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The support for controversial policies in the area of transport often increases after real-world implementation. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the literature surrounding the implementation of controversial policies in transport, particularly in the context of road pricing. We then discuss various theories and mechanisms that contribute to an increase in support for such policies after real-world implementation. One significant factor is a change in attitude towards a policy. However, there are also other important factors, for example the utility experienced by people is not necessarily the same as the expected utility. In addition, people may be loss-averse relative to their reference point (often: their current situation). The disadvantages of a policy considered for implementation may be clearer than the advantages. Other factors discussed are the effect of the expected distribution of gains and losses, their magnitude, and perceptions of the processes being fair and competent. We then examine the implications of increased support after implementation, important lessons being that policymakers can anticipate growing support after implementation and that communication is key in the process of deciding on a controversial policy. In this regard, we propose that having a champion, or visionary, can be particularly effective in getting controversial policies accepted. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research., Transport and Logistics

This paper investigates the kilometer charge and the potential effects of emission-based differentiation, how this policy is supported among Dutch citizens and how it affects different groups. It investigates the behavioural change caused by the new policy using Dutch stated preference discrete choice data. Two stated choice experiments are performed, one exploring the demand for privately used alternative fuel vehicles and one on the modal shift for one-person trips with varying distances. A mixed logit model was applied to determine to what extent specific groups were price-sensitive to the kilometer charge. We find that well-educated,high-income people, who either frequently use their car or own a business car, are more incentivised by the kilometer charge to purchase alternative fuel vehicles. In general, people value purchase prices over the kilometer charge and range. Moreover, it turns out that these groups are willing to purchase a substantially more expensive car in exchange for a lower variable kilometer charge. By applying a multinomial logit model for all distances in the mode choice experiment, we find that the least sensitive group towards the kilometer charge for a modal shift are high-educated, older, commuting car users that live relatively far away from the nearest train station. Furthermore, the larger the travel distance, the higher The value of travel time savings ranges from 4.44 - 14.00 euro for distances including train and car whilst small city trips with bike and car as mode alternatives have a value of 6.86 euro. The found behavioural effects were used to evaluate the impact of constructed scenarios with varying tariffs for the kilometer charge, ultimately showing that an emission-based differentiation can positively affect tax income and emission savings. Besides that, this implementation form is the most supported by the Dutch population. In addition to these substantial insights, this paper makes a contribution by showing how stated pre, Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics

Valuing travel time reliability is an important element of travel choice modeling. In this paper, we introduce the notion of variation cost in the utility function, capturing the variations in both queuing cost and scheduling cost endogenously under degradable capacity, and develop a theoretical framework to derive the departure choice. We then define the value of capacity reliability to be the marginal influence of capacity degradation on the overall system generalized cost. Through this framework, a single-step tolling scheme is proposed to reduce the queuing cost and cost variability. The study illustrates the combined impact of cost variability, capacity degradation, and how road pricing will impact on travelers' departure profile and the overall system generalized cost. © 2021 Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Limited.

Valuing travel time reliability is an important element of travel choice modeling. In this paper, we introduce the notion of variation cost in the utility function, capturing the variations in both queuing cost and scheduling cost endogenously under degradable capacity, and develop a theoretical framework to derive the departure choice. We then define the value of capacity reliability to be the marginal influence of capacity degradation on the overall system generalized cost. Through this framework, a single-step tolling scheme is proposed to reduce the queuing cost and cost variability. The study illustrates the combined impact of cost variability, capacity degradation, and how road pricing will impact on travelers' departure profile and the overall system generalized cost. © 2021 Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Limited.

This paper analyzes the impact of road pricing for the bottleneck model with endogenous random delay. We extend the widely used scheduling model by integrating trip scheduling, endogenous traffic congestion, travel time variability (TTV), and road pricing into one modeling framework to analyze the role of road pricing in addressing TTV. This paper investigates the departure profiles and examines the social surplus under TTV and derives analytical results to illustrate properties of the model. It demonstrates the impact of road pricing and TTV on the departure profile of travelers and the system performance. For travelers, the presence of TTV leads to a smooth departure profile, hence a reduction in queuing cost. As for the system, TTV reduces the social surplus. This study shows that road pricing can be used to compensate or mitigate the social surplus loss due to TTV.

Striking a balance between societal benefits and costs of transportation lies at the heart of transport planning and transport systems analysis. Increased transport and urbanization enable the many benefits of modern socieities through specialization of labour, production and lifestyles – but these trends simultaneously increase the drawbacks of transportation, such as carbon emissions, congestion, noise and air quality problems. Technical developments and improved infrastrastructure can help reduce these drawbacks, but they do not solve the fundamental problem that those reaping the benefits of transport – travellers, firms, customers – do not perceive the full social costs of transportation. To balance transport costs and benefits, efficient pricing is necessary. Despite a wealth of theoretical arguments, technical developments and substantial practical experience, efficient transport pricing is still rare. Focusing on the example of urban congestion pricing, this paper summarizes why transport pricing is needed, lessons learnt from practical experience, and what the main obstacles are. The two most important obstacles seem to be political power struggles between different levels of governments, and that even if total social gains vastly exceed total social losses, the losses tend to be more salient; losers tend to be easy to identify, while winners tend to be more dispersed and perhaps only exist in the future., Co-published by Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier.

Tradable credits for congestion management are a novel policy concept that is receiving increased interest in transportation research. This interest is mainly driven by the belief that the concept can count on stronger social support and hence has a better prospect for implementation than charging-based instruments. This paper is the first to provide an analysis of the social, political, economic and technical feasibility of this concept. To this end, policymakers and researchers from the field of transport have been interviewed. The results reveal so many barriers and challenges in the social and political context that some seem insurmountable, which exposes a difference with expectations formulated in the literature. We reflect on possible options to overcome or avoid barriers but conclude that the concept of tradable peak credits lies very far from the current way of thinking about road use and seems unable to compete with more established charging schemes., Transport and Logistics

Congestion charging is generally regarded as an effective tool to manage the ongoing growth in road use and to abate congestion. However, public support is typically very low and therefore very few charging schemes have been implemented. The concept of tradable peak credits (TPC), which is based on the cap-and-trade principle, has characteristics that are believed to lead to more public support. First, a TPC system is revenue-neutral since the money circulates within the user group. Also, the expected effectiveness, and thereby support, may be higher because, in a TPC system, the operator has more control over the inflow of cars due to the firm cap. Lastly, the allocation of free credits provides the opportunity to address equity issues. This paper aims to quantify the levels of support for TPC among the public and to explore what the influence of scheme design, personal characteristics and attitudes is on these levels of support. To that end, a stated choice experiment has been conducted in which respondents were asked whether they would vote for the implementation of different TPC schemes. The discrete choice model shows that 32%, and up to a small majority of 52%, would support different TPC schemes. Most people, however, like or dislike TPC regardless of the scheme design. It is attitudes, and to a limited extent also socio-demographics, that relate to someone's level of support, rather than the scheme characteristics. Support is especially higher among people who find TPC fair and effective, who live outside the borders of the municipality and are lower educated. Although the results indicate that a small majority would support a TPC scheme, directions for future research are given to supplement this study., Transport and Logistics

A deep understanding of people's support for road pricing may help policymakers to design more practical pricing schemes that are effective in abating congestion but lead to less public opposition. This study adds to the rich body of road pricing acceptability literature by taking a different approach that focuses on the underlying pattern of the arguments, beliefs and attitudes, which largely determine the viewpoint of individuals with respect to road pricing. We apply Q-methodology to find these viewpoints by asking respondents to rank order subjective arguments that are subtracted from the public debate on road pricing and to identify shared viewpoints that are called frames. Analysis revealed four frames: The polluter should pay, Focus on fair alternatives, What's in it for me? and Don't interfere. Only the Polluter should pay frame is positive about road pricing. The other three frames are negative about road pricing, which suggests that there is not just one single block of citizens opposed to road pricing, but that quite different arguments are used in the various frames. We discuss how these frames can be used by policy-makers that intend to implement road pricing, to fine-tune the design, communication and implementation process of road pricing schemes., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Transport and Logistics

Congestion is threatening the accessibility and liveability of urban regions. Cities are usually hesitant to consider the effective, yet controversial idea of congestion pricing as a measure to abate the growing economic and environmental problems. In the longstanding search for an effective and acceptable pricing scheme, there has been an increased interest in tradable credits. Compared to charging instruments, this novel concept has the theoretical advantage that it can better address equity issues while effectively reducing congestion. Although one may argue that tradable peak credits (TPC) lead to higher public acceptability, very few empirical studies have researched this. Therefore, this study explores attitudes towards TPC using five focus groups with Dutch citizens. The participants were confronted with a hypothetical city where two instruments were suggested: peak charge (PC) and TPC. Most participants preferred PC and only two participants supported TPC while opposing PC. The advantages as addressed in literature played minor roles in the discussions. Participants revealed a sceptical attitude towards TPC or were more convinced about PC. Contrary to expectations, the attitudes became more negative as the discussions developed. Based on these insights, we propose directions for future research to assist the search for an acceptable congestion pricing instrument., Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Transport and Logistics

Vehicle Mileage Taxation is a proposed improvement to addressing external costs of driving. A key hurdle for its implementation is its acceptability by the public. Theories of psychological reactance, fairness perception and status quo bias are explored as influences on tax reform perception. Data, representative for Sweden, was collected from 407 individuals in an online survey. A framing experiment investigated influences of policy communication on acceptability and its determinants through structural equation modeling. A choice experiment tested acceptability of different reform proposals over the status quo. The acceptability of introducing vehicle mileage taxation is found to depend on its perceived fairness, the arousal of psychological reactance and its tax rates, but not on the framing used to communicate the reform proposal.

Pricing externalities from vehicle use such as road damage, vehicular emissions (both greenhouse gases and local pollutants), and congestion has become an important topic in the transportation sector in recent years. Road user charge pilot programs are being explored in various states in the U.S.; cities like New York and San Francisco are following in the footsteps of Stockholm and London by announcing plans to implement congestion pricing; and numerous cities and countries have announced gasoline vehicle phase-outs or bans. In this study, we provide an overview of the academic literature related to vehicle pricing, we examine case studies of locations where pricing has been implemented, and we investigate the design choices for programs that would address each of three major externalities related to vehicle use: road damage, emissions (both greenhouse gases and local pollutants), and congestion. Our analysis finds opportunities for integrating technology across multiple pricing programs—by relying on overlapping systems, programs can be implemented more efficiently and provide tremendous cost savings.View the NCST Project Webpage

Tradable Peak Credits (TPC) is a new instrument to reduce congestion. It is expected to have a higher public support than traditional road pricing. So far, research has mainly been conducted into behavioral effects and effects on the road network of implementing such systems. This study investigates the public support for TPC and how this support is influenced by the design of the TPC system by means of a stated choice experiment. It was shown that TPC does not have a higher public support than a congestion charge and a kilometer charge as was hypothesized. Also, it was shown how different groups of variables influence the support for TPC. Furthermore, public preferences regarding the design of a TPC system were revealed. Recommendations are made for further research on TPC and for policymakers. The stated choice experiment was also used to investigate to what extent variations in communication medium and content influence the outcomes of the experiment., Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)

Intercity travel congestion during the main national holidays takes place every year at different places around the world. Charge reduction measurements on existing toll roads have been implemented to promote an efficient use of the expressways and to reduce congestion on the public transit networks. However, some of these policies have had negative effects. A more comprehensive understanding of the determinants of holiday intercity travel patterns is critical for better policymaking. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the road toll discount policy on mode choice behavior for intercity travel. A mixed logit model is developed to model the mode choices of intercity travelers, which is estimated based on survey data about intercity journeys from Beijing during the 2017 Chinese Spring Festival holiday. The policy impact is further discussed by elasticity and scenario simulations. The results indicate that the expressway toll discount does increase the car use and decrease the public transit usage. Given the decreased toll on expressways, the demand tends to shift from car to public transit, in an order of coach, high-speed rail, conventional rail, and airplane. When it comes to its effect on socio-demographic groups, men and lower-income travelers are identified to be more likely to change mode in response to variation of road toll. Finally, policy effectiveness is found to vary for travelers in different travel distance groups. Conclusions provide useful insights on road pricing management., QC 20190115

Empirical studies showed that travel time reliability, usually measured by travel time variance, is strongly correlated with travel time itself. Travel time is highly volatile when the demand approaches or exceeds the capacity. Travel time variability is associated with the level of congestion, and could represent additional costs for travelers who prefer punctual arrivals. Although many studies propose to use road pricing as a tool to capture the value of travel time (VOT) savings and to induce better road usage patterns, the role of the value of reliability (VOR) in designing road pricing schemes has rarely been studied. By using road pricing as a tool to spread out the peak demand, traffic management agencies could improve the utility of travelers who prefer punctual arrivals under traffic congestion and stochastic network conditions. Therefore, we could capture the value of travel time reliability using road pricing, which is rarely discussed in the literature. To quantify the value of travel time reliability (or reliability improvement), we need to integrate trip scheduling, endogenous traffic congestion, travel time uncertainty, and pricing strategies in one modeling framework. This paper developed such a model to capture the impact of pricing on various costs components that affect travel choices, and the role of travel time reliability in shaping departure patterns, queuing process, and the choice of optimal pricing. The model also shows the benefits of improving travel time reliability in various ways. Findings from this paper could help to expand the scope of road pricing, and to develop more comprehensive travel demand management schemes. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

This paper investigates second-best congestion pricing in a monocentric city characterized by distortionary regulations in the housing market (building height restrictions, no-development areas and property taxation). We demonstrate that the welfare gain of a Pigouvian tax may first fall and then increase as building height restrictions become more stringent. For example, a Pigouvian toll imposed in a city without restrictions may produce up to 40% larger welfare gains than Pigouvian tolling in a city with a mild, uniform in space, floor-to-area ratio restriction. In the presence of a tax-induced distortion, deviations of the Pigouvian toll can lead to non-negligible welfare gains. We discuss the important policy implications of the above findings.

We study the efficiency of private supply of roads under demand uncertainty and evaluate various regulatory policies. Due to demand uncertainty, capacity is decided before demand is known but tolls can be adjusted after demand is known. Policy implications can differ from those under deterministic demand. For instance, for serial links, the toll in the second-best zero-profit case is no longer equal to the marginal external congestion cost. In the first-best scenario, the capacity under uncertain demand is higher than that under deterministic demand of the same expected value, though self-financing still holds in expected terms. Regulation by perfect competitive auction cannot replicate the second-best zero-profit result and thus leads to a lower welfare, whereas without uncertainty, various forms of competitive auctions can attain this second-best optimum. For more complex networks, when private firms add capacity in turn, contrary to the case without demand uncertainty, some forms of auction perform better than others with demand uncertainty.

This paper optimises the number of bus stops, and prices for car, bus and cycling in the busiest inner city corridor in Stockholm. We adopt the representative consumer approach and calibrate the current equilibrium using the quasi-linear utility function. We find that the number of bus stops is already close to optimal. Welfare would increase if the peak frequency was increased, if the bus fares were lowered and differentiated between long trips and short trips and, and that the toll for longer car trips was increased. The optimal toll for cyclists, and the welfare benefit from it, is small and does not compensate the transaction costs. The distributional effects of bus fare changes and higher car tolls are small because on one hand, high income groups place more value on travel time gains, but on the other hand, low income groups travel less frequently by car. Surprisingly, we find that in the welfare optimum, the bus service only requires a small subsidy due to congestion in the bus lane, crowding in the buses, and extra boarding and alighting time per passenger. The Mohring effect is limited because the demand, and thereby the baseline frequency, is already high.

In this paper, the authors consider the evidence available and assumptions needed for projecting statewide VMT reductions for each category of strategies. The authors goal is to provide a framework for projecting the magnitude of reductions that the state might expect for the different strategies. This framework helps to illuminate the sequence of events that would produce VMT reductions and highlights important gaps in knowledge that increase the uncertainty of the projections. Despite uncertainties, the evidence justifies state action on these strategies: the available evidence shows that the strategies considered in this paper are likely to reduce VMT if promoted by state policy.View the NCST Project Webpage

California adopted a statewide target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. To meet these goals, the state must achieve a 15 percent reduction in total travel by light-duty vehicles by 2050 compared to expected levels. Under current state policies, reductions of this magnitude are likely. This report explores the evidence for strategies to reduce vehicle miles of travel in pricing, infill development, transportation investments and travel demand management programs. For each category, the report outlines programs from other states that, if adopted, have the potential to reduce VMT and thus greenhouse gas emissions.

Empirical studies showed that travel time reliability, usually measured by travel time variance, is strongly correlated with travel time itself. Travel time is highly volatile when the demand approaches or exceeds the capacity. Travel time variability is associated with the level of congestion, and could represent additional costs for travelers who prefer punctual arrivals. Although many studies propose to use road pricing as a tool to capture the value of travel time (VOT) savings and to induce better road usage patterns, the role of the value of reliability (VOR) in designing road pricing schemes has rarely been studied. By using road pricing as a tool to spread out the peak demand, traffic management agencies could improve the utility of travelers who prefer punctual arrivals under traffic congestion and stochastic network conditions. Therefore, we could capture the value of travel time reliability using road pricing, which is rarely discussed in the literature. To quantify the value of travel time reliability (or reliability improvement), we need to integrate trip scheduling, endogenous traffic congestion, travel time uncertainty, and pricing strategies in one modeling framework. This paper developed such a model to capture the impact of pricing on various costs components that affect travel choices, and the role of travel time reliability in shaping departure patterns, queuing process, and the choice of optimal pricing. The model also shows the benefits of improving travel time reliability in various ways. Findings from this paper could help to expand the scope of road pricing, and to develop more comprehensive travel demand management schemes. © 2017 The Authors.

In this study, we focus on the discrete-time day-to-day dynamic congestion pricing scheme which varies the toll on a day-to-day basis and aims to drive the traffic system to a given objective traffic equilibrium state. As is well known, due to the asymmetric nature of the travel cost functions, multiple equilibria exist. In this case, without external force, the traffic system cannot converge to the traffic equilibrium state as desired by traffic management through a day-to-day adjustment process if the initial traffic state does not fall into its attraction domain (Bie and Lo, 2010). Therefore, it is imperative for traffic management to propose a traffic control measure to ensure the desired traffic state can be achieved regardless of the initial traffic state. Previous studies on the day-to-day dynamic congestion pricing, either worked on continues-time day-to-day pricing scheme, or took the form of discrete-time day-to-day pricing scheme but did not guarantee the convergence to the desired objective traffic state for the cases when multiple traffic equilibria exist. Both are undesirable. This study aims to develop a discrete-time day-to-day pricing scheme so as to direct the traffic evolution to reach the desired equilibrium from any initial traffic state when multiple traffic equilibria exist. Based on the very general formulation of day-to-day traffic dynamics model, we present a general formulation of such day-to-day pricing schemes and propose a method to obtain one specific road pricing scheme. Moreover, we present rigorous proofs and numerical tests to verify the proposed pricing scheme. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Consider a competitive highway/transit transportation system in which travelers either drive on the bottleneck-constrained highway or take scheduled trains from home to the workplace in the morning peak hours. This paper explores the impact of bottleneck capacity expansion on transit operating schemes (fleet size and fare) and travelers’ departure time and mode choices. Due to the potential occurrence of the Downs-Thomson (D-T) Paradox after highway capacity expansion, the paper investigates whether the D-T Paradox can be circumvented by implementing transit subsidy policies. The effects of different transit subsidy schemes are explored: subsidizing the transit company (cost subsidy) or the passengers (passenger subsidy) with the financial support from either government funding or road pricing revenue. For each combination of subsidy method and financial sourcing, the condition for overcoming the D-T Paradox is established. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

In recent decades, several agencies have implemented tolls on their highway, bridge, or tunnel infrastructure for purposes that include mitigation and revenue generation. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) sought to investigate the feasibility of time-of-day tolling at a specific section of Indiana’s highways, and therefore commissioned this research study. Recognizing that traditional ex ante methods of tolling evaluation such as surveys and public hearings are time intensive and costly, this project developed a simulation package to measure the expected impacts of TOD tolling in terms of revenue, travel delay, and welfare. The report developed an analytical model and accompanying software tool (a TOD tolling analysis pack) to capture the relationship between the time-of-day toll and route choice, and to evaluate quickly, the impacts of various TOD tolling scenarios. The research products help the analyst to easily visualize traffic flows on roadways and to estimate the revenue, monetary savings, travel times, speeds, vehicle hours of travel, vehicle miles of travel, and welfare in response to different scenarios. The TOD tolling analysis pack reduces drastically, the time and effort in evaluating proposed TOD tolling initiatives for the future. The visualization features illustrate traffic diversions due to tolling implementation and display the most impacted road segments. Further, the TOD tolling analysis pack can be integrated seamlessly with INDOT’s existing TransCAD models and with Google Maps to provide users with the capability of acquiring additional pertinent information on the study area.

Private provision of public roads signifies co-existence of free, public-tolled and private-tolled roads. This paper investigates the Pareto-improving transportation network design problem under various ownership regimes by allowing joint choice of road pricing and capacity enhancement on free links. The problem of interest is formulated as a bi-objective mathematical programming model that considers the travel cost of road users in each origin-destination pair and the investment return of the whole network. The non-dominated Pareto-improving solutions of toll and/or capacity enhancement schemes are sought for achieving a win-win situation. A sufficient condition is provided for the existence of the non-dominated Pareto-improving schemes and then the properties of those schemes are analyzed. It is found that, under some mild assumptions, the optimal capacity enhancement is uniquely determined by the link flow under any non-dominated Pareto-improving scheme. As a result, the joint road pricing and capacity enhancement problem reduces to a bi-objective second-best road pricing problem. A revenue distribution mechanism with return rate guarantee is proposed to implement the non-dominated Pareto-improving schemes. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

This study investigates the association between news exposure and attitudes/beliefs about a Dutch road pricing proposal (Kilometerheffing) with individual level data. We have combined the data from a public attitude survey (N = 705) with a content analysis of 280 news articles on the pricing proposal published in five leading Dutch newspapers. Our findings show that news exposure and attitudes/beliefs about road pricing policies are associated not only at the aggregate level, as shown by past research, but also at the individual level. The direction of attitudes/beliefs and tone of news change in the same direction (e.g., the higher the amount of negative news exposed, the more negative the attitudes towards Kilometerheffing). Our findings also show that the significance and direction of association (in parallel with or opposite to the tone of news—negative or positive) changes according to the issue featured in the news and the strength of the individual’s values. News exposure is not associated with beliefs about the impact of Kilometerheffing on one’s own financial situation but rather with beliefs about the impact of Kilometerheffing on the environment and congestion. Furthermore, the strength of the biospheric value (which concerns the quality of nature and environment) negatively moderates the relationship between news exposure and beliefs about the impact of Kilometerheffing on environment-congestion., Transport and Logistics

This dissertation analyzes how individuals respond to the introduction of taxation aimed to reduce vehicle pollution, greenhouse gases and traffic. The first chapter analyzes a vehicle registration tax based on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas, adopted in the UK in 2001 and subject to major changes in the following years. I identify the impact of the policy on new vehicle registrations and carbon emissions, compared to alternative measures. Results show that consumers respond to the tax by purchasing cleaner cars, but a carbon tax generating the same revenue would further reduce carbon emissions. The second chapter looks at a pollution charge (polluting vehicles pay to enter the city) and a congestion charge (all vehicles pay) adopted in 2008 and 2011 in Milan, Italy, and how they affected the concentration of nitrogen dioxides (NOx). I use data from pollution monitoring stations to measure the change between areas adopting the tax and other areas. Results show that in the first quarter of their introduction, both policies decreased NOx concentration in a range of -8% and -5%, but the effect declines over time, especially in the case of the pollution charge. The third chapter examines a trial conducted in 2005 in the Seattle, WA, area, in which vehicle trips by 276 volunteer households were recorded with a GPS device installed in their vehicles. Households received a monetary endowment which they used to pay a toll for each mile traveled: the toll varied with the time of the day, the day of the week and the type of road used. Using information on driving behavior, I show that in the first week a $0.10 toll per mile reduces the number of miles driven by around 7%, but the effect lasts only few weeks at most. The effect is mainly driven by a reduction in highway miles during trips from work to home, and it is strongly influenced by past driving behavior, income, the size of the initial endowment and the number of children in the household.

Rapporten inventerar och beskriver styrmedel som påverkar omfattningen av olika externa effekter som uppstår från transporter; buller, påverkan på infrastruktur (både planering av ny infrastruktur och konsumtionsfasen), klimat, luftföroreningar, trafiksäkerhet, trängsel samt påverkan på vatten. Styrmedelsanalysen omfattar alla fyra trafikslag: väg-, järnvägs- och sjötransporter samt luftfart. Beskrivningen inleds med en genomgång av relaterade internationella avtal och EU-bestämmelser. Därefter diskuteras inhemska styrmedel utifrån huruvida de påverkar marginalkostnaden av en aktivitet eller inte. Det är svårt att koppla ett visst styrmedel till en viss extern effekt, även om det i styrmedlets konstruktion ligger en sådan koppling. Skälet är att alla styrmedel som påverkar omfattningen av trafiken per definition också påverkar alla externaliteter som uppstår. Rapportens upplägg är dock sådan att kopplingen görs till den primära externa effekten som styrmedeln påverkar. Rapporten innehåller även en överblick av styrmedel i fem grannländer: Danmark, Finland, Norge, Storbritannien och Tyskland. Den internationella överblicken omfattar inte någon undersökning av kopplingar till externa effekter utan listar och beskriver styrmedel utifrån vilket transportslag som de påverkar., This report takes stock and describes policy instruments that affect the extent of the various externalities arising from transport; noise, impact on infrastructure (both planning new infrastructure and consumption phase), climate, air pollution, traffic safety, congestion and impact on water. The analysis of policy instruments covers all four transport modes: road, rail, maritime and air transport. The description begins with a review of related international agreements and EU regulations. It then discusses domestic policy measures. The point of departure in this discussion is whether a policy instrument affects the marginal cost of an activity or not. It is difficult to link a specific policy instruments to specific external effects, even though there is such a link in the instrument's design. The reason for this is that all policy instruments that affect the volume of traffic also by definition influence all the externalities that arise. The report is nevertheless arranged so that every policy instrument is coupled to the external effect that it primarily aims at. The report also contains an overview of policy instruments in five neighboring countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, the UK and Germany. The international overview does not include an examination of the links between external effects and policy instruments but lists and describes the policy instruments on the basis of the transport mode they affect.

A number of proposals have sought to address aspects of securing or reforming state and federal transportation funding. This policy brief summarizes findings from a white paper that assembles the most prominent of these proposals and reviews them in the context of sustainable transportation: funding sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Taken together, these strategies would set transportation on the path toward sustainability.View the NCST Project Webpage

This paper examines the potential of hybrid schemes of speed limit and road pricing for decentralizing Pareto-efficient flow/speed patterns that minimize total travel time and total emissions simultaneously. Both link flows and speeds are treated as independent variables in our bi-objective formulation. The resulting Pareto frontier is thus weakly dominant to that in previous literature. For any such favorable Pareto-efficient flow and speed pattern, we establish the existence of hybrid schemes of speed limits and non-negative/revenue-neutral tolls, whose set of user equilibrium (UE) solutions contains the Pareto-efficient one, and provide sufficient conditions under which the Pareto-efficient solution can be certainly obtained. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

The implementation of road pricing policies is dependent on political support for the policy. It is frequently argued that many pricing proposals fail to be implemented due to the opposition of one or a group of policy actors (e.g. political parties, interest groups). This study considers this issue and examines the reasons for non-implementation of proposals for Dutch road pricing policies by analysing the policy position changes of 26 major policy actors and the changes in consensus and conflict among these actors over a policy process of 16 years. The “Advocacy Coalition Framework” (ACF) is used as the theoretical lens. Our findings show that in the Netherlands non-implementation cannot be ascribed to only the opposition of one policy actor or to one group of policy actors, but rather to features of the Dutch political system/culture and complications peculiar to the road pricing subsystem (socio-cultural values related to mobility, complex design issues). We found that internal and external shocks, and policy-oriented learning affected the subsystem and alerted the power balance between pro-and anti-road pricing coalitions. However, these factors did not produce a major policy change, namely, the introduction of a road pricing scheme., Engineering Systems and Services, Technology, Policy and Management

Lack of public and political acceptance is the main barrier to introducing congestion charges. Here we compared the experiences of congestion charge introduction in the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg, with the aim of explaining differences in political and public acceptance. The results showed the importance of procedural factors, such as the consistency of objectives in policy packages, communication and marketing efforts, and the use of public referendums, and of contextual factors, including urban form, level of congestion, and functioning of public transport. Important lessons were drawn between the two cities, but primarily on how to design, rather than secure public acceptance for, a congestion tax scheme. To build acceptance for congestion charges, close attention must be paid to the local political and geographical context when designing and implementing such a scheme., Funding Agencies:Stockholmia - Research and PublishingSwedish Research Council FormasSustainable Transport Initiative, University of GothenburgChalmers University of Technology

In the transport policy domain, as in other highly-contested spheres of public policy, it is commonplace for certain policy measures to emerge as promising only to then remain unimplemented. Road pricing is one example of a theoretically well-developed transport policy measure that has proven notoriously difficult to decide and implement. There are however lessons to learn from practice on how to manage barriers to policy formation and implementation also within this field. Drawing on the congestion charging schemes implemented in London in 2003 and Stockholm in 2006, and the Swiss Heavy Vehicle Fee scheme implemented in 2001, this paper identifies a selection of strategies which appear to have supported the policymakers' capacity to implement effective road pricing schemes. Together, these three examples offer a sound empirical basis from which to infer a set of strategies for the formulation and implementation of politically-contentious road pricing packages addressing issues of measure combination, flexibility, legitimacy, communication, timing and organisational dynamics. While acknowledging the primacy of broader external and contextual issues, the conclusion is that taking inspiration from the strategies identified in this paper may increase the likelihood of successful policy package processes., QC 20140508

The economic principle of road pricing is that a road toll should equal the marginal cost imposed by an additional user, since this will lead to efficient use of the transport facility. However, when the road is used by traffic both from the road providing region as well as by traffic from another region, the supplied road standard is likely to be too low, since the consumer surplus of the users from outside the region is not taken into account. This can be solved by letting an authority level higher than the road supplier use taxes and earmarked transactions to raise the road standard. (In Europe we see this done in the Trans European Network). To do this the higher authority needs very detailed information about the road and the users on local level. Further raising taxes and transactions also involve costs that can be substantial. Another problem is that transactions of this type it is hard to separate from other political interference. This paper analyzes how a limited toll on top of the marginal cost can serve the purpose of solving this problem locally, without involving a higher authority.

A game theoretic approach is used for examining road pricing with multiple stakeholders. The incorporation of users’ acceptance is modelled through the notion of a veto player. This approach and its value as a policy tool is examined through a case study of the extended Randstad area, with one user class and two stakeholders with different objectives and different road pricing measures they can control. The results show that through cooperation both stakeholders can achieve better results than in the non-cooperative case. The allocation of the gains from the cooperative case is done with the help of Shapley value. When incorporating users’ acceptance, both these solution are accepted. However, the Shapley value assigns less value to the other 2 stakeholders than when the veto player did not exist. Game theory is deemed beneficial for policy-making for road pricing, although extra attention should be paid not to oversimplify the interactions between the stakeholders when translating them from real life to mathematic terms of game theory., Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics, Transport & Planning, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

A sufficiently accessible public transport, is one of the main factors for the implementation of congestion charging, which ensures addition, an adequate level of social equity in mobility, a high degree of social acceptance. This article based on a population survey for the City of Madrid and its surroundings, providesan assessment of the current transport accessibility features Madrid to guarantee social equity in low mobility urban pricing situations, where the results show as the system would ensure a level of fairness in the mobility very meaningful and relevant to interior and radial displacements respectively with very limited scope for transverse displacements, although the use of certain strategies can be a crucial factor that promotes fairness socially desirable for the congestion charge., Un transporte público urbano suficientemente accesible constituye uno de los principales condicionantes para la implantación de peajes urbanos, lo que permite garantizar, además de un adecuado nivel de equidad social en la movilidad, un elevado grado de aceptación social. El presente artículo sobre la basede una encuesta poblacional para la ciudad de Madrid y su entorno ofrece una valoración sobre la actual accesibilidad que presenta el transporte madrileño como garantía de equidad social en la movilidad bajo una situación de peaje urbano, donde los resultados muestran que el sistema permitiría garantizar un nivel de equidad en la movilidad muy significativo y relevante para los desplazamientos interiores y radiales respectivamente, con alcance muy reducido para los desplazamientos transversales, si bien el empleo de determinadas estrategias puede constituir un factor crucial que favorezca la equidad social deseable para el peaje urbano.

There has recently been a growing interest in analysing road pricing schemes in urban areas using dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) tools. Finding optimal toll levels in cordon based road pricing schemes has so far mainly been studied using either derivative-free heuristics or ascent methods. For future use of DTA tools such methods are not suitable and in this paper we investigate how a surrogate modelling framework can be used instead. We focus on cases when the number of costly objective function evaluations is limited to between 20 and 40. In order to allow a large number of different configurations of the surrogate modelling framework to be evaluated, a static user equilibrium model is used for simulating the road users’ response to a given pricing scheme. The results show that for a realistic scenario, valuable information on close to optimal toll levels can be achieved with only 20 costly function evaluations.

Pricing of road use in the form of tolls, congestion charges, kilometre tax and other similar schemes, is becoming increasingly common. Each toll road operator has so far decided on its own how to design and implement systems for collecting road user charges, causing a plethora of system and scheme designs. As a measure to reduce the drawbacks of such differences, the European Union has passed legislation aiming at making available interoperable road charging services, valid across all charging systems a vehicle might pass during a European journey. This legislation is setting the bar high, requiring that virtually every charging system in the Union be covered. We analyse the costs and benefits caused by this regulation, and if an adjusted regulation can improve these results. We conclude that the new legislation yields a social loss ranging from 100 to just above 500 million Euros annually. Policy suggestions to improve this result are also provided., QC 20130610

Engineering studies demonstrate that traffic in dense downtown areas obeys a stable functional relationship between average speed and density, including a region of 'hypercongestion', where flow decreases with density. This situation can be described as queuing behind a bottleneck whose capacity declines when the queue is large. We combine such a variable-capacity bottleneck with Vickrey scheduling preferences for the special case, where there are only two possible levels of capacity. Solving the model leads to several new insights, including that the marginal cost of adding a traveler is especially sensitive to the lowest level of capacity reached. We analyze an optimal toll, a coarse toll, and metering, showing substantial benefits from using these policies to eliminate the period of reduced capacity. Under hypercongestion, all of these policies can be designed so that travelers gain even without considering any toll revenues., QC 20200306

The rationale for congestion charges is that by internalising the marginal external congestion cost, they restore efficiency in the transport market. In the canonical model underlying this view, congestion is a static phenomenon, users are taken to be homogenous, there is no travel time risk, and a highly stylised model of congestion is used. The simple analysis also ignores that real pricing schemes are only rough approximations to ideal systems and that inefficiencies in related markets potentially affect the case for congestion charges. The canonical model tends to understate the marginal external congestion cost because it ignores user heterogeneity and trip timing inefficiencies. With respect to the relevance of interactions between congestion and congestion charges and tax distortions and distributional concerns, recent insights point out that there is no general case for modifying charges for such interactions. Therefore the simple Pigouvian rule remains a good first approximation for the design of road charging systems., QC 20200306

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential future use of road pricing for Athens, Greece. Road-pricing schemes are surveyed, focusing primarily on the European experience, and are used to contribute to the discussion regarding the possible future adoption of a road-pricing scheme in Athens, Greece. The main features and problems of the transportation landscape in Athens are outlined, and results from a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis are presented. The key issues, required conditions, and options associated with a possible future implementation of an urban road-pricing scheme in the Athens metropolitan area are presented. The analysis is validated through a series of face-to-face interviews that were undertaken with a panel of key experts. The selected parameters of possible future road-pricing schemes in Athens are simulated and various measures of effectiveness are collected and analyzed. Sensitivity analysis of the demand levels that would result from the deployment of the system is also performed, while the elasticities of the demand in response to the system are also calculated. The results indicate that while currently there are more direct instruments to address traffic congestion, in the future, urban tolls may provide a useful complementary tool toward a sustainable transportation system for Athens., QC 20130912

The International Transport Forum at the OECD has collected data on various taxes and charges levied on road haulage since 1998. The existing International Transport Forum database presents these results for selected years between 1998 and 2008. These data allow for comparison of road freight transport fiscal regimes in different countries in quantitative terms. They have also been used as core information in various international studies. Countries use them as a basis to study cost recovery of road infrastructure by relating all the various taxes and charges levied on transport activities to costs. The 2003 ECMT Report 'Reforming Transport Taxes' developed a methodology for making such comparisons, including in relation to the marginal costs of using infrastructure (infrastructure wear, congestion and environmental and safety externalities). The data can also be used to study the existence of possible discriminatory charges. The impact of charges on competitiveness in road haulage markets can be assessed with the data by modelling trips by Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) of different nationalities on standard hauls throughout Europe and by calculating appropriate indicators. The data have also been used in a recent study to compare the internationalisation of external effects of HGVs using a number of European freight corridors. This paper updates the database on heavy goods vehicle charges and taxes in Europe, with figures for 2012 on taxes and charges on vehicles, fuel and road use, including relevant information on rebates and exemptions. A short analysis of the level of charges and expected future developments is included. Data are collected for nearly 30 countries. A brief discussion of similar taxes and charges in the United States, Canada and Australia is included as well. The VTI library is the source for most of the information on these countries.

This paper develops a sequential experimental approach for the optimal congestion pricing problem on a general transportation network with multiple vehicle types and multiple time periods. The approach explicitly considers the interaction among different types of vehicular flow and the interdependence of demand among various origin-destination (O-D) pairs and in different time periods. Toll charge on each link in each period is differentiated across vehicle types on the basis of their observable differences to reflect their different congestion externalities. The evolutionary pricing scheme updates link tolls from only observed link flows without requiring explicit forms of demand functions. Given a trial of toll pattern, the revealed link flows can be observed easily; then a new set of tolls can be determined based on the observed flow volume and sequentially used for next trial. The detailed implementation procedure is examined with both theoretical analyses and numerical experiments.

The efficiency of a road pricing scheme to optimize the use of transport infrastructure depends on the available information regarding the price elasticity of demand for bridges, tunnels and highways. The aim of this paper is to estimate the price elasticity of demand for toll roads in Chile using the seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) method and a panel of 48 monthly data drawn from 21 toll plazas (48 x 21). Our results show that, even when controlling for gasoline prices and economic activity, the demand for road use is very price inelastic, with values ranging from -0.17 for cars and -0.05 for trucks., Dans une analyse concernant l'efficience d'un système de tarification routière qui cherche optimiser l'utilisation des infrastructures de transport, il faut toujours déterminer l'élasticité-prix de la demande dans l'utilisation de ponts, tunnels et routes. L`objectif de cet article est d'estimer l'élasticité-prix de la demande dans l'utilisation des autoroutes interurbaines au Chili. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons la méthode des régressions apparemment non reliées (SUR) et un panneau de 48 données mensuelles obtenues à partir de 21 gares de péage (48 x 21). Les résultats montrent que, même en contrôlant par le prix de l'essence et par le niveau d'activité économique, la demande dans l'utilisation des routes est très inélastique par rapport au prix du péage, avec des valeurs comprises entre -0,17 pour les voitures et -0,05 pour les camions., La efectividad de un esquema de tarificación vial para optimizar el uso de infraestructura de transporte depende de la información que se disponga respecto a la elasticidad precio de la demanda por el uso de puentes, túneles y carreteras. El objetivo de este trabajo es estimar la elasticidad precio de la demanda por el uso de autopistas interurbanas en Chile utilizando el método de regresiones aparentemente no relacionadas (SUR) y un panel de 48 datos mensuales obtenidos a partir de 21 plazas de peajes (48 x 21). Nuestros resultados muestran que, aún controlando por el precio de la gasolina y el nivel de actividad económica, la demanda por el uso de carreteras resulta ser muy inelástica al precio del peaje, con valores que oscilan entre -0,17 para automóviles y -0,05 para camiones.

The purpose of this research was to explore how the values of travel time (VTT) and preferences for different modes vary within individuals compared with the variation between observed trips. With 6-week revealed preference panel data and stated preference data from a mode choice context, both collected in Switzerland, a revealed stated preference logit mode choice model was estimated. The model was applied to simulate how VTT and change in consumer surplus vary across trips within and between individuals over the 6 weeks in response to a hypothetical congestion-charging scheme. The variation in VTT arising from income differences was found to be substantially smaller than the variation in VTT between trips. Moreover, the variability in VTT averaged over all trips within each individual was considerably smaller than the variability in VTT for all observed trips. Therefore, the assumption that variation in VTT between observed trips reflects the variation in the average VTT between individuals, which is usually made in equity analyses, will over-state the between-individual variation. The results suggest that if intraindividual variation in preferences is not taken into account, the negative equity effects of congestion charges are likely to be overestimated.