Road Pricing: Policy and Options for the Future

Abstract

Simple road pricing mechanisms have been used for centuries; the ferryman was paid for taking travellers and their horses over the river and the country boy was paid a small fee for opening the gate. In many countries turnpikes and toll bars remain as means of forcing road users to contribute to the costs of roads according to their level of use. Even the most common system with a yearly vehicle tax and a fuel excise duty can be seen as a kind of road pricing. The discussion about road pricing in all its forms is not new but it is experiencing a renaissance now that the welfare state is having problems financing new infrastructure and increasing congestion and environmental damage are on the political agenda.