Road pricing in the European Union: direct revenue transfer between countries

Abstract

In 2011 the ‘Eurovignette’ directive on distance-based road pricing in Europe was finally passed by the European Parliament and the European Council. It will bring benefits to the environment and contribute towards financing the cost of maintaining road infrastructure, but wider effects are also expected. This study measures the transfer of revenue derived from the introduction of the Eurovignette directive using an OD trucks matrix and a Geographic Information System (GIS). A revenue transfer matrix is obtained reflecting the cost of the toll fees paid and collected by each country for the use of both its own roads and those of the other countries. From this matrix it is possible to know which countries will have positive or negative balances between revenue and payments as a consequence of introducing a common road pricing policy. The results obtained demonstrate that this revenue transfer between European countries will be highly asymmetrical, with a clear trend towards positive balances for central countries and negative balances for peripheral ones.