Transport and Travel Research is collaborating with Bristol City Council in England in the `ELGAR' (Environment Led Guidance And Restraint) study, one part of the CONCERT project funded by the European Union. This paper focuses on the issues around the introduction of road pricing in Bristol and more widely in the UK. The previous transport authority, Avon County Council, commissioned Ove Arup & Partners to assess the feasibility of a road pricing scheme; this study was completed in September 1997. The A4, the main road between Bristol and Bath, has especially severe peak congestion, and was chosen as a suitable location for a road pricing trial as part of ELGAR. The trial was designed so that choices made by its participants would be as close as possible to those which they would face under a full cordon implementation with real road pricing. 116 volunteers for the trial were chosen from a panel of 528 drivers being monitored by ELGAR. The trial aims to determine quantitative changes in behaviour in response to a toll. The paper describes the trial's system technology, its objectives, its charging regime, participants' attitudes to road pricing, and how they would change their travel behaviour if road pricing was too high. Preliminary findings indicate a possible substantial shift from car travel.
Abstract