Road pricing: The right solution for the right problem?: Fid-Bau Portal

Road pricing: The right solution for the right problem?

Mogridge, M.J.H.

Abstract Road-pricing theory asserts that the optimal speed of a road network is that where vehicles pay the marginal social cost of their journey, rather than an average private cost if no price is imposed. This paper aims to show that this is misconceived. In big congested cities, the running speed of the road network is set by the direct journey speed achieved on the appropriate mass-transit network, both within and to the city centre. After dividing by the appropriate route factors to convert running speed to direct speed and allowing for access to convert kerb-to-kerb to door-to-door speed, the average direct journey speeds by car are identical to those on the mass-transit system for equivalent journeys when there is suppressed demand for car travel. Road pricing should thus be seen, not as a tool for increasing road speeds, which it cannot do whilst sufficient suppressed demand exists, but as a tool for estimating the socially desirable demand level on the roads as opposed to on the mass-transit systems. Road speeds in big, congested cities can only be increased by increasing the direct speeds of the mass-transit systems. Methods of achieving such increases are discussed.