Review of Evidence on the Effects of Road Pricing

Many national and local governments nowadays are, seriously considering road pricing as a policy measure to raise revenues or reduce congestion and emissions from road transport. A number of countries, states and cities have actually implemented such measures. This paper considers the effectiveness of road pricing by reviewing road pricing studies worldwide. The focus will be on the observed effects of schemes actually implemented. Road pricing can be effective but much depends on the objectives and the design of the scheme. The review carried out leads to the conclusion that road pricing schemes, where there are alternative routes and where the charges are likely to vary considerably by time of day, will probably cause substantial changes in route choice and departure time choice. A substantial increase in public transport use will only occur if public transport will be an attractive alternative for many of the origin-destination combinations, as in the case of the London and Stockholm Congestion Charging system