Pros And Cons Of Road Pricing

Road pricing generates revenue

When purchasing a new vehicle there are certain costs you will encounter, you will need to register the vehicle in your name, get a roadworthiness certificate and many other such costs. This is a means of generating revenue that could be used to improve certain parts of the transport system such as the building of new roads or expansion of existing roads. Fees charged for negligent driving behavior such as not wearing a seatbelt or speaking on a cellphone not only increase the revenue generated but also demotivate drivers from being in situations that may cause accidents. Revenues generated could also be used to provide much needed awareness on safety on roads and added assistance in the form of employing more safety officials at road blocks.

Road pricing can solve congestion

Congestion pricing or placing a fee for the use of roads that could be highly congested is also a means of generating revenue and can be an effective measure to reduce congestion in areas prone to high congestion levels (Maria Borjesson, Jonas Eliasson, Muriel Hugosson and Karin Brundel-Freij 2012). Congestion pricing can also attempt to make other transport options such as public transport more appealing to road users as it would be expensive to operate your own vehicle rather than to make use of public transport. By doing so, air pollution could also be decreased as there are less vehicles on the roads. Many users will be discouraged to use certain roads as they need to pay to use them, and may find alternative routes or change the times at which they usually travel. This decreases congestion and the roads will be used for longer periods of time and will not be only focused at specific intervals resulting in high congestion...

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...ssageway for emergency vehicles as they cannot pass to reach victims in time. This has a negative impact on the economy as it may lead to death resulting in a decrease of the population size.

-There could be increased chances of accidents/collisions which could have been prevented if the traffic stream was managed. This happens as drivers try to squeeze themselves into tight spots so as to move along and try not to get stuck in traffic.

However there are not only negatives associated with traffic congestion for the economy, below follows a list of positives:

-When roads are congested drivers are forced to drive slowly, this reduces the amount of accidents that are likely to occur.

-Most users usually re-time their trips so as to avoid the peak hours of when some roads are congested. This is positive as the road is now used for an increased amount of hours per day