Achieving political acceptability for new transport infrastructure in congested urban regions

• Published in: Transportation research. Part A, Policy and practice Vol. 88; pp. 286 - 303
• Main Authors: Westin, Jonas, Franklin, Joel P., Proost, Stef, Basck, Pierre, Raux, Charles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2016
• Subjects: Acceptability; Acceptability of transport pricing; Economics; Illustrations; Infrastructure; Mathematical models; nationalekonomi; Policies; Political economy of road pricing; Pricing; Road tolls; Roads; Transport; Transport infrastructure; User charges; Welfare effects; User charges; Political economy of road pricing; Welfare effects; Acceptability of transport pricing; Road tolls; Transport infrastructure
• ISSN: 0965-8564; 1879-2375; 1879-2375
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2016.04.009

•Analyzing political acceptability of road pricing using model of political process.•Low political support for efficient pricing not explained by lack of acceptability.•Conflicting interests make non-efficient policies more attractive to policy makers.•To get support for efficient road pricing more focus on political process is needed.
This paper analyzes the efficiency and political acceptability of road pricing and infrastructure policies targeted at relieving urban congestion. It combines a stylized transport model of an urban road network with a model of the political process that incorporates interactions between voters, citizen interest groups and politicians to explore the possibilities to reach political acceptability for efficient transport policies. In a numerical illustration, the paper compares a set of pricing and investment policies in terms of efficiency and acceptability. The illustration shows how conflicting interests can lead to non-efficient policies being chosen.