Editing Transport economics (section)

=== Pollution pricing ===
{{main|Pollution pricing}}
[[File:Energy Efficiency of different Transport Modes.png|thumb|Energy Efficiency of different Transport Modes]]
From 2008 to 2011, [[Milan]] had a traffic charge scheme, [[Ecopass]], that exempted higher emission standard vehicles ([[Euro IV]]) and other [[alternative fuel vehicle]]s<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/automobiles/27GREEN.html  | title=Toll Discounts for Going Green  | author = Ken Belson | date=27 January 2008 | newspaper =The New York Times  | access-date=2008-01-27}}</ref><ref>.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7167992.stm  | title=Milan introduces traffic charge  | date=2 March 2008 | work = BBC News | access-date=2008-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.nysun.com/article/68854 | title = Milan Introduces Congestion Charge To Cut Pollution | author = Marco Bertacche | date = 3 January 2008 | newspaper = The New York Sun | access-date = 2008-01-17 | archive-date = 31 August 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200831015107/https://www.nysun.com/foreign/milan-introduces-congestion-charge-to-cut/68854/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> This was later replaced by a more conventional [[congestion pricing]] scheme, [[Milan Area C|Area C]].

Even the transport economists who advocate congestion pricing have anticipated several practical limitations, concerns and controversial issues regarding the actual implementation of this policy. As summarized by noted regional planner [[Robert Cervero]]:<ref>{{Cite book | last = Cervero | first = Robert | author-link=Robert Cervero|year = 1998 | title = The Transit Metropolis | publisher = Island Press, Washington, D.C. | isbn = 1-55963-591-6  <!--"Setting the prices right"-->| pages = 67–68}}</ref> "True social-cost pricing of metropolitan travel has proven to be a theoretical ideal that so far has eluded real-world implementation. The primary obstacle is that except for professors of transportation economics and a cadre of vocal environmentalists, few people are in favor of considerably higher charges for peak-period travel. Middle-class motorists often complain they already pay too much in gasoline taxes and registration fees to drive their cars, and that to pay more during congested periods would add insult to injury. In the United States, few politicians are willing to champion the cause of congestion pricing in fear of reprisal from their constituents... Critics also argue that charging more to drive is elitist policy, pricing the poor off of roads so that the wealthy can move about unencumbered. It is for all these reasons that peak-period pricing remains a pipe dream in the minds of many."

==== Road space rationing ====
{{main|Road space rationing}}
[[File:Traffic jam Sao Paulo 09 2006 30.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Traffic congestion persists in [[São Paulo]], [[Brazil]], despite no-drive days based on license numbers.]]

Transport economists consider [[road space rationing]] an alternative to congestion pricing, but road space rationing is considered more equitable, as the restrictions force all drivers to reduce auto travel, while congestion pricing restrains less those who can afford paying the congestion charge. Nevertheless, high-income users can avoid the restrictions by owning a second car.<ref>{{cite web |author= |title=Vehicle Restrictions. Limiting Automobile Travel at Certain Times and Places |url=http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm33.htm |access-date=2008-04-09 |website=Victoria Transport Policy Institute |publisher=TDM Encyclopedia}} See Equity Impacts section</ref> Moreover, congestion pricing (unlike rationing) acts "to allocate a scarce resource to its most valuable use, as evinced by users' willingness to pay for the resource". While some "opponents of congestion pricing fear that tolled roads will be used only by people with high income. But preliminary evidence suggests that the new toll lanes in California are used by people of all income groups. The ability to get somewhere fast and reliably is valued in a variety of circumstances. Not everyone will need or want to incur a toll on a daily basis, but on occasions when getting somewhere quickly is necessary, the option of paying to save time is valuable to people at all income levels." Road space rationing based on license numbers has been implemented in cities such as [[Athens]] (1982),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leda.ils.nrw.de/database/measures/meas0205.htm|title=LEDA Measure: License plate based traffic restrictions, Athens, Greece|publisher=LEDA database|access-date=2008-04-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227030125/http://www.leda.ils.nrw.de/database/measures/meas0205.htm|archive-date=27 February 2008|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[México City]] (1989), [[São Paulo]] (1997), [[Santiago de Chile|Santiago]], [[Chile]], [[Bogotá]], [[Colombia]], La Paz (2003),<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.boliviahoy.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3150 | title=Los choferes públicos acataron la restricción | date=7 January 2003 | newspaper=La Prensa | access-date=2008-04-09 | language=es | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213053528/http://www.boliviahoy.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3150 | archive-date=13 December 2006 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> [[Bolivia]], and [[San José de Costa Rica|San José]] (2005),<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2005/agosto/03/pais0.html | archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160515152117/http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2005/agosto/03/pais0.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=15 May 2016 | title=Hoy empieza restricción para autos en centro de San José | author=Ángela Ávalos | date=3 August 2005 | newspaper=La Nación | access-date=2008-04-08 | language=es }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/abril/12/pais2.html | title=Evaluarán restricción vehicular en capital | author=Mercedes Agüero | date=12 April 2006 | newspaper=La Nación | access-date=2008-04-08 | language=es | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919101624/http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/abril/12/pais2.html | archive-date=19 September 2008 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> [[Costa Rica]].

==== Tradable mobility credits ====
A more acceptable policy on automobile travel restrictions, proposed by transport economists<ref>{{Cite web | author = Verhoef E, [[Peter Nijkamp|Nijkamp P]], Rietveld P | url = http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=b240527 | year = 1997 | title = Tradeable permits: their potential in the regulation of road transport externalities | publisher = Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 24(4) 527–548 |access-date=2008-04-11  }}</ref> to avoid inequality and revenue allocation issues, is to implement a [[rationing]] of peak period travel but through revenue-neutral credit-based congestion pricing. This concept is similar to the existing system of [[emissions trading]] of [[carbon credit]]s, proposed by the [[Kyoto Protocol]] to curb [[greenhouse emissions]]. Metropolitan area or city residents, or the taxpayers, will have the option to use the local government-issued mobility rights or congestion credits for themselves, or to trade or sell them to anyone willing to continue traveling by automobile beyond the personal quota. This trading system will allow direct benefits to be accrued by those users shifting to public transportation or by those reducing their peak-hour travel rather than the government.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/S0967-070X(01)00024-5     |title=Making urban road pricing acceptable and effective: Searching for quality and equity in urban mobility |year=2001 |last1=Viegas |first1=José M. |journal=Transport Policy |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=289–294 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.tra.2005.02.014     |title=Credit-based congestion pricing: A policy proposal and the public's response |year=2005 |last1=Kockelman |first1=Kara M. |last2=Kalmanje |first2=Sukumar |journal=Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice |volume=39 |issue=7–9 |pages=671–690 |bibcode=2005TRPA...39..671K }}</ref>