Road pricing can solve traffic woes: Expert

By T. Sima Gunawan

ISTANBUL, Turkey (JP): Road pricing, if managed in the right way, can solve the traffic woes of the world's metropolitan cities -- including those of Jakarta -- a United Nations official said yesterday.

But revenues generated from road pricing should be reinvested in maintenance and improvement of infrastructures, Brian Williams of the UN Conference on Human Settlements said during a dialog titled "Transport in the City of Tomorrow".

In urban areas with heavy traffic congestion, land pricing -- a user charge levied at the local level -- offers one solution, since it promotes travel demand management, he argued.

The dialog is part of the ongoing UN Conference on Human Settlements or Habitat II, which began on June 3 and lasts until June 14.

Road pricing "encourages that a socially efficient number of trips be undertaken and raises revenue to finance roadway and transport expansion to an efficient level," he said.

The scheme would lead to viable loan financing and the voluntary participation of the private sector.

The imposition of toll fees is one example of a road pricing scheme.

The world's major urban centers waste billions of dollars annually on the costs of traffic congestion.

According to The Urban Environment published for Habitat II, the cost in Jakarta reaches $68 million a year. This is a modest sum compared to $293 million estimated for Hong Kong, $272 million for Bangkok, $305 million for Singapore and $154 million for Seoul. The figures are even more exorbitant for large American cities: between $35 billion and $48 billion a year.

Other statistics said the U.S. loses roughly 2 percent of its gross national product to congestion while the United Kingdom loses about 5 percent.

Williams said parking fees and gasoline tax revenues should be used to contribute towards the cost of road maintenance, public transport operation and the control of harmful externalities such as pollution, road damage and traffic accidents.

"Traffic policy must avoid becoming simply measures that increase the income of the state. The objective should be to develop a cost-recovery mechanism for each mode of transport and at the most accurate levels," he said.

Public transit fares should be set to cover the incremental costs of their operation, he said. Fares should be differentiated between peak and off-peak hours as well as related distances. For the poor, subsidies should be provided, he said.

William predicted that in the next century, people who live in cities with more than 10 million will likely make three times more daily trips than they made in the 1980s.

"Clearly, these travel patterns are not sustainable unless fundamental rethinking is done on how to meet people's travel needs, focusing on accessibility to urban services such as schools, hospitals and shopping areas," he said.

"Traffic improvement schemes should be made with the notion of moving people rather than merely moving vehicles, thus making use of the most efficient form of transport in any given situation," he said.