Should we pay for our road use?

It’s been mooted numerous times as a way of tackling road congestion. A version has been in operation in Singapore for many years, and a number of projects and limited trials have taken place in Europe, but no European country has introduced a full pay-per-kilometre road pricing scheme. Several cities, including Manchester and Birmingham in the UK, have reportedly expressed an interest, and the British government has earmarked £200 million a year to support a city or region-wide pilot scheme.

Pay-as-you-go
Some see it as too politically sensitive an issue to ever get off the ground at a national level. But supporters, such as Wouter van Dieren, Dutch sustainability guru and chairman of the Institute for Environment and System Analysis (IMSA) in Amsterdam, see it as one of the most potent tools in the fight to reduce road congestion.

In the second of our three exclusive articles, Van Dieren outlines his vision of pay-as-you-go road pricing.

CO2 quota
“By the year 2020, I expect that you will be free to buy a car, but not to drive it. If everyone had the freedom to drive on the road whenever they wished, all traffic would come to a standstill. We cannot afford that. Instead, you will buy road capacity per kilometre on the market, according to a CO2 quota system,” he explains.

“Road capacity will be traded on the internet, with the price fluctuating according to demand. Not many private users will be able to afford to pay, say, one euro per kilometre; only those who can pass on the cost to their employer. Large transport companies will be able to pay the price, so their trucks will keep on driving.”

Transport sector
In fact, van Dieren sees road transport companies as key element of a future road pricing scheme. Road haulage companies can afford to pay a kilometre levy, he says, which they will be able to pass on to their customers via price increases. This in turn will encourage the companies to become more innovative in the services they offer and the way they provide them.

“Governments are already moving in this direction,” concludes van Dieren. “The rising costs give the transport sector the opportunity to intensify their focus on logistical management, and optimising road transport will become increasingly profitable.”