[sustran] TfL Press release - Congestion Charge Scheme (CCS)

[Todd Alexander Litman]

For information on the general theory of congestion pricing see the "Road 
Pricing" (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm35.htm) and "Pricing Evaluation" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm70.htm) chapters of our Online TDM 
Encyclopedia. For discussion of how congestion costs are evaluated, and how 
they compare with other transportation costs see the "Transportation Cost 
and Benefit Analysis Guidebook" (http://www.vtpi.org/tca), which includes a 
chapter on congestion costs ((http://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0505.pdf).

It is correct to say that congestion costs are external at the individual 
level but internal at a group level, that is, most of this cost is borne by 
road users as a group. But this is neither fair nor efficient, since the 
cost that an individual imposes is not related to how much congestion cost 
they bear. For example, a bus rider imposes a faction of the congestion 
costs imposed by a single-occupant automobile driver, but both are equally 
delayed by congestion, and so bear the same costs. As a result, individual 
motorists have little incentive to use alternatives, such as shifting to 
transit, ridesharing or cycling. Road pricing helps correct this, giving 
motor vehicle owners a greater incentive to use alternatives for some other 
their trips. Most experts agree that urban traffic congestion tends to 
maintain a self-limiting equilibrium, and so is virtually unsolvable 
without some sort of pricing strategy.

London's road pricing project is not perfect, I would like to see fees that 
incorporate other external costs, that are mileage-based and which cover a 
larger area, but its a very encouraging first step. Despite considerable 
opposition by the automobile industry, it is demonstrating that road 
pricing can be effective in developed countries, and that it provides 
overall benefits to communities. This bodes well for efforts to implement 
other transportation pricing reforms.

Best wishes,
-Todd Litman


At 10:30 PM 3/25/2003 +0200, ktsourl at mailbox.gr wrote:

>I am very skeptical about the TfL regulation. On the one side, this is 
>obviously a positive project, since it is one of the few cases that the 
>huge external (but real) cost of car use is externalized. Thus, private 
>car users are taught that this way of transportation has negative 
>consequences to others which (at least) should be compensated. However, 
>from all the negative externalities the private car creates (and there are 
>many of them), only the congestion is considered. So, it seems that the 
>message to the drivers is "do drive, but pay, so that driving remains a 
>feasible activity" instead of "don't drive, but use transit, bike or your 
>feet, because this is healthier, environmental friendlier and more 
>sustainable".
>
>BTW I would be grateful if anybody could clarify to me the so called 
>"congestion cost". By "external cost" I understand a cost induced by an 
>activity beneficial for someone at the expense of another person, without 
>pricing it and compensate the infliction. That is, put simply, somebody is 
>benefited from an activity and somebody else is undergoing the negative 
>consequences of this activity, without full or partial compensation. But 
>in the case of the "congestion cost" the persons who induce it, are 
>exactly those who bear the consequences. A person who use a car in a 
>congested road deters other drivers from using unimpeded the road, but 
>these other drivers cause exactly the same to him. So, both "costs" are 
>compensated. This is not the case at all, concerning other external costs, 
>like the noise from motorized traffic, the air pollution over a city, the 
>hardships inflicted to pedestrians, the greenhouse effect etc
>
>
>
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Sincerely,
Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
Email: litman at vtpi.org
Website: http://www.vtpi.org