Summary:

Congestion, pollution and related problems have long been associated with road transport. The first section of this paper takes a look at these issues, particularly the costs of congestion and the failure of current policy to curb these costs.

Similarly, road pricing and private sector involvement are not entirely new concepts in transport policy. The second section looks at why they may, however, be underutilised. This section looks at experience with both road pricing and private operators, examining the benefits and costs of each.
One concept that is relatively new in transport policy, at least in the sense that is is now firmly on the political agenda, is national road pricing. Numerous countries are looking at a system of pricing for their surface transportation infrastructure. The final section looks at the costs and benefits of national schemes with the intention of finding an optimal system for sensible road pricing.

URL: http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-book427pdf?.pdf