This report evaluates the traffic safety impacts of transport pricing reforms including efficient road, parking, fuel and insurance pricing, and public transit fare reductions. This analysis indicates that such reforms can provide significant safety benefits. Crash reductions vary depending on the type of price change, the portion of vehicle travel affected, and the quality of transport options available. If implemented to the degree justified on economic efficiency grounds (for example, cost recovery road and parking pricing), these reforms are predicted to reduce traffic casualties by 40-60%. The low per capita traffic fatality rates in European and wealthy Asian countries largely result from their high fuel prices. Yet, these benefits are often overlooked. Pricing reform advocates seldom highlight crash reduction benefits, and traffic safety experts seldom advocate pricing reforms. Critics claim that pricing reforms are regressive, but this is not necessarily true. This is a particularly important issue for developing countries, which are now establishing pricing practices that will affect their future vehicle travel patterns and therefore crash risks. (Author/publisher)
Abstract