Overview
In the Netherlands at this moment most people now pay for owning a car, instead of paying for using a car. The authorities in the Netherlands want to introduce road pricing to change this, and let the people pay based on actual usage of their car. In this project three different kinds of road pricing policies are examined.
In this study the effects of road pricing policy on accessibility and regional economy are studied. Three kinds of road pricing policy are examined:
- A "flat" price per kilometer driven.
- A "flat" price per kilometre as mention in option 1, combined with an additional congestion charge in the peak hour on overloaded roads.
- The price a proposed in option 2, combined with an extension of the road infrastructure.
In this study the effects of the road pricing policy have been analysed, using the traffic forecast model SMART and the regional economic model RAEM. SMART has been used to examine how people response to the different options of road pricing policy. RAEM has been used to analyse how changes in accessibility for cummuter traffic and freight traffic between and whithin reagions changes the production in the different branches of industry, and to quantify the effect on the Dutch economy.
Funding
Results
Road pricing policy can have a positive effect on the traffic flow, the accessibility of and for people and companies and on the Dutch economy. The biggest improvement of the traffic flow is realised in case a flat kilometre price is used, combined with additional congestion charge in the peak hour on overloaded roads. And when the revenues are used for an extension of the road infra structure. Environment and traffic safety also benefit from kilometre and congestion charges, but not when building new road infrastructure. When all costs and benefits are taken into account, the combination of road pricing policy and investments in new road infrastructure have the most positive effects on welfare.