This article intends, in the first place, to describe the mobility problem in Belgium and to provoke a public debate on the matter, not to advance the optimal solution. It isn't all that simple to postulate the ideal solution for Belgium's mobility problem. It is fundamentally clear that the users of the different modes of transport - and in particular the road users - pay too little for the damages they cause and impose unto others. All those negative external effects have to be internalised, so the private marginal costs tally with the real marginal social costs. Some form of duty system (in this case road pricing) could be useful in that context. Yet, we have to be concerned about the possible negative consequences of such a system of levies. Every measure - including the introduction of a duty system - produces its winners and its losers. When one or other form of levy is introduced, the road users (cars and lorries, conveyance of passengers and transport of goods) will lose out strongly (to very strongly). (A)
Samenvatting