Measuring the Acceptability of Interurban Road Pricing Among Different Groups of Stakeholders. The Case of Spain

Abstract

The European Commission is seeking ways to promote both the harmonization of transport policies among its constituent members and the homogenization of transport market conditions. The main goal is to insure that each transport mode pays for the true social and economic costs produced by it: transport taxes and prices should vary according to infrastructure damage, degree of congestion, risk of accidents and the expenses they cause, and environmental nuisances and damage. However, it is difficult to modify the present national systems in favor of a European-wide one, because every country has different perceptions of the need and reasons to implement such a European-wide system. Spain, like other EU countries, is considering the European transport policy and the related regulations which are intended to homogenize the present fragmented road pricing schemes. In Spain, different groups of road stakeholders (road freight and passengers’ operators, highway concessionaires, and associations of private car users) have experience with toll roads dating back to the 1960s. But a recent study of transport pricing, the Spanish Road Pricing Model (META), had as one of its aims the capture of different degrees of acceptance of a generalized road pricing system, and demonstrated that these stakeholders are still not willing to fully pay for the external costs (environmental and road safety costs) of the road network. The low approval rates raises questions about the most effective way for Spanish governmental bodies, those that are administratively responsible, to introduce a generalized tolling scheme.