Transport is very important for the economy and our welfare. However, transport also causes a lot of problems, including air pollution. Such problems should be taken into account, when making decisions. A prerequisite for doing so is, that the impacts are known, quantitatively measured and allocated to the different activities in transport. Furthermore, they should be transformed into monetary units to be used as a basis for cost-benefit analyses or as an aid for setting taxes and charges, that reflect the external costs. This book describes a methodology for calculating impacts of transport activities and external costs caused by air pollution and presents numerous applications of this methodology for different transport technologies, locations and policy case studies. The approach has been developed and results have been calculated within the research project 'ExternE Core/Transport', financed to a large extent by the European Commission, Directorate General Research. We would like to thank especially Pierre Vallette and Pekka Jarviletho from the EC for their advice and support. A considerable number of experts with expertise in the different disciplines of this highly interdisciplinary work contributed to this book. The editors would like to thank the authors (see list on p. XV) for their contributions; it is especially remarkable, that the authors helped to make this book an integrated whole instead of a number of independent contributions.

Many transport economists have for some time proposed marginal social cost as the principle on which prices in the transport sector should be based and, in recent years, their prescription has come to be taken more and more seriously by policy-makers. However, in order to properly test the possible implications of implementing pricing based on marginal social cost and, ultimately, to introduce such a system, it is necessary to actually measure the marginal social costs concerned, and how they vary according to mode, time and context. This book reviews the transport pricing policy debate and reports on the significant advances made in measuring the marginal social costs of transport, particularly through UNITE and other European research projects. We look in turn at infrastructure, operating costs, user costs (both of congestion and of charges in frequency of scheduled transport services) accidents and environmental costs, and how these estimates have been used to examine the impact of marginal cost pricing in transport. We finish by examining how the results of case studies might be generalised to obtain estimates of marginal social costs for all circumstances and, finally, presenting our conclusions.

Modern transportation systems have far-reaching, and serious consequences: deaths and injuries from accidents, pollution of air, water and groundwater, noise congestion, and the greenhouse effect. As world transport systems expand and become increasingly motorised, the transportation community is searching for systems that are both efficient and sustainable. Here, leading international researchers explore the issues and concepts and define the state of knowledge concerning the full costs and benefits of transportation.

Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.

An in-depth assessment of the most recent conceptual and methodological developments in cost-benefit analysis and the environment.

As a lawyer who has for many years been working on the interface between law and economics, I have observed with impatience the increasing divergence between academic economics and governmental policy-making. Too often economists are too obsessed with the mathematical modelling of their ideas and insufficiently concerned with the applications. This book constitutes a major and refreshing exception to that trend. Dieter Schmidtchen and his colleagues at Saarbrücken have addressed some issues of European transport policy by re-examining the fundamental ideas on which current analysis appears to be based and finding them wanting because they take too narrow a view on the options available. From the foreword by Anthony Ogus, University of Manchester, UK An excellent and comprehensive book of both theory and application for the Cheapest Cost Avoider principle (CCAP), being better for the society s welfare than the commonly applied Polluters Pay Principle for dealing with transport external impacts. It is easily readable although scientifically rigorous with useful examples. The relation to the European Transport Policy is quite valuable. The book deserves a prominent place in the literature of applied transport economics, and I highly recommend it for students following these disciplines. Dimitrios A. Tsamboulas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece This book discusses for the first time the relevance of the economic analysis of law for transport policy. The difference between applying the polluter-pays-principle and Calabresi s notion of the cheapest cost avoider are clearly explained and distributional consequences are also considered. Moreover, in addition to a brilliant economic analysis, the book also discusses important cases and the consequences of their analysis for European transport policy. It is a must-read for anyone interested either in law and economics generally or transport policy in particular. Michael Faure, Maastricht University and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands This book discusses a paradigm shift for dealing with the internalization of external costs in transport. Crucial to the analysis is the insight that the polluters are not the only cost drivers; both pollutees and the state can also contribute to reducing social costs. The authors show that applying the Cheapest Cost Avoider Principle (CCAP) instead of the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) can lead to substantial welfare improvements. This book develops the foundations for the CCAP, which is shown to be superior to the PPP, both methodologically and practically, in identifying the most appropriate policy for dealing with external effects in transport. The PPP neglects the fact that external costs are jointly caused by all involved parties and that the externality problem is of a reciprocal nature: to avoid harm to a pollutee necessarily inflicts harm on the polluter. The real problem for welfare maximization addressed by the CCAP is to avoid the most serious harm. The CCAP guarantees efficiency, fair competition and equity. Its use of some form of cost benefit analysis also helps to avoid regulatory failure. The CCAP incorporates polluter pays as one possible outcome; however, this is not a foregone conclusion. Two case studies showing that the methodology of the CCAP can be applied in practice and a critical assessment of the European greening transport policy complete this volume. Discussing the relevance of the economic analysis of law for transport policy, this book will appeal to academics in the fields of law and economics, environmental policy and regulatory impact assessment, and European transport policy. Policymakers and civil servants concerned with transport policy, environmental policy and regulatory impact assessment will also find this book valuable.

Evidence has come to light regarding the impact of benzene emissions from road transport, the incidence of asthmatic attacks and the possible toll of particulate matter from diesel engines on human health. This book examines the issues and argues that, without a fundamental change in policy, it is inevitable that the transport sector will continue to impose increasing costs on the natural environment, human health and the economy. It also quantifies the external costs of road transport and suggests new measures, such as road pricing and financial incentives, to pave the way to a sustainable transport system.

Economic growth and globalisation create traffic growth, leading to congestion, which again increases travel times and costs. Road pricing is an instrument that may efficiently reduce the negative impacts. This volume is a collection of research papers on the use of road pricing. The focus is on passenger transport, and the papers cover a wide range of approaches, including theoretical modelling and empirical studies of road pricing experience from different cities.