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High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, which exclusively allow vehicles with two or more travelers on board to enter, has been recognized as a promising and practical way to motivate travelers to carpool. However, in the presence of ride-sourcing services, ride-sourcing vehicles with one driver and one (or more) passenger on board also meet the vehicle requirements of HOV lanes. So instead of encouraging travelers to carpool, HOV lanes may benefit ride-sourcing users and stimulate ride-sourcing demand. In this paper, in a single-corridor network with both HOV lanes and general purpose (GP) lanes, we model travelers' mode choices among transit, driving alone, ride-sourcing, and carpool, and delineate travelers' lane choices at user equilibrium, with the travel time of GP/HOV lanes and the carpool price being endogenously determined. With numerical examples, we show that the occupation of HOV lanes by ride-sourcing vehicles will greatly reduce the time saving on HOV lanes, thus lower the attractiveness of carpool, and increase the total travel time cost on the corridor. To solve this problem, we propose to implement an additional tolling scheme on HOV lanes, so that carpool users can split the toll evenly, while ride-sourcing riders have to pay the toll alone. As shown by numerical examples, the optimal tolling scheme can effectively reduce the occupancy of ride-sourcing vehicles on the HOV lane and encourage users to carpool. And the impacts of the ride-sourcing price, driving car cost and the HOV lane capacity ratio on the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid toll and HOV strategies are examined through sensitivity analysis. • Model the impacts of HOV lane on ride-sourcing and carpool demand. • Reveal the phenomena that HOV lanes may stimulate ride-sourcing demand. • Reveal how ride-sourcing vehicles on the HOV lane discourage carpool demand. • Propose tolling and tradable credit schemes to improve the HOV-lane efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular emissions, as a major source of urban air pollution, are threatening public health. With a goal to regulate population exposure to vehicular emissions, three bilevel road pricing models are established to minimize the exposure to vehicular emissions for on-road travelers, near-road residents, and all populations in the study network. A simulated annealing-based method is applied to solve these models based on a first-best pricing scheme. For ease of implementation, a second-best pricing scheme is then proposed and solved based on a meta-heuristic approach coupled with genetic algorithm with elitism and simulated annealing. The proposed method is tested using the Nguyen-Dupuis network and the Sioux Falls network. It is found that a tradeoff exists between the objectives of minimizing the emission exposure levels of travelers and near-road residents. Another tradeoff is found between the objectives of minimizing total population exposure and total travel time. Results from the numerical example indicate that the optimality results obtained in the first-best pricing scheme may also be approximated by the second-best pricing scheme with fewer tolling locations and less toll collection. The conclusions drawn from the paper could potentially assist policymakers in formulating road pricing policies that prioritize environmental concerns. • Three bilevel pricing models are developed to explore the differences between emission exposure of travelers and residents. • Roading pricing can guide travelers to choose appropriate routes to reduce population exposure to vehicular emissions. • The exposure to traffic-related emissions for both travelers and residents usually cannot be simultaneously minimized. • The second-best pricing scheme can achieve similar results compared to first-best pricing scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congestion management problems are acutest among other urban traffic problems. Developed and developing countries are all facing traffic congestion complications. This research evaluates the successfully implemented congestion pricing policies and barriers to such policies to determine the implications and challenges in Pakistan's context. This paper reviews the successful congestion pricing policies introduced by four cities, Singapore, London, Stockholm, and Milan, to determine the behavioral responses and overall impact on urban traffic. It further highlights the factors that drive public acceptability for congestion charges, and congestion management and proposition of congestion charge practices for cities in Pakistan. The results show that incentivebased travel demand management strategies could be more productive in Pakistan's case than traditional congestion pricing schemes. Studying the successful pricing strategies and challenges in finding public support led to another research opportunity and the possibility of future implementations of traffic pricing policies in Pakistan. Regardless of public acceptability challenges, considering societal benefits and including public participation in policy making can be a pioneering step towards congestion management in the country's complicated urban network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. • Controversial transport policies: support often increases after implementation. • Attitude changes are an important explanation. • Champions can be helpful for the implementation of controversial policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If opposition to ULEZ really did tip the Uxbridge by‐election result, we should be surprised. Most voters drive compliant vehicles and might benefit from cleaner air. But the adversely‐affected minority had loud voices, and opposition was mobilised against the very principle of road pricing, with substantial input from home counties Conservatives outside Greater London. It didn't help that the scientific case for ULEZ is not straightforward, although it certainly exists. Especially when a lot of people are giving 'don't know' responses to pollsters, public opinion may be swayed by noisy dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although congestion pricing has been considered as a key tool of transport demand management (TDM), it is rarely implemented, mainly due to its low public acceptance and resulting political costs. Recently a new approach was suggested: reward desirable behavior rather than punish undesirable behavior. Specifically, positive financial incentives have been suggested to encourage road users to change their departure time, mode of transportation, or route to minimize congestion. This paper makes three contributions to the literature on congestion pricing. First, we offer a comprehensive conceptual examination, reflecting discussions among practitioners in Israel, regarding the positive incentives approach, including various aspects that are related to both positive incentives and congestion tolls, highlighting the differences between the two policies. Second, we use a governmentally-managed pilot with positive incentives that was recently implemented in Israel and which reported important behavioral responses to positive incentives. Third, we use the Israeli experience to examine media discourse regarding congestion pricing policies in general, as well as positive incentive initiatives. We find that the positive incentives pilot demonstrated promising behavioral responses. Moreover, analysis of newspaper articles shows that while the main view of positive incentives is positive, mainly because participation is voluntary, the main attitude toward congestion tolls is negative due to concerns about equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous cities around the world have tried to internalize externality costs from road traffic by instituting charges for entering their city centers. The revenues collected from these charges are often redistributed to improve conditions for motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and public transport. At the same time, many schemes allow for exemption of cleaner vehicles, which potentially reduces revenue collection. This paper assesses the effect of exempting electric vehicles from urban toll ring charges on the charge that is levied on conventional car drivers. Using panel data of Norwegian cities that have urban toll rings, I exploit regional variation in electric car adaption and find that owners of conventional cars pay 3.3 NOK (0.36 USD) more per passage due to the exemption. Moreover, I find that local governments that are fragmented or have a left-wing majority increase toll charges more due to the loss in revenue. As the majority of electric vehicle owners have above-average incomes, the exemption implies a distributional effect in which low-income groups pay the largest portion of the increased toll price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driverless vehicles (i.e., autonomous and shared autonomous vehicles) are associated with many advantages for the transportation market. However, they may also increase the traveled miles on roads due to improved accessibility, thus aggravating congestion. Road pricing (RP) is a possible solution for mitigating traffic-related problems like congestion. Despite its benefits, RP is usually resented by the public, which may hinder its introduction. This study investigates the factors that may influence RP acceptability in the era of driverless vehicles and driverless vehicle adoption in the presence of RP. For this purpose, a survey was distributed in Hungary, Jordan, Ukraine, and Brazil. The study applied factor analysis, multiple linear regression, and multinomial logit modeling to examine RP acceptability and driverless vehicle adoption. All examined factors have a significant impact on mode choice. For instance, respondents willing to share their trips with others due to the application of RP, opted for shared autonomous vehicles, while those who enjoy driving were less likely to choose autonomous vehicles. In terms of RP acceptability, the respondents who were environmentally conscious in their trip planning showed more acceptance of RP. This study shows the significant impacts of the investigated factors on RP acceptability and driverless vehicle adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To facilitate coercive policy implementation encountering public opposition, this study focuses on road pricing policy (1) to examine an integrated framework accommodating the relationships between participation in administration, trust in government, fairness, freedom infringement, public opinion, and policy acceptability; and (2) to analyze the effect of persuasive communication with request and advice methods on policy acceptability. Using data from 175 participants in Taiwan, results find that participation in administration increases procedural fairness, which and distributive fairness via scenario fairness improve acceptability; however, freedom infringement reduces acceptability. Public opinion affects acceptability directly and indirectly through scenario fairness. Moreover, persuasive communication does not change overall acceptability but improves acceptability in the ethical aspect and for males, the middle-aged and elderly, and mixed-mode users. Findings suggest that governments should introduce public participation into coercive policy formulation and apply persuasive communication to policy acceptability improvement. • Citizen participation in administration activates road pricing acceptance process. • Public opinion on road pricing affects individual road pricing acceptability. • Procedural, distributive fairness, and freedom infringement affect road pricing acceptance. • Persuasive communication facilitates road pricing acceptance in ethical aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how the implementation of a tradable credit scheme (TCS) may be used to reduce road traffic and to contribute to the formation of liveable cities and global climate change commitments. The concept of applying TCS to individual road transport is familiar to transport researchers as a measure to regulate congestion and reduce transport-related emissions. Yet, it is not a strategy currently being considered by policy makers in the UK, despite the electrification of the road vehicle fleet and the associated loss of tax revenue presenting a rare opportunity to alter the economic instruments, which apply to road traffic. We consider how transport researchers can capitalise on this unique moment in transport history to shape transport policy. Our study uses qualitative methods, including a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with transport stakeholders and experts, in addition to a literature review and document analysis. Data analysis is inductive, permitting the formation of new ideas about the potential benefits of TCS and the barriers to the application of TCS to real-world policy. Building upon the results of TCS experiments and the results of our analysis, we propose a novel potential form of TCS combined with road pricing to maintain government revenue, which incentivises road users to decrease road vehicle kilometres travelled and reduce pollution and congestion. The proposal contributes to the discussion on the governance of road transport and taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines if and how drivers respond to tolls differently after implementation by analyzing drivers' intention to pay tolls and toll avoidance behaviors. We apply the Theory of Planned Behavior to connect intention to pay and avoidance behavior to three categories of predictors: attitudes toward tolls, perceptions of toll benefits, and ability to pay. Since the theory does not explicitly consider factors such as past experience and changes in the decision-making process over time, we utilize three analytical approaches to examine: (1) if time affects intention to pay tolls and toll avoidance behavior; (2) pathways through which time makes a difference, and (3) how factors influencing intention behaviors change pre- and post-toll implementation. We find that time does in fact matter; there are direct and indirect pathways through which time makes a difference and time changes the strength of the relationships between intention to pay and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly-increasing urban transportation contributes to a number of externalities such as congestion and pollution; moreover, environmental uncertainties widely exist and bring challenges to creating traffic emission control strategies. To address these problems, this paper proposes an inexact bilevel programming approach under stochastic and fuzzy uncertainties (BLP-SF) for a toll scheme design with the considerations of the externalities of vehicular emission and road pricing policy. The BLP-SF approach can deal with multiple environmental uncertainties by (1) specifying the uncertainties as probability distributions and/or fuzzy sets, and (2) integrating chance-constrained programming and fuzzy possibility programming into the bilevel programming framework. A road pricing problem is exemplified under various policy scenarios to demonstrate the applicability of the BLP-SF approach. It is shown that the proposed BLP-SF approach can achieve optimal charging schemes with improvements in total emission reduction and congestion alleviation compared with traditional models. This study contributes to urban transportation management associated with congestion and emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in Singapore has been in operations since 1998 and has seen consistent levels of success in managing traffic in this city-state with high vehicle usage and limited land space. With the ERP rates reviewed quarterly and adjusted for the relevant 30-min periods based on speeds criteria, the volume of data collected through the years has enabled a closer look at how motorists behave with rate increases or decreases, and how these travel behaviors compare with the established consumer behavior phenomenon of loss aversions and the theory of diminished sensitivity. This paper studied 33 rate changes across 6 expressway ERP pricing gantries between the years of 2012 and 2018, and derived precise observations of travel behavior changes. The data showed that frequent car drivers tend to make more deliberate choices on whether to leave or stay on their routes. Frequent car drivers are defined as those who drive past that gantry at least 60% of the weekdays in that month (proportionally around 3 weekdays per week). We also affirmed that loss aversion theory is exhibited in road pricing through the higher demand elasticities observed from $1 rate increases as compared to the $1 rate reductions. Interestingly however, the theory of diminishing sensitivity did not seem to drive traveler's decisions here. Instead, Singapore drivers appeared to have assessed their trip decisions based on two reference points during rate increases; a primary reference point of $2 and a reasonable reference point of $5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion and emissions are two severe and urgent problems in the transportation field. To alleviate congestion and encourage green travel, this paper studies a mixed charging scheme for the multimodal transportation network including conventional vehicles (CV) and new energy vehicles (NEV). We exploit the optimal mixed charging schemes according to the mixed equilibria and system optimum model. The mixed equilibria characterized by the variational inequality system represents that the players follow either the user equilibrium or Cournot–Nash equilibrium principle in routing choice. The proposed mixed scheme comprises a regular tolling plan and a tradable credit plan for the CV and NEV users, respectively, where the tradable credits can be seen as a subsidy to the NEV users since they are issued free by the government. Moreover, the existence of the optimal mixed charging scheme is proved for the multimodal transportation network and demonstrated numerically by a concrete example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congestion pricing policies (CPPs) are a common strategy for addressing urban traffic congestion. Research has explored several impacts of these policies (e.g., air quality, equity, congestion relief). The purpose of this review was to synthesize findings from publications examining CPP impacts on road user safety outcomes. We conducted a systematic search of relevant literature in four large research databases (Transport Research International Documentation, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus), searching from database inception through January 2021. We identified 18 eligible publications. Safety-related outcomes included overall crashes and injury crashes with stratification by injury severity and road user type (e.g., bicyclist, pedestrian). A majority of the publications examined zone-based CPPs (n = 13) and used observed data involving real policies (n = 10), as compared to a predicted or simulated analysis. Decreases in overall crashes and injuries for some road users were observed (e.g., car occupants). While some studies estimated short-term increases in injuries and crashes for bicyclists and motorcyclists (likely due to shifts from personal vehicle use to other transportation modes and increased exposure), most analyses focused on longer-term impacts and generally found a reversal and eventual decrease in injuries and crashes after a few years. The relative scarcity of safety outcomes in published literature, along with the wide breadth of CPP types, implementation contexts, and outcomes measured, demonstrates that more research on safety outcomes is needed. Cities and regions planning to implement CPPs should consider potential mode shifts and safety supports for all road users (e.g., bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Road pricing is increasingly considered as an option to support transportation infrastructure costs, manage demand, and reduce emissions. However, the extent to which implementation of such approaches may impact transportation and health equity is unclear. In this scoping review, we examine the differential transportation and health effects of road pricing policies across population groups and geographic region. We conducted a systematic database search of Transport Research International Documentation, GEOBASE, Scopus, and Ovid Medline, supplemented by bibliographic review and internet searches. Fifteen studies were included in the review. The studies evaluated area and cordon road pricing systems in Singapore, London, Stockholm, Milan, and Gothenburg, and had a median follow-up period of 12 months. Outcomes evaluated include car commuting, mode shift to public transit, accessibility to destinations, affordability, welfare, social interactions, air pollution, traffic injuries and deaths, acute asthma attacks, and life expectancy. While more studies across diverse urban contexts and policy settings will be needed to strengthen the evidence base, the existing evidence suggests road pricing has mostly net positive effects related to a reduction in car trips, air pollution, asthma attacks, and road traffic collisions, and increases in life expectancy. Frequency and ease of social interactions were found to be negatively impacted, with fewer visits to family and friends. The population groups that generally fared better across transportation and health outcomes were those with higher incomes, men, and people between the ages of 35–55. Across space, there are benefits for both the areas inside and outside the cordon boundary, but to a greater degree for the area inside. Overall, the evidence base is limited by a narrow set of health-related outcomes and a lack of longer-term studies. We did not come across any studies assessing distributional effects of noise pollution, mode shifts to walking or cycling, or other morbidities in the general population that are not listed above. In addition, there are few evaluations that include non-work trips, therefore potentially missing effects for unemployed populations or women who are more likely to make non-work trips. We find that the limited body of evidence on area and cordon pricing policies suggests these policies are beneficial for a number of transportation and health outcomes, particularly for populations inside the cordon area, but that there may be some degree of inequities in the distribution of the benefits and burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usage-based road charges are expected to reduce the use of private vehicles. To assess this assumption, this study investigates the factors currently influencing commute distance in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. A multiple regression model was estimated to identify the significant determinants of commute distance, followed by a hierarchical regression analysis to ascertain the contribution of personal characteristics, household characteristics, work-related characteristics and accessibility. We conclude that many commuters would remain captive private vehicle usersuntil accessibility improves, and other transport modes offer viable commuting options. Alternatively, the pricing scheme should be adapted to suit local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious roadside pollution in congested urban areas is an ongoing problem in many densely populated cities. While the current control measures on traffic pollution have reduced particulate matter, new solutions by emerging vehicular technologies can help protect citizens from exhaust-gas emissions. The electric vehicle (EV) is a promising solution to alleviate traffic-induced pollution in urban areas. However, traffic flow will be mixed with fuel vehicles (FVs) and EVs before the FV would be phased out. In this paper, traffic management by road pricing is introduced to reduce the tailpipe emission of the protected area by imposing environmental capacity constraints for network traffic mixed with EVs and FVs. Second-best toll pricing schemes are formulated as side constrained user equilibrium problems for both fixed demand and elastic demand cases. Both the tailpipe emission of FVs and the energy consumption of EVs are assumed to depend nonlinearly on network traffic conditions. Although the EVs do not contribute to the tailpipe emission, all vehicles contribute to congestion externality that induces more emission of FVs. Therefore, both types of vehicles are charged, but the toll on FVs is significantly higher than that on EVs. A new projected dynamics based algorithm is introduced to solve the toll from the Lagrange multiplier associated with the environmental constraint apart from the equilibrium flow. Numerical examples are conducted to evaluate the equilibrium cost and toll, and to analyze the impacts of EV penetration rate on the pricing scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While instruments to price congestion exist since the 1970s, less than a dozen cities around the world have a cordon or zone pricing scheme. Geneva, Switzerland, may be soon joining them. This paper builds on a detailed review of the existing schemes to identify a set of plausible design options for the Geneva congestion charge. In turn, it analyzes their acceptability, leveraging a large survey of residents of both Geneva and the surrounding areas of Switzerland and France. Our original approach combines a discrete choice experiment with randomized informational treatments. We consider an extensive set of attributes, such as perimeter, price and price modulation, use of revenues, and exemption levels and beneficiaries. The informational treatments address potential biased beliefs concerning the charge's expected effects on congestion and pollution. We find that public support depends crucially on the policy design. We identify an important demand for exemptions, which, albeit frequently used in the design of environmental taxation, is underexplored in the analysis of public support. This demand for exemptions is not motivated by efficiency reasons. It comes mostly by local residents, for local residents. Further, people show a marked preference for constant prices, even if efficiency would point to dynamic pricing based on external costs. Hence, we highlight a clear trade-off between efficiency and acceptability. However, we also show, causally, that this gap can in part be closed, with information provision. Analyzing heterogeneity, we show that preferences vary substantially with where people live and how they commute. Even so, we identify several designs that reach majority support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congestion and local air pollution continue to be a serious problem in many cities around the world, partly because of an increasing and ageing car fleet. Unfortunately, the use of pricing schemes for handling these externalities, such as congestion and pollution charges, still face much resistance. To cope with it, Carlos F. Daganzo advanced an ingenious hybrid scheme that supposedly leaves everybody better off: driving restrictions with toll exemptions. We extend Daganzo's idea to include vintage exemptions in an effort to also control for the pollution externality. We then test for its Pareto-improving property using Santiago as a case study. We find the latter not to hold in that low-income drivers are strictly worse off: the gain from faster car travel in days of no restriction is not enough to compensate the loss from switching to public transport in days of restriction. To make all individuals better off, the entire toll collection ought to be recycled back into the public transport system, lowering its fares and improving its quality. If so, the most ambitious hybrid restriction format —a 5-day-a-week restriction with vintage thresholds during fall and winter— reports per-year net benefits of around 1.2 billion dollars (or 0.5% of the country's GDP), 58% of which comes from lighter traffic and the remaining 42% from cleaner air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road based motorised transport has many important societal benefits but also results in various negative environmental externalities such as CO 2 emissions or noise and local air pollution. Road pricing is widely regarded as an efficient and effective policy instrument for mitigating these externalities. In reality, however, it is politically controversial because it is associated with high opportunity costs and concerns over distributional effects. We examine whether and how designing road pricing in particular ways could help in achieving public support by implementing a conjoint experimental design using original data from a large, population-representative survey in Switzerland. Additionally, we test whether providing information about environmental benefits of road pricing increase support. We find that support for road pricing tapers off quite strongly when policy designs approach cost levels required for substantive mitigation of externalities and that preferences are robust against experimental manipulation. On the other hand, redistributing revenues towards public transport and green infrastructure increases support substantively at lower cost levels. The findings suggest that there are limits to how policy design and environmental communication can help overcome political feasibility barriers for road pricing. One should therefore focus on additional aspects to increase support such as policy sequencing. • Support for road pricing is rather low. • Support decreases strongly when policy designs approach stringency levels that effectively mitigate externalities. • Policy packaging that includes revenue recycling increases political feasibility in environmental policy. • Car ownership and to a lesser extent environmental concern influence support for road pricing policies. • Preferences for road pricing are robust against informational manipulation about the provision of environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We revealed who are more likely to vote against a low emission charging zone (LECZ). • Adoption of HEVs and attitudes to the scheme were tested with the LECZ acceptability. • Around two-thirds of the participants voted against the LECZ scheme. • Affordable price and the maintenance of HEVs are negatively related to voting against. • Distrust in government was noticeably associated with the LECZ rejection. Based on data derived from a self-reported questionnaire survey (n = 595), the current study was carried out to (a) determine the extent to which residents support a Low Emission Charging Zone (LECZ) via a hypothetical referendum voting, (b) examine the relationship between intention to adopt Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (HEVs) by voting for/against LECZ through employing the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and (c) investigate public attitudes towards the proposed system. The results indicated that around two-thirds of the participants voted against the LECZ scheme, and that latent psychological factors had a stronger impact on voting against the LECZ than observed variables. The results also revealed that people would be more likely to adopt and less likely to oppose the LECZ if the price, maintenance, and repair of HEVs were affordable. Regarding public attitudes towards the proposed system, distrust in government concerning the use of LECZ-derived revenues was noticeably related to the LECZ rejection. In the light of the findings, some policy and planning implications are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Between 32% and 52% of the public supports tradable peak credits (TPC). • Support increases when the scheme is simpler and when credits are equally distributed. • Attitudes and some socio-economic variables are strongly related to support. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion is a major problem in high populated cities, due to the frequent increase on travel demand and exponential vehicles growth. Resulting in increased vehicle queuing and slows road speed which can led to increase delays, air pollution, and fuel consumption. Poor traffic management in the congested spot result in elongated traffic jam. Therefore, this study aims to reduce traffic congestion by applying congestion charging system which is an effective method to regulate demand without increasing supply. Kuwait City network was selected to perform the system. Kuwait City is a vital city that has a lot of governmental and commercial facilities which make the city crowded especially during the peak hours. The current condition was analyzed in SYNCHRO simulation software in order to compare it with the improved condition to confirm the applicability. The genetic algorithm will be used as a practical method to apply congestion pricing in order to provide optimized solutions that will be analyzed in SYNCHRO software to examine the performance of the network. The impacts of applying congestion pricing system were remarkable. From traffic point of view, the demand was regulated, also total delays and fuel consumption were improved. The reduction of total delay is ranged between 24.4% to 40.58%, and the reduction of fuel used is ranged between 36.76% to 60.89%. From an economical point of view, the user cost decreased in a range between 27.77% and 43.75%. In addition, from an environmental aspect the emissions of HC, CO and NOx improved significantly which improved air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The toll design problem (TDP) provides a quantitative approach to the design of road pricing schemes. Its practical use, however, can be computationally challenging if the formulated TDP requires time-consuming computer models to evaluate candidate designs, especially if such designs must account for multiple objectives. For TDPs to be of practical relevance to the real-world planning of sustainable transportation networks, efficient TDP solution heuristics must be developed. To this end, two surrogate-based solution heuristics for multi-objective TDPs are proposed in this paper. Surrogate-based optimization uses simple approximations to computationally expensive models in order to accelerate the discovery of good solutions. The general search strategy of the proposed heuristics is as follows. In each iteration of the heuristics, a pool of candidate pricing schemes with unique sets of tolling locations and associated tolling levels is generated. From this pool of designs, the heuristics use the surrogate models to screen for solutions that are expected to be nondominated and that meet a specified selection criterion. Then, these promising designs are evaluated by the computationally expensive models, and the outputs obtained from these evaluations are used to update the surrogate models. Both heuristics repeat this general process until a maximum number of iterations are completed, at which point the best TDP solutions are returned. In addition to the solution heuristics, this paper presents a transportation network paradox that highlights how transportation network interventions intended to reduce traffic emissions could have unintended effects on a population's exposure to pollutants. The paradox also is used to illustrate the practical complexity of accounting for environmental inequality objectives, as well as the relevance of multi-objective analysis approaches to transportation planning. Formulations of multi-objective TDPs that consider both travel and pollutant exposure-related objectives are also presented, including the objectives of reducing human intake of vehicle-generated air pollutants and of minimizing environmental inequality. The Sioux Falls and Chicago Sketch networks were used in tests that examined the relative performance of the heuristics, as well as the characteristics of pricing configurations obtained under different budget constraints. Among other results, the tests show that a pricing configuration could decrease total pollutant intake and environmental inequality, while at the same time producing an increase in pollutant concentrations in a significant number of pollutant receptor points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. • Four frames are found: The polluter should pay, Focus on fair alternatives, What's in it for me?, and Don't interfere. • Different arguments are used in the frames which means that there is not just one block of citizens opposing road pricing. • A person-centred approach can provide fresh insights into the coherence of underlying beliefs, motives and arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigated the extent to which citizens break the rule of an active congestion charging scheme. • Latent attitudinal and observed variables were simultaneously tested via an HCM-analysis. • Lack of trust in government and a lower perceived effectiveness had the strongest influences. • Using non-governmental media, the issue of complexity and lack of information need to be well-addressed. • As for long-term policy, entrusting management system to a private system and launching environmental campaigns are plausible solutions. Although previous studies have explored predictors of Congestion Charging (CC) acceptability and acceptance, there is no study investigating the rule-breaking behaviour towards a CC scheme. The current study thus examined the effects of a wide range of attitudinal factors as well as demographic, socioeconomic, built environment and travel-related characteristics on rule-breaking/following behaviour towards an ongoing CC scheme. Our major contribution to the state of the art is threefold: (a) we reveal the extent to which citizens break the rule of an active scheme and illegally drive through the CC area, (b) we simultaneously test the relative roles of several latent attitudinal and observed variables in the type of rule-breaking/following conduct in an integrated framework through developing a hybrid choice model, and (c) we empirically investigate how and to what extent the level of legitimacy of an active CC scheme appears in a city in the Middle East context, where politicians have neglected the direct participation of public via referendum voting in the policy process behind the introduction of the CC. A sample of car users was recruited during February and March 2019 in Tehran. A cross-sectional design using a self-report questionnaire survey was conducted. Out of 622 citizens participated in this study, 595 valid observations were used for analysis. Our findings showed significant difference between predictors for those frequently (mono-rule breakers) broke and those who rarely or occasionally (multi rule-breakers) broke the rule of CC. The finding also revealed that latent attitudinal factors could have greater impacts on rule-breaking behaviour than observed variables. Lack of trust in government concerning final use of CC revenues and a lower perceived effectiveness of the CC had the strongest influence on the probability of violating the CC rule. We suggested both short and long-term policies to deal with the issues of legitimacy and survival of the CC scheme. With regard to short-term policy, using media and social networks, the issue of complexity and lack of information about the charging system need to be well-addressed. Considering long-term policy, entrusting management system from governmental authorities to a private system as well as launching environmental campaigns could increase the public trust and effectiveness of the CC scheme, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the political feasibility of road pricing. In a monocentric city, we assume that every morning, there are a fixed number of commuters going to work by car or by bus. A flat toll is levied on commuters who drive to work and the toll revenues are redistributed to all commuters or bus riders only, or not at all. If more than half commuters support or benefit from the pricing scheme, it is considered politically feasible, and vice versa. We show that no one supports implementing road pricing if the toll revenues are not returned, and that the two revenue redistribution measures can produce the identical modal split and departure pattern, but their politically feasible toll intervals are different. Furthermore, if commuters without cars are the majority, they will benefit from the pricing scheme while commuters with cars suffer, regardless of the redistribution measures. However, all commuters may benefit from the pricing scheme when commuters with cars account for an overwhelming majority. This research provides a method for the government to evaluate under what conditions implementing road pricing is politically feasible. • Investigate the political feasibility of road pricing. • Toll revenues redistributed to all commuters or bus riders only or not at all. • Find the politically feasible toll intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview article proposes a revised approach to improve the urban realm, against the backdrop of new models for delivering transport services as digitalisation, collaborative consumption and autonomous technologies take hold. We propose the concept of modal efficiency illustrated through a conceptual framework situating both existing and emerging modes of transport around spatial and temporal dimensions. This framework helps us evaluate how the push towards smaller and more flexible transport services in questionable settings can have significant and adverse effects on road capacity, increasing congestion and in the longer term impacting urban form. We propose linking urban land use characteristics to travel price and modal efficiency to improve the broader transport system and guide the sustainable development of our cities. Mobility as a service (MaaS) based on shared mobility and modal integration constitutes a major opportunity to deliver on these ideals, if organised appropriately. Widely diverging service delivery models for MaaS are introduced, including commercially-motivated models (which may exacerbate efficiency issues), and systems which incorporate an institutional overlay. We propose consideration of a government-contracted model for MaaS, where road pricing is incorporated as an input into package price, defined by time of day, geography and modal efficiency. In amidst the hype of new mobility technologies and services, a critical assessment of the realm of possibilities can better inform government policy and ensure that digital disruption occurs to our advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology offers a significant opportunity to address the congestion problem caused by the selfish routing behavior of human drivers. If the transportation management center (TMC) can control the routing of all vehicles on the network, they could easily reverse this effect. However, during the transition period, CAVs will share roads with human-piloted vehicles (HVs). In the era of mixed autonomy, a more realistic scenario is to route the CAVs to lead the traffic state towards the desired equilibrium. We first consider a repeated routing game in which the TMC can control the routes of CAVs to minimize the system travel time, i.e., CAVs follow the system optimal (SO) routing principle. In this manner, we can influence the travel time traversing each link, which indirectly influences HV users' route choices. As a consequence, HV users may adjust their routes dynamically through day-to-day (DTD) learning to minimize individual travel cost. On the other hand, the SO routing strategy may induce higher travel time for CAVs than HVs within the same origin–destination (OD) pair. To address such inherent unfairness, road pricing is used to influence route choices of HVs to achieve specific supply regulation targets, e.g., traffic restraint. We present qualitative analysis on the stability of the controlled DTD dynamics and the effect of road pricing regarding the unfairness. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is one of the first to design dynamic pricing schemes for a mixed autonomy system under DTD learning dynamics. We carry out numerical experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control schemes. The cooperative CAVs could reduce the total travel time when the market penetration rate of CAVs reaches the lower minimum control ratio that the network could escape the user equilibrium (UE) condition. When the market penetration rate of CAVs reaches the upper minimum control ratio, the network would achieve SO condition even though there are non-cooperative HVs. On the other hand, the pricing scheme can reduce the unfairness index and total travel time of the network when the market penetration rate of CAVs is low. • Day-to-day evolution of the mixed autonomy system. • Routing the CAVs to SO paths to mitigate the impact of selfish routing of HVs. • Tolling the HVs to address the unfairness and to improve the network performance. • Qualitative analysis on the effects of road pricing regarding the unfairness. • Stability guarantee of the day-to-day traffic dynamics under the control schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Formulate the no-toll equilibrium (NTE) and the congestion and environmental toll (CET) equilibrium problems with heterogeneous users as unconstrained optimization problems. • Modify the BFGS method to solve these problems. • Formulate the optimal congestion toll and CET design problems as bi-level programs. • Develop the double BFGS method to solve the two bi-level programs. We design a congestion and environmental toll (CET) scheme for the morning commute with heterogeneous users in a single OD network with parallel routes. The designed toll scheme relies upon the concept of marginal-cost pricing and is anonymous. The Henderson approach is used to model road congestion and the tolling problem to examine commuter's arrival time and route choice at the CET equilibrium (CETE). Linear interpolation is applied to approximate the emission cost function and the resulting CETE problem is formulated as an unconstrained optimization problem, which is solved by the modified Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) method. Unlike the existing approach, this novel approach does not require that the arrival of each group of commuters at the destination at the equilibrium follows a predetermined order, and can handle non-monotone (emission) cost function. As two special cases, no-toll equilibrium (NTE) and the congestion toll equilibrium (CTE) are also examined, and the two resultant equilibrium problems are formulated and solved by the same approach. This approach is shown to be more efficient than the existing approach. Bi-level programming models are proposed to formulate the optimal congestion toll and CET design problems, in which the CTE and CETE problems are the corresponding lower level problem. These models are solved by the double BFGS method, which uses a classical BFGS method to solve the upper level model and the proposed BFGS method to solve the lower level model. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the properties of the models and the efficiency of the proposed solution algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in travel demand and car ownership, traffic congestion is becoming more and more serious. To alleviate traffic congestion, based on the user heterogeneity, this paper proposes to implement both toll and tradable credit scheme for the public-private partnership transportation network, i.e., tolling and charging tradable credits for the users who use the government-built public roads and BOT private roads, respectively. Based on the travelers' routing behavior under this mixed strategy, we build the variational inequality model of user equilibrium and market equilibrium. Then, according to the system optimal model, the mixed strategy set can be obtained that promotes the user equilibrium flow pattern to the system optimal flow pattern, and the upper bound of system efficiency loss under mixed strategy is also derived. Furthermore, we propose two bi-level programming models covering other objectives and obtain the optimal mixed strategy. Finally, a numerical experiment on a specific road network is conducted, which can obtain the specific amount of tradable credits and charging value for each public road and BOT private road respectively, and the total number of windows for that need to be set in the road network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The equilibrium with a tradable credit scheme may not be unique for particular models of traffic congestion, including the first-best solution for the conventional Vickrey's bottleneck model. • The reason underlying the non-uniqueness is that the credit supply-demand equilibrium condition can be satisfied for a continuum of credit prices, each corresponding with a particular traffic equilibrium. • We find that the problem of non-uniqueness does not occur for the well-known dynamic flow congestion model proposed by Chu. • A unique equilibrium can be obtained in the bottleneck model if the buying and selling of credits with a bank is allowed, against a pre-determined price to be achieved through a perfectly elastic demand/supply of credits by the bank. Tradable credit schemes offer a potentially efficient, revenue-neutral policy alternative to classical dynamic pricing of congestion externalities. We show in this paper that the resulting equilibrium may not be unique for particular models of congestion, including the first-best solution for the conventional Vickrey's bottleneck model. This can have substantial detrimental impacts on social welfare and social acceptance of tradable credit schemes. The reason underlying this result is that the credit supply-demand condition can be satisfied for a continuum of credit prices. This is because any marginal change in the credit price will be matched by a compensating change in queuing times, keeping user price fixed but deviating from the first-best optimum in which no queueing should occur. We find that the problem of non-uniqueness does not occur for the dynamic flow congestion model proposed by Chu. A unique equilibrium can be obtained in the bottleneck model if the buying and selling of credits with a bank is allowed, against a pre-determined price. Credits are then still tradable so that the use can deviate from the initial distribution, but the credit price is determined by the perfectly elastic demand and supply from the bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congestion pricing is classified as a transportation demand management measure adopted to reduce impacts modern cities are suffering in terms of traffic congestion, road accidents and air and noise pollution. Such a measure allows linking road transport externalities directly to travelers producing them. The definition of proper tolling schemes enables this measure to act on demand short-term choices, forcing travellers to shift towards low impact road itineries (route diversion) and sustainable transport systems (modal diversion). This paper presents key findings in the design of pricing policies to a specific real size and complex case (city of Rome, Italy) addressing overall transport performances (on the multimodal network) and impacts (affecting the entire community), in a demand elastic context. Main contribution derives from equity matters dealt with in the impact assessment of pricing policies, so filling a gap not extensively studied in this field. Specifically, different tolling schemes have been defined from a quantitative (toll level) and spatial (city zones where pricing is implemented) viewpoint in order to guarantee equity aspects in the application of the measure: affected road users are limited to those travelling in city zones where the mass public transport network (metro and rail) is available; besides, the toll amount is related to the level of accessibility to public transport (whether only in origin/destination of the trip or in both). Results, evaluated adopting a simulation-based approach, are consistent with those obtained in other real world cases, and highlight that the adoption of a proper pricing policy in the city of Rome guarantees a demand diversion towards sustainable transport modes up to 25% for those zones directly involved by the pricing implementation; promising benefits have been observed even in a wider area, entire Province of Rome, not directly affected by the measure, in terms of reduction both of road users (up to 6%) and congestion costs (about 2%). • Two central zones of Rome (Italy) have been considered for possible congestion pricing implementation. • Different tolling levels and schemes for congestion pricing have been simulated. • Traffic and environmental effects of congestion pricing have been investigated. • The effects of the policy have been analysed in terms of modal shift. • A multi variable objective function is defined for the evaluation of the pricing scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Planning models for the design of area pricing schemes are presented. • Models incorporate pollutant concentration constraints in the design problem. • Surrogate-based optimization approach proposed to solve design problems. • Geometric representation of charging boundary utilized in heuristic. • Utility of models and heuristics illustrated using the Chicago Sketch Network. A surrogate-based solution heuristic is presented for single-objective cordon and area-based road pricing problems that consider environmental constraints. In the proposed algorithm, surrogate models are constructed using geometric representations of charging boundaries. A surrogate model is defined here as a simple approximation to computationally expensive models used to simulate road users' response to pricing. The surrogates are employed as part of a screening procedure to select the most promising candidate schemes for evaluation by potentially time-consuming models. Departing from previous elastic demand-based formulations of congestion charging problems, this study utilizes a set of objective functions that can be easily integrated with commonly used travel demand models. Environmental considerations are introduced to the pricing problem in the form of pollutant concentration constraints. Two constraint handling strategies are presented to account for the pollutant concentration constraints in the solution heuristics. Numerical tests were conducted to explore the surrogate models' predictive accuracy and their degree of correlation with the model outputs. On average, the surrogate predictions exhibited relatively good correlation with model outputs (correlation coefficients greater than 0.70). Additionally, a sample application of the proposed problem and methods is presented for illustrative purposes. The tests examined the relative performance of the proposed algorithm, the diversity of the design solutions generated, and the impact of the pricing schemes on pollutant concentration in the hypothetical study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Road transportation is one of the main sources of atmospheric emissions in many countries and areas. Road pricing, is not only effective for urban transportation management, but also helpful in reducing the negative externalities caused by transportation. In this study, an inexact two-phase minimal emission programming (TMEP) model is proposed for design of the environment-friendly toll scheme with an acceptable road network performance. Through introduction of fuzzy stochastic programming, multiple uncertainties involved in vehicle emission evaluation are dealt with; the Traffic Performance Index (TPI) based constraints are incorporated to reflect the decision-maker's requirements for network congestion management. The solution method is proposed for generating the range of fuzzy stochastic objectives. An optimal toll scheme associated with the minimal emission based flow pattern is obtained through searching for a set of the best and the worst optimal solutions. A numerical experiment and a real-world road network in Beijing of China are used to illustrate the application of the developed method. In the case study, the toll scheme is obtained at the desired congestion level. The effects of emission and congestion abatement are analyzed under different policy scenarios. The proposed TMEP method can generate the toll scheme with obvious improvements in total emission reduction and congestion mitigation. Highlights • An inexact two-phase minimal emission programming model is developed. • Multiple uncertainties involved in the emission process are dealt with. • The Traffic Performance Index based constraints are proposed and incorporated. • The pricing scheme can mitigate emission and reduce congestion simultaneously. • A numerical experiment and a real-world road network in Beijing are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Analytical framework for assessing first- and second-best road prices. • Numerical solutions for optimal road prices for different areas in Norway. • Optimal road prices vary greatly between different areas, times of day and vehicles. • Large welfare gains from optimal road prices. • Optimal road prices are insufficient to reach ambitious climate goals. Abstract In this paper we examine what characterizes second-best road prices targeting external costs from driving electric (EV) and conventional (ICEV) vehicles when there are distortionary labor taxes and binding government budget constraints. Further, we examine how this second-best pricing fits with government set goals of reducing CO 2 emissions. The paper further develops an analytical framework for assessing first- and second-best road prices on vehicle kilometers, extending it to include EVs and externalities that vary geographically and by time of day. We find that optimal road prices largely vary with external cost, but are also significantly affected by the interactions with the rest of the fiscal system. Not surprisingly, the highest road prices should be for ICEVs in large cities during peak hours due to high external costs. More surprisingly, we find that the road price for ICEVs in rural areas should be lower than that for EVs due to large fiscal interaction effects. These road prices give large welfare gains, but they lead to no reduction in carbon emissions when applying the currently recommended social cost of carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The welfare gains from a Pigouvian congestion toll, i.e. marginal external cost pricing, depend heavily on the type and stringency of the background land-use and housing regulations. • The Pigouvian road toll retains its optimality in the presence of any quantitative regulation in housing or land markets. • Marginal cost pricing of traffic externalities ceases to be optimal when property or land taxes are present. Abstract 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A variety of innovative value pricing schemes have been applied in the US to mitigate traffic congestion in a sustainable manner. This paper proposes a new concept, called Multilevel Premium Highways (MPH), to tackle traffic congestion with different options addressing travelers' diverse needs. The new concept is featured by: (i) a fully priced highway with hierarchical speeds designated on different lanes; (ii) a discriminated toll strategy; and (iii) a package of complementary services directly funded by the toll revenues. To examine the effectiveness of MPH, this paper firstly develops a qualitative comparison with the conventional value pricing (VP) schemes, and conducts a spreadsheet-based benefit-cost analysis under two scenarios with the realistic input data, and then performs a sensitivity analysis to examine the impacts of key factors (e.g., traffic demand and travelers' willingness-to-pay). Discrete choice models are also applied to unveil the impacts of heterogeneous travelers on the performance of MPH. Results show that MPH appears to be economically and financially sustainable for large-scale applications, although the initial settings (e.g., the designated speeds and toll values) of highway lanes influence the relative performance between MPH and the conventional VP schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities looking to embark on more sustainable development pathways may need to evaluate the controversial but usually impactful measure of road pricing as a means of reducing their reliance on conventionally fuelled automobiles. Understanding the mechanisms determining the public acceptability of road pricing could be critical for its implementation. Studying the attitudes of older people is of particular significance because of their increasing demographic and political importance and vulnerability to transport-related social exclusion. Prior research identified that older people's social norms and pro-social values affect their attitudes to road pricing. The present paper extends this understanding based on the results of three focus groups conducted in Bristol, UK. According to these, there are three distinctive expressions of pro-sociality: pro-environmental values and generativity, which are mainly drivers of support for road pricing, and pro-equity values, which are mainly drivers of opposition. Social norms have two particular expressions: subjective norms (i.e. norms reflecting participants' immediate social environment) and norms about others and society in general. Furthermore, a theory-driven thematic analysis indicates that trust on the integrity of the concept and older age as a life stage associated with ageing, retirement, lower income, mobility barriers and deteriorating health are important in how attitudes reflecting and affecting public acceptability to road pricing form. Finally, the paper highlights the need for packaging road pricing with measures promoting its pro-social potential and the importance of peer-to-peer communication and accepting citizens as “social influencers”, tailored consultation, pro-social branding, pre-implementation trials, clear administrative roles, transparency, and “political patience”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of electronic toll collection (ETC) over freeways not only enables nonstop traffic flows through toll collection zones but also facilitates more flexible schemes for road pricing, such as distance-based and time-based schemes, as both the on-ramp and off-ramp time stamps of a trip can be detected. Based on such an ETC environment, this study develops a road pricing model which considers the perspectives of road users, the government, and the ETC agent, seeking to attain greener transportation by leveraging the external costs related to environmental impact and accident potential. Thereupon, a Green Safety Indicator (GSI) is proposed to comprehensively account for the service level of freeway traffic. The optimal solution for the benefits generated from three scenarios are determined against GSI-based equilibria, which can maintain the revenue for the government, offer the ETC agent higher profits, and allow road users off-peak discounts, thereby promoting a tripartite win–win situation among stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]