COST OF CUTTING QUEUES

This article argues that road pricing, the charging of vehicles for trips in congested areas, could be an effective urban traffic control measure. It was originally proposed in the 1964 smeed report, road pricing: the economic and technical possibilities, and it is now being widely advocated as a solution to the traffic problems of central London. The technical success of the Hong Kong road pricing experiment convinced many former doubters, despite the scheme's abandonment for political reasons. Road pricing can be implemented technically by fitting each vehicle in its area with an electronic transmitting device. One of its advantages is that the reduction in traffic congestion, resulting from a switch of some drivers to public transport, would further improve the conditions for bus transport. Another advantage is the reduced environmental impact of traffic in city centres. Road pricing caters for the occasional need in addition to regular users. However, road pricing also raises several difficult questions, for example: (1) how far it would favour richer car owners as compared to poorer car owners; (2) how far its traffic reduction would improve conditions for other road users and in the environment; (3) what prices should be set; (4) whether or not it would be better to ban cars from central London altogether. The author considers that some careful and detailed attitude surveys are needed to find out which traffic restraint methods londoners would themselves consider fair and reasonable. (TRRL)