors. The lesson for policy makers is that road pricing charges must surpass a minimum threshold in order to entice changes in activity-travel behavior and that the benefits of road pricing should be clearly communicated, taking into account the needs and abilities of different types of travelers. Secondly, earlier findings concerning the acceptability of push measures were validated, supporting transferability of results. In line with other studies, effectiveness, fairness and personal norm all had a significant direct impact on perceived acceptability. Finally, the relevance of using latent factors rather than aggregate indicators was underlined.     

A Pareto-improving hybrid rationing and pricing policy with multiclass network equilibria

This paper extends the work on Pareto-improving hybrid rationing and pricing policy for general road networks by considering heterogeneous users with different values of time. Mathematical programming models are proposed to find a multiclass Pareto-improving pure road space rationing scheme (MPI-PR) and multiclass hybrid rationing and pricing schemes (MHPI and MHPI-S). A numerical example with a multimodal network is provided for comparing both the efficiency and equity of the three proposed policies. We discover that MHPI-S can achieve the largest reduction in total system delay, MHPI can induce the least spatial inequity and MHPI-S is a progressive policy which is appealing to policy makers. Furthermore, numerical results reveal that different classes of users react differently to the same hybrid policies and multiclass Pareto-improving hybrid schemes yield less delay reduction when compared to their single-class counterparts.     

Transport policy prioritisation for Dublin

Internalisation of the external costs of transport is currently the subject of much debate. Estimation of costs such as those of pollution and congestion is a primary element in any strategy involving policies for use in the internalisation of these costs. The objective of the TRENEN II STRAN project, funded by the EU, was to develop a methodology for estimation of the marginal external costs of transport. The model developed during the project was used in a series of case studies. One of the case studies, that conducted for Dublin, is reported in this paper. A brief summary of the TRENEN approach is presented followed by the results for Dublin produced from policies such as Do Nothing, Uniform pricing (internalising external costs by means of fuel taxation), Congestion Pricing (cordon pricing) and a first-best policy, the Full Optimum where one assumes that the policy maker has perfect pricing instruments available. As one would expect, the model shows that the greatest reduction in traffic level and external costs would occur if it were possible to introduce a highly differentiated and sophisticated pricing system. Increased taxation on fuel is not an efficient policy as it does not address the marginal external costs of congestion in a way that time-differentiated road-use pricing would. The results from testing of the different measures are interesting particularly those relating to parking and the way in which residents within the CBD and commuters to the CBD are dealt with. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Transport emissions and travel behaviour: A critical review of recent European Union and UK policy initiatives

There are clear signs of a shift in the UK transport policy in response to concerns about the environmental impacts of road transport and anxieties about the implications of the projected future growth in demand.Much of the framework of UK transport policy is now determined at the overall European Union level. To date most European legislation and policy proposals have been concerned with reducing the specific externalities associated with the transport sector, with none of the measures involved likely to have more than a marginal impact on the growth in demand. The emerging research evidence suggests however that the private costs of car use in Europe may fall substantially short of its total social costs and there is an important emerging policy debate about how this gap might be closed.The UK has introduced a policy package designed to reduce the growth of car travel and its environmental impact, within which land-use planning measures feature prominently. The land-use policies, which to some extent represent a reassertion of many traditional UK planning policies, include: an emphasis on focussing new development in urban areas, increasing residential densities, strengthening the role of existing centres and improving provision for walking and cycling.A number of factors will constrain the effectiveness of the package in practice. There are also concerns about its impact on key environmental objectives, including air quality. There are important questions too about the welfare effects of increasing densities and about the wider impacts of the package on economic efficiency.     

The acceptability of road pricing in Vienna: the preference patterns of car drivers

The acceptability of road pricing has attracted considerable attention among researchers over the last decade, as is evident in the amount of literature about transport and environmental economics. The general conclusion from these studies has been that there is low acceptability for road pricing among car users. In this paper, we add more knowledge to the existing literature by conducting an acceptability study of road pricing in Vienna, where such a study has never been conducted before. We used a replication study approach where a previous approach used in the EU research project AFFORD (acceptability of fiscal and financial measures and organisational requirements for demand management) was replicated for Vienna and further supplemented with a conjoint analysis. In order to examining whether the Vienna study confirms previous findings. We investigated the acceptability of two concrete policy packages factors influencing this acceptability, and preference patterns that can be used in designing a road pricing policy for Vienna. The survey reveals a higher acceptability if road pricing schemes lead to perceived personal benefits. According to the multivariate analyses, the “personal outcome expectations”, “social norm” and “perceived effectiveness” variables account for more than 50 % of the criterion variance and therefore these are the most influential factors. Road pricing schemes can be an effective transport management instrument for a city particularly if they are associated with direct investment in public transport and public infrastructure. Thus, personal benefits can be perceived more easily and direct effects can be expected.     

Transport policy for London in 2001 The case for an integrated approach

The paper reports the results of a series of studies conducted to enable the London Planning Advisory Committee to provide advice on strategic transport policy for London. The analytical approach combined the use of an area-based, multi-modal strategic model (LAM) and professional judgment. The performance of LAM as a basis for providing rapid advice on complex issues in transport policy is assessed.The resulting policy advice advocated a coherent approach, involving new infrastructure, particularly for rail; improved management of the road and public transport networks; the use of subsidy to enhance public transport service levels; and road user charges to reduce the impact of private vehicles on congestion and the environment. Road user charges emerged as the pivotal issue in the policy; the paper discusses their role, and the questions which still need to be resolved before they can be implemented.The main message of the study is that no one element of transport policy can tackle London's problems alone; an integrated policy in which infrastructure provision, management and pricing are used to complement one another is shown to be far more effective.     

Road Pricing models with maintenance cost

According to the Federal Highway Administration of the United States, maintenance expenditure takes up more than 25% of road revenue disbursement and this percentage has been increasing gradually. The reason for the increment in maintenance cost is that there lacks incentives for road users to take this cost component into their driving behavior. That is, different classes of vehicles should be levied different levels of congestion tax due to the different degrees of damage on the highway if a road pricing policy is implemented. This paper intends to incorporate this concept into road pricing literature by introducing two types of vehicles. After the analysis of the problem, we find that different types of vehicles should be charged different tolls. The toll includes not only the travel delay cost of one's own vehicle and the other types of vehicles, but also the marginal maintenance cost that is dependent on the traffic flow. A set of numerical examples is provided to demonstrate the theoretical analyses. The result shows that both the welfare and cost coverage rate will increase when the road pricing mechanism takes the maintenance cost factor into account.     

The optimal dual-pricing policy of mall parking service

In studies of parking policy, the role of parking pricing has been addressed. Most researches have focused on the determination of a proper price for city parking spaces that are open to the public and it is now evident that price is used by authorities as a tool to manage transport demand. However, studies of parking pricing that pertain to privately-owned parking resources are few and in particular, the problem of setting a proper price for physical market parking has rarely been studied, such as a mall’s ‘dual-pricing portfolio’ decision for the simultaneous determination of a parking fee and the consumer spending required for free parking (i.e., the ‘threshold’). This is a common problem for most malls, but the different agents involved (e.g., the visitors, the mall, the marketplace and the parking lot departments) usually have diverse goals, so the decision must take account of a multiplicity of criteria and subtle relationships. In order to systematically support this type of inter-departmental decision process, a decision model that includes an analytical decision-aid process and the relevant programming models is established. A numerical example verifies the proposed model by taking the data for a mall in Taiwan and the implications, in terms of management, are given. This systematic computational model can be generalized to any type of commercial market that requires a (new) parking pricing policy.     

Road pricing — an outsider's view of American experiences

Abstract

Substantial changes in urban transport policy have taken place over the past decade. The concern with expanding infrastructure and the preoccupation with providing sufficient road capacity to meet the increasing demand of unrestricted car use, which characterized transport policy in the 1950s and 1960s, has gradually given way to the idea that there is a need to restrain motor traffic if urban society is to function efficiently. A variety of restrictive physical traffic management, land use planning and economic policies have, in consequence, been pursued. One option which has attracted considerable attention in the academic literature, but which has been received more cooly by policy‐makers, is the possibility of optimizing urban traffic congestion through the imposition of road pricing. The introduction and relative success of the area licensing scheme in Singapore has added fuel to the arguments of the advocates of such a policy. This review is not directly concerned with either the experiment with road pricing in Singapore nor the theoretical debates which have taken place concerning the potential merits and defects of such policies but rather looks at the applied work in the United States which has looked into the practical implications of road pricing for its cities. Further, it seeks to explore, again drawing on American experiences, just why there has been so much opposition to the employment of economic pricing principles in the urban road transport market. The author presents the results of an SSRC sponsored study into the practical problems of introducing road pricing to cities in the United States.     

Spatial impacts of road pricing: Accessibility, regional spillovers and territorial cohesion

Road pricing policies are gaining prominence in EU countries. These policies have positive impacts leading to mobility patterns which are socially and environmentally more desirable, but they also have negative impacts. One negative impact is to be found in regional accessibility, due to the increase in generalized transport costs. This study presents a methodology based on accessibility indicators and GIS to assess the accessibility impacts of a road pricing policy. The methodology was tested for the Spain’s road network considering two road pricing scenarios. It enables not only the more penalized regions to be identified but also negative road pricing spillover effects between regions. These effects are measured in terms of accessibility changes occurring in one region produced by charges implemented in another region. Finally, the study of accessibility disparities (by calculating inequality indexes for each of the scenarios considered), provides policymakers with useful information regarding the impact of road pricing policies from the point of view of territorial cohesion.     

The significance and measurement of variability in travel behaviour

It is argued that an understanding of variability is central to the modelling of travel behaviour and the assessment of policy impacts, and is not the peripheral issue that it has often been considered. Drawing on recent studies in the UK and Australia, in conjunction with a review of the literature, the paper first examines the policy and analytical rationale for using multi-day data, then illustrates different ways of measuring variability, and finally discusses issues relating to the collection of suitable data for such analyses. In a policy context, there is a growing need for multi-day data to examine issues that affect general rather than one-day behaviour (e.g. to assess the distribution of user charges for road pricing, or patterns of public transport usage); while analytically, multi-day data is needed to improve our ability to identify the mechanisms behind travel behaviour and to derive better empirical relationships. Three measures of variability are presented: a graphical form showing daily differences in behaviour at the individual level; an aggregate, similarity index; and a hybrid graphical/numerical measure, which provides new insights into variability in daily patterns of behaviour. The paper raises a number of issues for debate, probably the most crucial of which is: variability in what? The way in which behaviour is measured crucially affects our conception of stability and variability.     

Transport policy scenario-building

Long-term planning decisions must be as robust as possible to withstand such changes in the policy-making environment. This calls for a new approach for identifying how policies might fare under different types of conditions and for identifying robust no-regrets strategies. This paper outlines a systematic and logical framework for the development of policy scenarios and shows how scenarios can be used in the analysis of future policy options. The article discusses how scenario analysis can be used to identify, anticipate and assess policy options for the future in an environment of uncertainty, mainly using examples of transport policy in Europe.     

The development of a policy for road tax in Turkey, using a genetic algorithm approach for demand estimation

This study deals, first, with estimation of transport demand based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach, and then deals with the evaluation of the road tax system in Turkey. It proposes an alternative road tax policy. The total transport demand is estimated based on population, Gross Domestic Product per Capita (GDPPC), and vehicle-number. Three forms of the Genetic Algorithm Transport Demand Estimation for Tax Revenues (GATDETR) are developed, of which one is linear, and the second and third are exponential forms of the mathematical expressions. The best-fit GATDETR model in terms of total minimum relative average errors between observed and estimated values are selected for future demand estimation. The evaluation of the road tax system and policy proposal is made based on estimated demand. The Distance-Based-Taxation (DBT) system is proposed in order to control highway transport. With the DBT system, some road users may wish to use railway. Thus, we re-organize the railways in order to meet the demand, but this requires new fund. The DBT system may help to create to this fund. It may also help to develop fair-taxation for the road users. Results show that the GA can be used to model transport demand and hence income tax in future transports planning. This study also suggests that planning the taxation in highway transport may help to ease funding problem of railway system.     

Pricing road use: politico-economic and fairness considerations

Road pricing measures are rarely adopted in practice. In this review, we ask why citizens are not more supportive of road pricing. We identify two difficulties. First, the general public is often unwilling to embrace the price system as an allocation mechanism for scarce resources. Second, for politico-economic reasons, any latent support for road pricing schemes rarely translates into actual policy-making. Based on our analysis, we outline components of a road pricing policy that might receive greater electoral support.     

Exploring the relationship between perceived acceptability and referendum voting support for alternative road pricing schemes

A dominant theme in the debate on road pricing (RP) reform is securing buy in from all key stakeholders as a pre-condition for gaining support from politicians. This paper explores the key influences and the extent to which particular RP schemes are acceptable to the community at large, and how this translates into support if a scheme were subject to a vote in a referendum. Using data collected in Sydney in 2012 from a sample of car users, we estimate a recursive simultaneous bivariate probit model that recognises the endogeneity effect of scheme acceptability on voting plans. We find that there is a very strong link between voting intentions and scheme acceptability, and provide a series of direct elasticity estimates of the influence that the cost elements of RP reform schemes have on the joint probability of accepting and voting for a scheme.     

Bayesian network-based formulation and analysis for toll road utilization supported by traffic information provision

Congestion pricing has been proposed and investigated as an effective means of optimizing traffic assignment, alleviating congestion, and enhancing traffic operation efficiencies. Meanwhile, advanced traffic information dissemination systems, such as Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS), have been developed and deployed to provide real-time, accurate, and complete network-wide traffic information to facilitate travelers’ trip plans and routing selections. Recent advances in ATIS technologies, especially telecommunication technology, allow dynamic, personalized, and multimodal traffic information to be disseminated and impact travelers’ choices of departure times, alternative routes, and travel modes in the context of congestion pricing. However, few studies were conducted to determine the impact of traffic information dissemination on toll road utilizations. In this study, the effects of the provisions of traffic information on toll road usage are investigated and analyzed based on a stated preference survey conducted in Texas. A Bayesian Network (BN)-based approach is developed to discover travelers’ opinions and preferences for toll road utilization supported by network-wide traffic information provisions. The probabilistic interdependencies among various attributes, including routing choice, departure time, traffic information dissemination mode, content, coverage, commuter demographic information, and travel patterns, are identified and their impacts on toll road usage are quantified. The results indicate that the BN model performs reasonably well in travelers’ preference classifications for toll road utilization and knowledge extraction. The BN Most Probable Explanation (MPE) measurement, probability inference and variable influence analysis results illustrate travelers using highway advisory radio and internet as their primary mode of receiving traffic information are more likely to comply with routing recommendations and use toll roads. Traffic information regarding congested roads, road hazard warnings, and accident locations is of great interest to travelers, who tend to acquire such information and use toll roads more frequently. Travel time formation for home-based trips can considerably enhance travelers’ preferences for toll road usage. Female travelers tend to seek traffic information and utilize toll roads more frequently. As expected, the information provided at both pre-trip and en-route stages can positively influence travelers’ preferences for toll road usage. The proposed methodology and research findings advance our previous study and provide insight into travelers’ behavioral tendencies concerning toll road utilization in support of traffic information dissemination.