Road for your money ? Investing in roads on the basis of the 'user pays principle' The 'user pays principle' is an important cornerstone of our modern economy which regulates supply and demand for goods and services. But it is not applied in case of the everyday product 'roads', which results in queues (congestion). Therefore the Dutch Ministry of Finance asked CE to investigate how usage of and investments in road could be better aligned with the 'user pays' principle (theory) and what the effects of such as system would be on congestion and transport demand. Working together with the Vrije Universiteit and 4Cast we managed to develop a coherent charging and investment system on the basis of 'the user pays' and to provide some first indicative results. Key elements of the system are a strongly differentiated congestion charging scheme and a decision rule which links investment in extra road capacity to revenues of the congestion charges. This delivers promising results: congestion is drastically reduced at a modest reduction of mobility and quite limited investment in new roads. Further research is needed to arrive at more robust estimates for size and shape op an optimal investment package. (Author/publisher)
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