This review lies within research associated with the Scottish Executive’s high level transport objective which has a focus on promoting economic growth by enhancing the effectiveness of the transport network and reducing congestion. Congestion is seen as having significant impacts on a number of sectors including the environment and economy as a whole and therefore has an increasing prominence on the political agenda. Whilst an increasing amount of research and literature is emerging with respect to tackling congestion (including the potential for economic instruments such as road pricing and the benefits of ‘packages of measures’), less evidence is available on the full costs of congestion. The primary objective of the work has been to conduct an international literature review on the costs of traffic congestion, providing a comprehensive list of sources and reflecting evidence on how costs are distributed. This has included the follow sub tasks: • To describe congestion within the traffic situation in Scotland • To review definitions of congestion and how it has been measured in past research and practice • To describe and assess the different methods used to measure the costs of congestion • To outline the literature concerning the link between economic growth and congestion (‘decoupling’) (Author/publisher)
Abstract