Urban transport economists are at the moment entering a new world in which urban congesting pricing schemes may become common place. In this paper, the author reviews the economic theory of congestion tolling. The author gives a cautionary note: the net benefits from urban auto congestion tolling may not be as considerable as its ardent supporters claim. There are different reasons: - the efficiency gains from even first-best congestion tolling may not be large, - the costs of implementation may be substantial, - the political barriers to implementation are high, - congestion pricing may exacerbate other distortions. The author discusses alternatives to congestion pricing. Congestion pricing by itself is not enough. What is needed is a balanced portfolio of policies, which includes both congestion pricing and the policies traditionally favoured by engineers and planners, as well as novel policies that have been unjustly neglected because they do not fit neatly into the disciplinary conceptualizations of the urban transportation problem. Proposals made discussed here are: upgrading existing infrastructure, - encouraging higher density and more mixed land use, -parking policy, freight delivery management.
City tolls - one element of an effective policy cocktail
CESifo DICE Report ; 3 , 3 ; 5-11
2005
7 Seiten, 1 Bild, 31 Quellen
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Englisch
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British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005
|Choosing Congestion Pricing Policy: Cordon Tolls Versus Link-Based Tolls
Online Contents | 2005
|Choosing Congestion Pricing Policy:Cordon Tolls Versus Link-Based Tolls
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1912
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1913
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