In 1999 a major piece of research work was carried out for the Government Office for London assessing the acceptability and possible impacts of various types of road user charging. In the West Midlands (including Birmingham) similar model work has been carried out to assess the potential impacts of various types and levels of workplace charging on vehicle kilometrage and modal split. Such an assessment is of importance as the West Midlands is one of the areas selected for trial implementation of workplace charging. In the context of the envisaged benchmark profiles, these types of assessment can illustrate the relative importance and effectiveness of carrots (investment of the revenue raised) and sticks (increased cost of motoring). Finally, it may serve as an independent test on the sensitivity of the London charging modelling results with regard to techniques and assumptions used. The modelling was carried out with the West Midlands Strategic Transport Model, a multi modal model of the West Midlands area.
Abstract