Road pricing

[4][5] Examples of pollution pricing schemes include the London low emission zone and the discontinued Ecopass in Milan.

Mileage-based usage fees (MBUF) or distance-based charging has been implemented for heavy vehicles based on truck weight and distance traveled in New Zealand (called RUC), Switzerland (LSVA), Germany (LKW-Maut), Austria (Go-Maut), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and in four U.S. states: Oregon, New York, Kentucky, and New Mexico.

[13] In 1963 Vickery published a paper 'Pricing in urban and suburban transport' in the American Economic Review[16] and Gabriel Joseph Roth, John Michael Thomson of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Cambridge published a short paper titled "Road pricing, a cure for congestion?

"[17] The Smeed Report, 'Road Pricing: The Economic and Technical Possibilities', which had been commissioned in 1962 by the United Kingdom Ministry of Transport, was published in 1964.

The Electronic Road Pricing (Hong Kong) scheme operated as a trial between 1983 and 1985 but was not continued permanently due to public opposition.

Some other European countries also have similar schemes either on parts of their highway network or only on particularly expensive roads such as tunnels, bridges, or mountain range crossings.

Congestion based pricing for Beijing was recommended by the World Bank in 2010[34][35] and local officials announced plans to introduce a scheme in September 2011 although no details about the cost or the charge zone have been provided.

[36] The city is dealt with traffic congestion and air pollution through a driving restriction scheme implemented since the 2008 Summer Olympics.

[39] In early 2010 the city Guangzhou, Guangdong province, opened a public discussion on whether to introduce congestion charges.

The local government has implemented already several policies to address air quality, and congestion, such as a driving restriction scheme based upon the last digits on their license plates.

[40][41] Also a vehicle quota system was introduced in 2011, awarding new car licenses through a lottery, with a ceiling of 6 million units set by the city authority for 2017.

In May 2016, the Beijing city legislature announced it will consider starting levying traffic congestion charges by 2020 as part of a package of measures to reform the vehicle quota system.

[6] In addition, all vehicles under 3.5 tonnes are required to buy a sticker or vignette to access the Austrian motorway network, which is owned and operated by a state-owned company called ASFINAG.

The vignette enables the vehicle to use almost the entire motorway network in Austria for a specific period of time, with the lower charge set at €8 for 10 days.

[51] Transport minister Merja Kyllönen set up a working group to study "road user charging systems" in October 2012.

For private cars, the report looked at the implications of fixed and regional kilometre charges but did not consider market or other methods for responding to varying local congestion.

Before the adoption of any system, it proposed broad trials to establish the technical viability of taxing road use, its enforceability, and the protection of privacy.

[55] The LKW-MAUT distance-based charging scheme large goods vehicles in Germany began operation on 1 January 2005 after a two-year delay with prices varying depending on emission levels and the number of axles.

However, despite the opening of a second bridge in 2003, capacity and toll management of the West-Link was woefully inadequate, resulting in massive congestion on the Dublin M50 ring road.

However, the onset of the Global Financial Crisis towards the end of the decade and the resulting Irish recession saw a large drop off in driving and use of tolls.

The Oslo scheme was initially created as a conventional road toll for revenue generation reasons but had the unintended effect of reducing traffic by around 5%.

[66] As of November 2015[update], Norwegian authorities have implemented urban charging schemes that operates both on the motorways and for access into downtown areas in five additional cities or municipalities: Haugesund, Kristiansand, Namsos, Stavanger, and Tønsberg.

[67] The Stockholm congestion tax covering Stockholm City Centre was trialed for seven-month trial during 2006 and has been operational on a permanent basis since 1 August 2007;[68][69] all the entrances and exits of this area have unmanned control points operating with automatic number plate recognition and most vehicles pay a fixed fee during peak hours.

[96] In April 2007 the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a contentious congestion charge on cars using most streets in the central business district (southern half of Manhattan)[97] as part of the broader PlaNYC 2030.

[108] The five projects under this initiative are: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,[109] State Route 520 serving downtown Seattle and communities to its east,[110] Interstate 95 between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale,[111] Interstate 35W serving downtown Minneapolis,[112] and a variable rate parking meter system in Chicago, which replaced New York City after it left the program in 2008.

In January 2012, the federal government of Brazil enacted the Urban Mobility Law that authorizes municipalities to implement congestion pricing to reduce traffic flows.

[115][116][117] In April 2012, one of the committees of the São Paulo city council approved a bill to introduce a R$4 (~ US$2) per day congestion charge within the same area as the existing road space rationing (Portuguese: Rodízio veicular) by the last digit of the license plate, which has been in force since 1996.

[120][121] São Paulo's strategic urban development plan "SP 2040", approved in November 2012, proposes the implementation of congestion pricing by 2025, when the density of metro and bus corridors is expected to reach 1.25 km/km2.

Between 2004 and 2005, Santiago de Chile implemented the first 100% non-stop urban toll for concessioned freeways passing through a downtown area,[123] charging by the distance traveled.

[124] Congestion pricing is used since 2007 during rush hours in order to maintain reasonable speeds within the city's core with the aim of keeping a minimum level of service for their customers.