BROADENING THE DEBATE ON ROAD PRICING

There is increasing awareness of the role of road pricing in influencing travel demand, improving economic efficiency, reducing environmental costs, and meeting the cost of providing roads. Particular attention has been given in recent years to the concept of congestion pricing. While congestion pricing will ensure economic efficiency, the financial and political cost of implementing it are likely to be considerable. Given this, the debate on road pricing appears to have been too narrowly focused on congestion pricing. Within this context, this paper has two main themes. First, it considers the effect of misperception of the cost of travel by road users, an aspect of road pricing that has been largely neglected to date. The paper demonstrates that user misperception can have a significant impact on the economic analysis of road pricing. Second, the paper identifies a broader range of road pricing options which could improve welfare outcomes, but at lower cost than congestion pricing. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 890658.