Investigating urban charging in low-density urban environments: lessons for Australia from the Auckland Road Pricing Evaluation Study

The New Zealand Government's Auckland Road Pricing Evaluation Study undertook detailed consideration of urban congestion charging in a city that has strong similarities to Australia's major cities. The lessons from the study showed considerable potential benefits in a congestion charging approach. It also showed that providing realistic alternatives to private vehicle use were possible, but required careful consideration of scheme design. In particular, the lessons from the study showed increasing the value of the scheme (e.g. travel time savings or other benefits) to those who continued to drive would be critical to its potential success and a key area of interest for ongoing work.