Pricing in Road Transport
A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective
Edited by Erik Verhoef, Michiel Bliemer, Linda Steg and Bert van Wee
Chapter 11: Car Users’ Acceptability of a Kilometre Charge
Geertje Schuitema, Barry Ubbels, Linda Steg and Erik Verhoef
Extract
Geertje Schuitema, Barry Ubbels, Linda Steg and Erik Verhoef 11.1 INTRODUCTION Worldwide, car traffic has increased by almost 70 per cent between 1980 and 1998 (OECD, 2001). This increase in road transport causes various problems, such as congestion, accidents and noise. Various policies may be implemented to reduce these problems, transport pricing being one of them. In this chapter, transport pricing refers to cost increases for car use or car ownership. In general, transport-pricing policies are considered to be fairly effective in reducing problems resulting from increased car use. In particular, economists plead for the implementation of transport-pricing policies, because of the welfare gains of these pricing tools (for an overview of the theory and effectiveness of transport pricing, see Ubbels, 2006; see also Ubbels et al., Chapter 5 of this volume). The London congestion charge and the Singapore area licence scheme are examples of effective transport-pricing schemes (see Small and Gomez-Ibañez, 1998; Santos, 2004; Santos et al., 2004). Six months after the introduction of the congestion charge in London, the total number of vehicles entering the charged zone reduced by 14 per cent compared with the pre-charge period (Transport for London, 2006; Santos, Chapter 14 of this volume). Since 1998, vehicles entering the city centre of Singapore have been charged between 7.30 p.m. and 19.00 a.m. As a result, traffic volumes have decreased by 15 per cent all through the day, and during rush hours by 16 per cent (Menon, 2000). Outside the...
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