Comparisons of different implementation procedures of road pricing schemes in two European countries

This paper is based upon detailed research that has taken place on the implementation strategies for city road user charging (RUC) in the UK and Italy. In the UK, both in London and Durham, the RUC schemes required new legislation, and were implemented rapidly. The time from announcement to implementation took three years and the schemes were introduced after short periods of intensive planning, consultations and stakeholder networking. In Italy, the situation has been very different. The current road pricing schemes in Rome and Genoa were not introduced under specific legislation but rather evolved from access control zones originally implemented in historic urban centres. The incremental introduction of the Italian road pricing experiments took around ten years. This paper undertakes a comparison of these different strategies to introduce city road user charging and the lessons they contain for the development of similar measures elsewhere. The comparison of the different implementing experiences is undertaken using Strategic Policy Niche Management, a recent method designed to explore, among other factors, the dynamics of the stakeholder networks involved in planning, introducing, marketing and managing radical urban Travel Demand Management policies.