CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Marukha, Iuliia |
|---|---|
| Title | Is It Time to Implement Road Charges in Budapest? Early Mover Risks and Advantages in Fighting Urban Congestion |
| Summary | Urban roads are experiencing increasing traffic volumes in many cities around the globe. Increasing traffic volumes not only cause time and speed losses, they cause a wide range of motor vehicle externalities. Namely, dangerous air pollution which affects health of the population, emission of greenhouses gasses, soil and water contamination, noise pollution, ecosystem fragmentation. A considerable research has been conducted on the mechanism of road pricing, aimed to regulate demand on urban road space. This study firstly aims to understand why – despite its evident economic and environmental benefits – this mechanism has mostly developed in theory. This will be complemented with the analysis of the other possible mechanism to tackle congestion. Next, a case study research of the application of this mechanism in the EU will be conducted. It is suggested that Budapest could became the next European capital to implement a road pricing mechanism. Prerequisites required for this are strong political will and effective stakeholder collaboration. There are valuable lessons from London and Stockholm cases to take into consideration when developing the Budapest scheme. However, it is also argued that prior the implementation, a comprehensive traffic monitoring system should be established. Subsequently, this will develop evidence and feasibility of the scheme. It appears that public acceptance raises when discourse concentrates around the health and environmental benefits, rather than technical infrastructure improvements. This paper analyses options for road charging schemes and suggests implementation of the dynamic elements to the model. This approach hasn’t yet been implemented in any urban area, but it can overcome drawbacks of the fixed pricing schemes. |
| Supervisor | Illés, Zoltán |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/marukha_iuliia.pdf |
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