Differentiated road pricing. Governments provide infrastructure for which the car user pays in many ways. The cost of infrastructure depends largely on the former nature of the land use on which it is realised. Especially bridging rivers or swamps raises the costs substantially; also converting town area into infrastructure is usually extremely costly. It is not unreasonable to express these differences in a toll system. The NNAO-study may supply the basis for this approach. The car user, then, affects the traffic in direct and indirect ways. For instance, being on the road means on congested infrastructure that he is taking the place of someone else for which he may be charged; this is most convincingly the case when parked in an inner city. He may also be charged for the indirect costs by pollution and noise, which may differ from time to time and place to place. Thus, differentiated road pricing could consist of two main components: the costs of particular infrastructure elements that are being used and the costs of using those elements in a particular vehicle. Yet, introduction of such an intricate system requires thorough testing. (Author/publisher)
Abstract