The possibility of introducing congestion charging in Budapest – assessment of the theoretical alternatives

In the last three decades the level of motorization has increased a lot in Budapest, so the well-known urban congestion effect became relevant in the capital of Hungary (ca. 30 years after western European cities). Since 2007, which was a peak in terms of traffic volumes the idea of the congestion charging scheme has become more and more popular among transport professionals and general public. The purpose of a possible measure could be quite complex: a combination of revenue generation, influence travel behaviour and environmental goals. As there were different legal, territorial and fiscal alternatives to achieve the goals, a widespread, detailed feasibility analysis needed in order to assess the expected effects and to choose the most efficient version. Therefore the research question was that is it suggested to introduce a congestion charging scheme in Budapest and if yes, than how the system should work? The research methodology was a conventional feasibility assessment with a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of the theoretical alternatives, transport modeling, cost-benefit and cost-efficiency analyses. The aim of this paper is to present the results of these assessments. Through the analysis of expected transport, environmental, economic and social effects a few proposed alternatives have been selected. This case-study presents how complex a decision-making process can be which involve so many conflicting interests. It provides an insight to the main challenges and it shows through the results that what lessons can be learnt and adopted to other cities with similar issues.