Source: Source: New Zealand Transport Agency
Introduction
Road user charge is a wide term encompassing all types of payments by road users which can be related to:
- fuel: fuel tax, levies
- the vehicle: registration, licences, taxes, vignette
- usage: tolls, parking charges
- regulation enforcement: fines, e.g. for overweight vehicles
- available road capacity: road pricing, congestion charging
An overview of types of road user charges including an assessment of some of their characteristics according to Heggie and Vickers can be found here.
Two approaches, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, can be applied for road user charges: a) they can be used primarily as source of revenue to be used for road investment; b) they can be used as tool for managing demand and internalising external costs.
Read more in the gTKP Finance & Economics Topic Information Sheet on User Charges.
Resources:
- Document: ASECAP, the European association of tolled infrastructure operators, keeps an overview of tolled infrastructure within its membership area, including legal frameworks and financing background information. Their latest update in Englisha and French is from 2007 and can be accessed here: Tolled Infrastructures within ASECAP/Les infrastructures à péage au sein de l'ASECAP, Brussels, 2007.
- Document: Queiroz, C., Rdzanowska, B., Garbarczyk, R. and Audigé, M., Road User Charges: Current Practice and Perspectives in Central and Eastern Europe, Transport Paper No 23, World Bank, November 2008. This World Bank paper provides an overview of the application of road user charges, including tolls, in Central and Eastern Europe. It highlights important developments in tolling technologies as well.
For more detailed information about Road Pricing and Congestion Charging, please be referred to the Road Pricing and Congestion Charging page elsewhere on the gTKP-website.