Unlocking Toll Road Efficiency and Rational Pricing Options
Explore the challenges of toll road systems, the haphazard mix of funding and pricing, the role of toll roads and PPPs, and the need to redefine the current PPP model. Discover the objectives and principles for effective road pricing to optimize the network and balance private cars with public transport.
Download Presentation
Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.
You are allowed to download the files provided on this website for personal or commercial use, subject to the condition that they are used lawfully. All files are the property of their respective owners.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author.
E N D
Presentation Transcript
UNSCRAMBLING THE TOLL ROAD EGG HOW TOLL ROADS LOCKED IRRATIONAL PRICING AND OPTIONS FOR A MORE EFFECTIVE APPROACH
JOHN QUIGGIN AUSTRALIAN LAUREATE FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
ROADS: ONE OF OUR BIGGEST CAPITAL ASSETS Value of Australian road network estimated at $280 billion (Roads Australia) Annual expenditure around $50 billion (Commonwealth and state budgets) 250 billion vehicle/km travelled
HAPHAZARD MIX OF FUNDING AND PRICING Vehicle registration charges, unrelated to road use Fuel taxes, a mixture of resource rent tax, general consumption tax, road user charge Local government rates State and Commonwealth general revenue
TOLL ROADS AND PPPS Ad hoc deals to deliver new projects without addition to measured public debate BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) model Crucial role of demand risk
THE END OF THE PPP MODEL GFC Failures due to over-optimistic demand forecasts Last attempt (Legacy Way) failed to attract sufficient interest Return to public finance Is the model permanently broken? Asset recycling
OBJECTIVES FOR ROAD PRICING Cover costs, including return to capital, depreciation and maintenance Price of use should cover marginal costs, including congestion Need to optimise network as a whole, not individual roads Correct balance between private cars and public transport, and between road and rail
PRINCIPLES FOR ROAD PRICING Two part tariff: fixed registration charge and usage-based charge Network optimisation requires congestion pricing Supplemented by speed limits and physical controls on unpriced local roads
CURRENT POLICY HAS IT BACKWARDS Old congested roads are untolled New toll roads massively underused (around 50 per cent of projected usage in Brisbane) BOOT arrangements mean that, by the time roads are congested, tolls will be due for removal
UNSCRAMBLING THE EGG Comprehensive road pricing based on congestion Buyback or shadow tolling for underused toll roads Focus on better use of existing road network rather than construction of new roads
TECHNOLOGY GNSS road pricing Singapore model Privacy issues: need to be addressed systematically given ubiquity of cameras Implications of self-driving cars ?
FISCAL FEASIBILITY Revenue neutrality: user charge revenue can be used to reduce registration charges Government debt: this is good debt , Government bond rates at historic lows
POLITICAL FEASIBILITY The big question Long standing assumptions about political feasibility are no longer valid Labor has advocated raising taxes, still leads in opinion polls Donald Trump is President of the US If not now, when?
