Overcoming the barriers to implementing urban road user charging schemes

Abstract

Urban road user charging offers the potential to achieve significant improvements in urban transport, but is notoriously difficult to implement. Cities need guidance on the range of factors to be considered in planning and implementing such schemes. This paper summarises the results of a 3 year programme which has collated evidence on the issues of most concern to cities. A state of the art report has provided evidence on 14 themes, ranging from objectives and design to implementation and evaluation. A set of 16 case studies has reviewed experience in design and implementation across Europe. The paper summarises their findings, provides references to more detailed information, presents the resulting policy recommendations to European, national and local government, and outlines the areas in which further research is needed.

Charging versus rewarding: A comparison of road-pricing and rewarding peak avoidance in the Netherlands

“…Policy-makers have different policy levers when it comes to constructing second-best transport pricing measures. Pricing measures can vary on the basis of the price level, the level of differentiation, the coverage of the measure, the revenue use and other supplementary policies There is a considerable amount of empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of implemented road pricing and toll schemes around the world (see, e.g., Verhoef et al, 2008;Tillema, 2007;Ubbels, 2002;TfL, 2003;May et al, 2010 to the one that was planned in the Netherlands, has been implemented.…”

Increasing the acceptability of a congestion charging scheme

“…Also noticeable in this respect are the road charging (or rush hour rewarding) programs in the Netherlands and the current trials and discussions about the introduction of road pricing in Belgium. The CURACAO Project, funded by the European Commission, shows also this increasing interest in this issue, including 20 cities interested in pursuing road user charging (May et al, 2010). Among these experiences, there is not a single study about public responses to urban road schemes in Spanish cities.…”

“…A first group of studies extracted lessons learnt from previous experiences in cities where CC had been implemented or was planned (some reviews are included, for example, in Albalate and Bel, 2009;Odeck and Kjerkreit, 2010;May et al, 2010;Noordegraaf et al, 2014). Generally, these studies show the importance of the level of information given to users about the characteristics of the scheme, its potential benefits and the use given to the revenues raised by tolls.…”

A New Look in Designing Sustainable City Logistics Road Pricing Schemes

“…This policy is a well-established practice round the world as demonstrate by the copious state of the art on this topic (e.g. Cools et al [3]; De Palma et al [4]; Ecola and Light [5]; Ferrari [6]; Grisolía et al [7]; Levinson [8]; Kim et al [9]; May et al [10]; Odeck and Kjerkreit [11]; Verhoef and Rouwendal [12]; Viegas [13]). The road pricing schemes could be grouped into:…”