Road user charging and implications for transport policy: Findings from the CURACAO project

Abstract

This paper reports on the outcomes of a European project, CURACAO, designed to support the implementation of urban road user charging (URUC) as a demand management tool in urban areas. The project did this through engagement with a User Group of cities interested in pursuing URUC to identify the barriers preventing them from doing so. The project reviewed the complete process of setting up a URUC scheme from the setting of objectives, through to scheme design, predicting impacts, achieving acceptability and the implementation process and presented its findings in a State of the Art Report and a Case Studies Report. The State of the Art Report provides evidence collated from research and practice to address a series of 14 themes identified by the User Group, including objectives; scheme design; technology; business systems; prediction; traffic, environmental, economic and equity impacts; appraisal; acceptability; transferability; implementation; and evaluation. The Case Study Report reviewed 16 proposed or implemented schemes in Europe, focusing on pricing objectives, scheme design, the implementation process and scheme results. On this basis, the CURACAO Consortium developed a list of policy recommendations aimed at cities and regional authorities, national governments, and the European Commission. The paper summarises the main findings of the State of the Art Report and the case studies. On this basis, it outlines the policy recommendations which were drawn, and identifies future research needs