A revenue-raising national road-user charge would cut rural as well as urban traffic, and deliver greater economic benefit to the country than a revenue-neutral one.
This would be achieved with only a £4.25 average increase in motoring bills every week across the UK. But it would be a hard sell for the Government in Greater London, where £20 would be added to weekly motoring costs – doubling current costs.
The new research, by Professor Stephen Glaister and Dr Daniel Graham for the Independent Transport Commission, follows a previous ITC investigation which predicted a revenue-neutral scheme would cause traffic to rise by 18% in areas such as Cumbria, Northumberland, and Shropshire (Surveyor, 19 June 2003).
The latest study adds to this, showing that a ‘revenue-additional’ scheme – where £16bn extra would be raised on top of fuel duty – could ensure that the scheme did not fuel traffic growth in the most rural counties by dramatically cutting the cost of motoring. It could also have a net economic benefit of £9.7bn a year, compared with £6.8bn for a revenue-neutral scheme because of the revenue raised and the additional environmental benefits. But this would, however, ‘worsen the plight of low-income rural car owners’ hidden by the weekly average increases in regions with large rural hinterlands: £2 extra paid by the average in East Anglia, £2 in Scotland, or £3 in Wales. The part of Britain with the cheapest motoring costs would be Northwest England, where weekly spending would go up from £21 to £23.
Glaister and Graham were unable to find an association they expected to see between wards that would be expected to have the highest road charges with poverty. This was because ‘deprived people, like the well-to-do, live in wards with heavy and light traffic – they are everywhere, a significant finding for the designers of charging schemes’.
They also noted that the level at which charges would need to be set to reduce congestion would be lowered, the more prepared drivers were to travel at different times or to share vehicles.
But, in the absence of measured experience, they were uncertain how many drivers would change their behaviour.
Road pricing in Great Britain: Winners and loserswww.trg.soton.ac.uk/itc/payingtodriv
ordering clarithromycin
buying clarithromycin
discount biaxin cheapest biaxin
Register now for full access
Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.
Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors.
Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.
Already a registered? Login
