IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v43y2006i8p1395-1418.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Proper Pricing for Transport Infrastructure and the Case of Urban Road Congestion

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Glaister

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Skempton Building, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK,s.glaister@imperial.ac.uk)

  • Daniel J. Graham

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Skempton Building, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK, d.j.graham@imperial.ac.uk)

Abstract

For transport systems the issues of pricing, service quality, funding and investment in urban areas are inextricably interdependent. The paper first argues that no policy can be set for any of these aspects of transport in isolation from any other. Transport planners and urban policy-makers can choose to tolerate congestion, or build new capacity or introduce road user charging. These issues are explored and analysed in the context of London-Europe's most obviously resurgent city and the one with the most recent experience of road pricing in the form of the Congestion Charge. However, despite the evidence that in the centre, where it applies, the Congestion Charge has had broadly the effects economic theory would predict, there is still a growing problem for the rest of London and the UK caused largely by the combined effects of rising real incomes and the improving fuel efficiency of cars which reduces the impact of fuel taxes. This suggests a growing pressure for a national system of road pricing. To date 'prices', in the form of fuel duty (over £0.50 out of each £0.80 for a litre of fuel) have been set on the basis of historical precedent or political expediency. The paper sets out a regionally based model to analyse the implications of setting alternative levels of congestion charging and environmental taxes covering the whole of England. This includes modelling the implications for other transport modes and the net changes accruing to drivers and the Exchequer. Having presented the implications of some alternative policies, the paper discusses a number of the issues of political economy that would have to be resolved. While there seems to be little alternative to user charging in some form sooner or later, the sooner it can be introduced the more good it can do. However, the difficulties are real, less tractable than some people appear to believe and they have to be identified and dealt with. Perhaps the most significant unresolved problem is not the technical feasibility of such a system of national road pricing, but finding an appropriate, accountable and acceptable method for overseeing and administering the funds such a system would generate.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Glaister & Daniel J. Graham, 2006. "Proper Pricing for Transport Infrastructure and the Case of Urban Road Congestion," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(8), pages 1395-1418, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:43:y:2006:i:8:p:1395-1418
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980600776475
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980600776475
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980600776475?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glaister, Stephen & Graham, Daniel J., 2005. "An evaluation of national road user charging in England," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(7-9), pages 632-650.
    2. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general static transportation networks with elastic demands," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 281-310, May.
    3. Erik T. Verhoef, 2000. "articles: The implementation of marginal external cost pricing in road transport Long run vs short run and first-best vs second-best," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 79(3), pages 307-332.
    4. Daniel J. Graham & Stephen Glaister, 2006. "Spatial Implications of Transport Pricing," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 40(2), pages 173-201, May.
    5. Daniel J. Graham & Stephen Glaister, 2002. "The Demand for Automobile Fuel: A Survey of Elasticities," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 36(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Verhoef, Erik T., 2002. "Second-best congestion pricing in general networks. Heuristic algorithms for finding second-best optimal toll levels and toll points," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 707-729, September.
    7. Erik T. Verhoef & Kenneth A. Small, 2004. "Product Differentiation on Roads," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 38(1), pages 127-156, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hamid Reza Eftekhari & Mehdi Ghatee, 2017. "The lower bound for dynamic parking prices to decrease congestion through CBD," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 761-787, October.
    2. King, David & Manville, Michael & Shoup, Donald, 2007. "The political calculus of congestion pricing," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt9js9z8gz, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Catherine Althaus & Lindsay M. Tedds & Allen McAvoy, 2011. "The Feasibility of Implementing a Congestion Charge on the Halifax Peninsula: Filling the "Missing Link" of Implementation," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 37(4), pages 541-561, December.
    4. Paul C. Cheshire, 2006. "Resurgent Cities, Urban Myths and Policy Hubris: What We Need to Know," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(8), pages 1231-1246, July.
    5. Moshe Givoni, 2012. "Re-assessing the Results of the London Congestion Charging Scheme," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(5), pages 1089-1105, April.
    6. Dieplinger, Maria & Fürst, Elmar, 2014. "The acceptability of road pricing: Evidence from two studies in Vienna and four other European cities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 10-18.
    7. King, David & Manville, Michael & Shoup, Donald, 2007. "The political calculus of congestion pricing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 111-123, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Verhoef, Erik T., 2007. "Second-best road pricing through highway franchising," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 337-361, September.
    2. Tikoudis, Ioannis & Verhoef, Erik T. & van Ommeren, Jos N., 2018. "Second-best urban tolls in a monocentric city with housing market regulations," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 342-359.
    3. Button, Kenneth, 2004. "1. The Rationale For Road Pricing: Standard Theory And Latest Advances," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-25, January.
    4. Kockelman, Kara M. & Lemp, Jason D., 2011. "Anticipating new-highway impacts: Opportunities for welfare analysis and credit-based congestion pricing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 825-838, October.
    5. Verhoef, Erik T. & Koh, Andrew & Shepherd, Simon, 2010. "Pricing, capacity and long-run cost functions for first-best and second-best network problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 870-885, August.
    6. Koster, Paul & Verhoef, Erik & Shepherd, Simon & Watling, David, 2018. "Preference heterogeneity and congestion pricing: The two route case revisited," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 137-157.
    7. Stephen Salant & Nathan Seegert, 2018. "Should Congestion Tolls be Set by the Government or by the Private Sector? The Knight–Pigou Debate Revisited," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 428-448, July.
    8. Holgun-Veras, Jos & Cetin, Mecit, 2009. "Optimal tolls for multi-class traffic: Analytical formulations and policy implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 445-467, May.
    9. Robin Lindsey, 2006. "Do Economists Reach A Conclusion on Road Pricing? The Intellectual History of an Idea," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(2), pages 292-379, May.
    10. Ian W.H. Parry, 2009. "Pricing Urban Congestion," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 461-484, September.
    11. Safirova, Elena & Gillingham, Kenneth & Houde, Sébastien, 2007. "Measuring marginal congestion costs of urban transportation: Do networks matter?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 734-749, October.
    12. Schwarz, Gregor & Bichler, Martin, 2022. "How to trade thirty thousand products: A wholesale market design for road capacity," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 167-185.
    13. Holgui­n-Veras, Jose & Cetin, Mecit & Xia, Shuwen, 2006. "A comparative analysis of US toll policy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 852-871, December.
    14. Lei Zhang & David Levinson & Shanjiang Zhu, 2007. "Agent-Based Model of Price Competition and Product Differentiation on Congested Networks," Working Papers 200809, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    15. Meng, Qiang & Liu, Zhiyuan & Wang, Shuaian, 2012. "Optimal distance tolls under congestion pricing and continuously distributed value of time," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 937-957.
    16. Cipriani, Ernesto & Mannini, Livia & Montemarani, Barbara & Nigro, Marialisa & Petrelli, Marco, 2019. "Congestion pricing policies: Design and assessment for the city of Rome, Italy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 127-135.
    17. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey, 2009. "Traffic Congestion Pricing Methods and Technologies," Working Papers hal-00414526, HAL.
    18. De Borger, Bruno & Proost, Stef, 2012. "Transport policy competition between governments: A selective survey of the literature," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 35-48.
    19. Zhang, H. M. & Ge, Y. E., 2004. "Modeling variable demand equilibrium under second-best road pricing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 733-749, September.
    20. Holguín-Veras, José, 2011. "Urban delivery industry response to cordon pricing, time-distance pricing, and carrier-receiver policies in competitive markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 802-824, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:43:y:2006:i:8:p:1395-1418. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.