Developing guidance and advice to address the social and distributional impacts of road pricing

Developing guidance and advice to address the social and distributional impacts of road pricing

Congestion is a growing problem which has costs to the economy and causes delay and frustration for motorists. This is why the Government has called for a national debate on road pricing and the potential role it could play in helping to tackle congestion. In the first instance it is working with interested local authorities to bring forward local road pricing schemes as part of packages of measures to tackle local congestion problems. These packages will be eligible for funding through the Transport Innovation Fund.

It has always been the intention that potential road pricing schemes should promote social inclusion and accessibility. To help meet this objective and to ensure the social impacts of potential schemes are measured and taken into account, the Department has issued guidance to local authorities considering such schemes.  

That guidance is summarised here. It takes account of an evidence review by the University of West of England. This review is published alongside the summary and it is just one part of the Department's continuing work to build up a better understanding of the way road pricing might work. 

The review is of previously published UK and international research.  It shows that the relevance of the findings for any particular area or scheme is dependent on local circumstances. It concludes that further work is needed to understand how different road pricing schemes could affect particular groups in society. 

With this in mind, the Department has asked those local authorities that are considering road pricing schemes and are in receipt of Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) funding to conduct detailed assessments. These should be done at the design stage to ensure that if a suggested road pricing scheme is implemented, it is fair to all road users

Report one: overview of guidance (91 kb)

A summary of the technical guidance for local authorities receiving TIF funding and who were considering the introduction of a local road pricing scheme.

Published:

14 June 2007

Report two: REA - understanding the social and distributional impacts of road pricing

Rapid evidence assessment (REA) of the Social and Distributional Impacts of Road Pricing (report two), by the Centre for Transport Studies at the University of the West of England, for the Department for Transport (DfT).

Published:

14 June 2007