From urban congestion pricing to tradable mobility credits: A review

Abstract

Congestion is still a big challenge for urban mobility while vehicle sharing, eCommerce and autonomous vehicles will likely increase the unit veh-km of each vehicle and the density of vehicles moving on the streets. Urban vehicle congestion pricing schemes have been taken as effective solutions to this problem. This paper first reviews the research and application cases of urban congestion pricing through recent years, although with the well-developed theoretical basis and successful practices in Singapore, London, Stockholm, Milan, etc., public acceptance and equity concerns are still the main issues for such policies’ implementation. To circumvent the shortcomings of congestion pricing, a scheme of tradable mobility credits is proposed as an alternative. As travellers are distributed mobility credits within a specific urban area, which are allowed to be traded, those with low vehicle-using demands can sell their credits to those with more demands. Therefore with this scheme, people have the initiative to reduce the use of vehicles. This paper reviews the studies on this new urban mobility management strategy and compared it with ordinary congestion pricing schemes. Finally, we conclude the gap and possible directions for future works.