Friday, May 4, 2007

Tolls

Crosscut Seattle has a very thoughtful, considered piece on using tolling to relieve congestion. It's an excellent read and captures many of the arguments for, and against, tolling. Anyone concerned about the BC transportation system should give it a careful read.

posted by Jordan Bateman @ 8:48 AM  

2 Comments:

At May 5, 2007 12:23 AM , Rob said...

I am not sure if the author of this piece really understands “congestion charges.” He seems to think this is just a politically correct term for “tolls.”

Congestion Charges have a different purpose than traditional tolls and are often applied differently. For example:

- They can apply to entire areas of an urban environment, not just specific roads or bridges.
- They can be applied only during certain times of the day.
- Certain types of vehicles can be exempt (like the contractor's truck mentioned in the article).

Also, I would think that any “thoughtful” piece discussing congestion charging would discuss the recent experiments with congestion charging in London and Stockholm.

 
At May 5, 2007 2:53 PM , romeogolf said...

Singapore began road pricing in June 1975. They now have a variety of measures in place to minimize congestion:

Road pricing is an important component of Singapore’s overall transportation strategy. While road capacity continues to be increased judiciously to meet rising travel demand, the strategy also calls for greater reliance on public transport usage and demand management. One aspect of demand management is the restraint of vehicle ownership, either through the imposition of high upfront ownership costs or restriction on the actual growth of the car population. The former type includes the custom duties and vehicle registration fees, which amounted to almost one-and-a-half times that of the car’s open market value, while the latter is managed through a Vehicle Quota System. The other aspect of demand management is the restraint of vehicle usage through the levy a charge on motorists based on the quantity, place or time of the use of their vehicles. Generally, the more one uses his car the more one has to pay. The road pricing schemes, petrol tax, diesel duty, and parking charges are measures in this category
-- from Road Pricing: Singapore's Experience by Dr. Chin Kian Keong

For more information on their current system and experiences with it, see:

* Electronic Road Pricing, Wikipedia

* Certificate of Entitlement, Wikipedia

 

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