For many years traffic congestion has been one of the major problems which adversely affect the quality of life in our cities. In view of the scale of the problem, considerable efforts have been made by the responsible authorities to find adequate solutions. A common denominator that is generally included in the package of solutions is to improve city public transport services, in order to produce a positive modal shift towards public transport patronage change and away from usage of the private car. To date, these solutions have not been particularly successful, due to the low elasticity of demand of the two modes. From the economists' point of view, the most efficient solution (in terms of overall public expenditure on transport infrastructure and services) has been seen to be to charge drivers for using the road network. Previously, this solution has not been considered feasible, firstly due to the lack of an acceptable non-stop tolling technology, and secondly due to the need to introduce changes to the existing taxation system applied to the use of automobiles. Today, the technological problems appear to have been solved, but the fiscal problem remains. Interest is thus focused upon the socio-economic impact of changes to the political framework for transport administration. In Barcelona the levels of concern about the traffic congestion problem have led to actions being taken to restrain the usage of private vehicles, particularly for journeys to the central area. A new system for implementing restraint measures has been designed which uses the emerging automatic vehicle identification technology. Restraint measures are applied according to user class rather than the direct application of the pricing mechanism, but in a way which seeks to achieve a similar optimisation of usage of the transport infrastructure.
Samenvatting