The political economy constraints on deployement of a large scale electronic 'hor roadway': a US example

Abstract

Many transport economists have expressed support for the use of charging as a mechanism for rationing scarce road space, for indicating where additional capacity is needed, and for generating revenues for road investment. Since the work of Vickrey in the US and Walters in the UK in the 1960s most of the focus has been on the imposition of 'Road Pricing' in urban areas. The interest in the recently introduced charges in central London is a reflection of this. This study is concerned with the emerging problems found on many longer distance roads. In theory, these should be open to the same economic approaches as their urban counter-parts. In practice, the reality of the political economy is that there are often a variety of institutional barriers that impede the introduction of economic based charges. The paper looks at some of these in the context of a particular route in the US where there appears to be sufficient demand to initiate more rational, if not economically ideal, charging structures. (A)