Ex ante economic assessment of various road pricing schemes

The study shows that combating congestion would benefit most from a combination of constructing extra road capacity in places where it is not too expensive to do so and specific charges at busy locations where road construction would be very expensive. Construction is expensive in places where natural barriers have to be overcome and in urban areas where there is a shortage of space and where the costs of good air quality are high. Specific charges, levied on no more than 5% of all kilometres driven, could produce results in such cases, but would need to be designed carefully. In contrast, fixed charges for every kilometre driven in the Netherlands would appear to be less efficient.