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Voting on road congestion policy

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  • Russo, Antonio

Abstract

This paper studies the political economy of urban traffic policy. A city council and a regional government (representing city and suburbs) decide respectively on parking fees and a road toll. Both charges are below the optimum when median voters in city and suburbs prefer cars to public transport sufficiently more than the average. Even if the city government would set an optimal road toll, the regional government blocks it when the median suburban voter prefers cars strongly enough. Letting the city control parking and road pricing may therefore increase chances of adoption of the latter. However, if the city controls parking and the region road pricing, the combined charges are higher than if the city controlled them both. Hence, when voters want all charges below the optimum, the involvement of two governments may be desirable. We also find that earmarking road pricing revenues for public transport is welfare-enhancing, compared to lump-sum redistribution, only if they are topped up by extra funds granted to the city by a higher level of government.

Suggested Citation

  • Russo, Antonio, 2013. "Voting on road congestion policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 707-724.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:43:y:2013:i:5:p:707-724
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2013.05.003
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    Cited by:

    1. De Borger, Bruno, 2018. "Special issue “The political economy of transport decisions”," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 1-3.
    2. De Borger, Bruno & Russo, Antonio, 2017. "The political economy of pricing car access to downtown commercial districts," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 76-93.
    3. Bruno Borger & Stef Proost, 2016. "The political economy of pricing and capacity decisions for congestible local public goods in a federal state," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 934-959, October.
    4. De Borger, Bruno & Russo, Antonio, 2018. "The political economy of cordon tolls," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 133-148.
    5. Jesper de Groote & Jos van Ommeren & Hans R.A. Koster, 2017. "The Impact of Parking Policy on House Prices," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-037/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. De Donder, Philippe, 2010. "Majority Voting and the Single Crossing Property when Voters Belong to Separate Groupes The Role of the Continuity and Strict Monotonicity Assumptions," IDEI Working Papers 693, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Jan 2012.
    7. Westin, Jonas & Franklin, Joel P. & Proost, Stef & Basck, Pierre & Raux, Charles, 2016. "Achieving political acceptability for new transport infrastructure in congested urban regions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 286-303.
    8. De Borger, Bruno & Proost, Stef, 2016. "Can we leave road pricing to the regions? -The role of institutional constraints," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 208-222.
    9. Maas, Alexander & Watson, Philip, 2018. "Enthusiasm curbed: Home value implications of curbside parking rights," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 705-711.
    10. Feder, Christophe, 2018. "Decentralization and spillovers: A new role for transportation infrastructure," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 36-47.
    11. Ren, Tao & Huang, Hai-Jun, 2020. "A competitive system with transit and highway: Revisiting the political feasibility of road pricing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 42-56.
    12. De Borger, Bruno & Proost, Stef, 2012. "Transport policy competition between governments: A selective survey of the literature," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 35-48.
    13. Arnott, Richard & Inci, Eren & Rowse, John, 2015. "Downtown curbside parking capacity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 83-97.
    14. Boggio, Margherita & Beria, Paolo, 2019. "The role of transport supply in the acceptability of pollution charge extension. The case of Milan," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 92-106.
    15. Fabusuyi, Tayo & Hampshire, Robert C., 2018. "Rethinking performance based parking pricing: A case study of SFpark," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 90-101.
    16. Inci, Eren, 2015. "A review of the economics of parking," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 50-63.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Road pricing; Parking charges; Majority voting; Multiple governments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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