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Title:

Vehicle Restrictions in Four Latin American Cities: Is Congestion Pricing Possible?

Accession Number:

01090940

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

We present an exploratory study of the prospects for congestion pricing in four Latin American metropolitan areas where traffic bans currently exist—Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Bogotá. Through a historical analysis of the implementation process and experience of the traffic bans, along with a snowball-sampled survey of transportation experts in each city, we find that three factors are most important to ensure favorable prospects for implementing congestion pricing in these cities—(1) widespread public information regarding the environmental and health risks of traffic congestion and resulting air pollution; (2) implementation of complementary policies such as public transport enhancements and increased parking fees in congested areas; and (3) development of a knowledge culture among politicians and experts through discourse on alternative road pricing policies based on systematic analysis. Among other pertinent issues discussed, our work shows that the equity concerns for low-income car drivers often cited in discussions on congestion pricing in developed countries are less applicable in the cases we studied. A key concern is the lack of political will because it is people with relatively higher incomes and political influence who predominantly own and use cars in these four cities. Our findings, though exploratory, are important because the potential of congestion pricing to manage the rapid pace of motorization in the developing world is not well studied. This paper presents an initial step towards studying the implementation of the policy in developing countries.

Monograph Accession #:

01084478

Report/Paper Numbers:

08-2717

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Mahendra, Anjali
Gakenheimer, Ralph

Pagination:

20p

Publication Date:

2008

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2008-1-13 to 2008-1-17
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

DVD

Features:

Figures (1) ; References (37) ; Tables (2)

Subject Areas:

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2008 Paper #08-2717

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Jan 29 2008 5:10PM