The Whole-Life Impacts of Transport-Charging Interventions on Business Performance: A Time-Marching Framework

Abstract

A major concern of business with respect to transport-charging interventions is the context of revenue-investment policy, particularly how the timing of improvements may alter the time lags between fewer car journeys and more public transport journeys, and the problems for business in the intervening periods. The authors present a conceptual framework and case study of the whole-life effects on business performance. The impacts of charging occur as a sequence of gradually interacting changes, rather than as a single set of impacts, and positive amenity effects brought about through revenue hypothecation occur incrementally, taking years to achieve full effect. In the case study, a Delphi panel of business leaders predicted the time-marching effects of workplace-parking levies and road-user charging over a 24-year period in Nottingham. The findings revealed that the temporal nature of hypothecation results in minor fluctuations in performance for some business sectors in the first few years, but that these tail off as benefits gradually overwhelm disbenefits resulting in modest increases in performance for most sectors in the medium to long term. Many local authorities are reluctant to implement charging interventions due to concerns about economic vitality; it is expected that the results will inform policy and future research in this area.

Design and evaluation of road pricing: state-of-the-art and methodological advances

“…Especially, congestion pricing can considerably affect labor supply and net wages, according to the charge imposed on trips of different purposes [88] and the redistribution of revenues [281]. Additionally, it has been found to adversely influence urban retail business activity in the short run [295], while there are arguably positive effects in the long run, dependent on the improvements on public transport and urban quality [392,393]. These positive effects may be amplified when considering the impact of congestion charging on time savings and reliability gains as well as the rental and capital values of land.…”

Public transport and road pricing: a survey and simulation experiments

“…The gradual adjustments of trip costs, in conjunction with long-term adaptations in the transport behavior of households and firms, lead to changes in labor supply, net wages, unit production cost, output level and productivity (see, e.g., De Borger and Van Dender 2003;Weisbrod et al 2003). In particular, congestion charging may have positive effects on urban retail businesses, dependent on suitable improvements on public transport and urban quality (Whitehead et al 2005). If investigated in a broader context like, e.g., terrorist fear or economic downturn, the picture might change a bit without showing that many positive effects (see, e.g., Quddus et al 2007a, 2007b, Schmöcker et al 2006.…”