Navigating the razor's edge: Public acceptance of climate policies and the case of transport pricing

Abstract

Transport pricing (TP) can be a helpful policy instrument for climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable mobility. Yet few cities have implemented TP. The main barriers include a lack of public and political acceptance, especially in regions with entrenched socio-technical systems and cultures of automobility. The dominance of automobility can be a reason for TP to be unacceptable to the public and politicians. Yet, policies for low-carbon mobility may ultimately fail if they are designed within automobility. This article considers this tension in transport-pricing policy design, as a subset of broader climate policies. How can public acceptance be secured for TP, both navigating within automobility to gain sufficient public uptake but also beyond automobility towards more transformative climate action? This paper examines the proposed TP policy for Vancouver, Canada. We summarize what has been found to support public and political acceptance of TP in other cities, and then particularly look at Oslo, Norway. Our findings suggest that TP policy-design that parts with an automobility regime—and rather is carried out within a low-carbon paradigm—may confront greater short-term challenges with public acceptance, but will better position such an innovative policy for success on the long-term.