This book presents the results of the study "Infrastructure Capital, Maintenance and Road Damage Costs for Different Heavy Goods Vehicles in the EU" which was commissioned by the European Commission, DG VII. This study supported the preparation of the white book on transport infrastructure charging. The study an European consortium consisting of DIW (German has been conducted by Institute for Economic Research, project leader and responsible for the country reports for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden), INFRAS (responsible for the country reports for Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal and Greece), Consultancy Dr. Herry (responsible for the country reports for Austria, Finland, France and Italy) and NERA (National Economic Research Associates, responsible for the country reports for the UK, Ireland and Spain). The project ran from November 1997 to March 1998 and was monitored by a steering committee with representatives of the EU-member states. This book is dealing with the calculation of costs for road infrastructure and congestion and the allocation of these costs to vehicle types. It focuses on heavy goods vehicles. This is a topic of high relevance for transport policy both on the national and the EU-Ievel with a long tradition of political and scientific debate. The study contains a comprehensive methodological comparison of existing models for calculating road capital values and capital costs and for allocating infrastructure costs to vehicle types.

This report summarises the theoretical and practical dimensions to internalisation; reviews recent estimates of external costs; explores the mix of policies that might be used to promote internalisation successfully; and estimates the size of incentives required in monetary terms.

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.

Offers policy-oriented, research-based recommendations for effectively managing traffic and cutting excess congestion in large urban areas.

"The Court audited a sample of EU co-financed road projects in Germany, Greece, Poland, and Spain. The audit found that, although the projects increased security of travellers and reduced travelling time, some roads were built larger and over complex than were the actual traffic requirements. Significant cost differences exist between countries audited. The Court recommends analysing the causes of the cost differences and more realistic planning for future road projects."--Page [4] of cover.

TRB Conference Proceedings 34: International Perspectives on Road Pricing is the proceedings of the International Symposium on Road Pricing held on November 19-22, 2003, in Key Biscayne, Florida. The event was a collaborative effort of TRB, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the federal Highway Administration. The report includes two commissioned resource papers that examine the evolution of congestion pricing and the state of the practice in road pricing outside the United States. The proceedings also explore pricing successes and the challenges that have accompanied specific projects' implementation, as well as the potential evolution of road pricing in the future.

Europe has a wealth of experience with motorway concessions and the issues associated with concession contracts and other infrastructure funding systems, toll charges and other parts to remuneration, and risk sharing between concession authorities and concession companies.

The automotive industry is a major pillar of the modern global economy and one of Europe’s key industries. There can hardly be any doubt about the important role of this sector as an engine for employment, growth and innovation in Europe, and there are crucial challenges and opportunities ahead. The authors shed light on a broad range of issues – globalisation and restructuring, trade and foreign direct investment, innovation, regulation, and industry policy – and put a special focus on the new member states. While change may be inevitable, progress is not. This book shall serve as a map to all stakeholders: business executives and policy makers, investors and scholars.

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.

Charging for the use of transport infrastructure has very different traditions in the various modes, reflecting the different nature of their infrastructure (nodal vs. linear), but also different historical traditions of open access, system integration, etc.Since the early 90's various European Commission initiatives took on this issue, looking mainly at the road sector, where many countries had no (direct) access charges. Heavy goods vehicles were systematically identified as the primary targets for a renewed approach to this problem.What seemed an easy catch has proved to be much harder, with the various countries adopting almost exclusively national approaches, and the European institutions unable to drive the process.This book looks at the challenges posed by this objective, recognising that there are multiple objectives for application of road tolls and charges, and discussing the various possible solutions, in the technical, institutional and legal dimensions. The multiplicity of national situations in Europe is put in perspective, the impacts of various charging schemes on regional development and on the environment are estimated, and the recent policy process is analysed, allowing a global view of the remaining difficulties and to make recommendations about the next steps in the process.