Urban Transport Strategy. Management in Developing Countries John A Cracknell, страница 83

ownership.  However, continued rapid growth of vehicle ownership led to a decision, in 1990, to introduce absolute limits on the number of vehicles which could be registered through a Vehicle Quota System[42].  The target was to reduce the annual increase in vehicles owned to three percent.  Prospective buyers of new vehicles have to bid for a

‘Certificate of Entitlement’ (COE) in a monthly tendering process within a predetermined supply of COE’s.  Depending on the category of vehicle, the premium has resulted in a premium of some 400% above c.i.f. car prices in most of the 1990’s.

9.10.3. The Vehicle Quota System has enabled Singapore to control its vehicle fleet but it must be regarded as a special case and generally it is doubtful if such restraints on vehicle ownership could be applied in most developing or developed countries for at least the following reasons: (i) political acceptability, (ii) as disposable income increases, pressure will arise for increased ownership (e.g. Korea), (iii) local vehicle manufacturing interests will impose pressure, (iv) Singapore is a single city/island and registering vehicles outside the city or transport in rural areas are not issues and (v) even with the Vehicle Quota System in operation and an excellent public transport system, congestion pricing in Singapore still forms part of the package.

9.10.4. There are other measures to restrain ownership, although at this stage they are likely to have a fringe effect on demand management, including:

a)  In parts of Japan, for example, it is necessary to prove that a parking space is available before a car can be purchased;

b)  In Europe, there are a number of "pilot" or small scale measures such as (i) in UK and some other countries, there are moves to sponsor inner city housing development, in which the purchasers of houses covenant not to own a car and arrangements are being made for ready access to rented vehicles on favourable term, (ii) community owned cars for sharing on a "needs" basis etc.  Such measures while interesting can make no short term impact on demand management in congested cities.

9.11       Pricing – demand management through congestion charging

9.11.1. Traffic congestion can be stated to result because of imperfect pricing of car use and thus congestion charging would appear to be the most rational means by which demand for vehicle journeys can be balanced with supply of road space.  Congestion road user charging would normally involve either:

a)  cordon charging in which vehicles pay a charge to enter a designated area or cross zonal boundaries within it; charges may vary by vehicle type, by time of day and day of week; or

b)  area charging in which vehicles pay a charge for keeping or driving a vehicle within the boundary of a charged area.

9.11.2. Schemes may comprise either cordon or area charging or a combination of the approaches.  At its simplest, schemes may be based on a requirement of drivers to purchase and display a paper permit or disc which is subject to manual checking and is likely to be enforced by stopping of illegal vehicles.  At its most sophisticated, a scheme

may be based on electronic charging (or recognition of valid paid permits) of free-flow traffic based on communication between a device in a vehicle and equipment on the roadside and may be priced by time as well as by location; in this case, follow-up of illegally operated vehicles requires a full and accessible vehicle licence-ownership data base which must be nation-wide.

9.11.3. In theory, electronic charging would allow vehicles to be charged on the basis of vehicle speed, time spent in a charged area, or distance travelled.  However, as far as is known, no schemes exist where charging is based on speed or time spent in the designated area. Speed related systems have been considered but they may encourage dangerous driving behaviour, such as speeding and rat running to minimise the charge to be paid.  There is also evidence of a strong driver preference for knowing in advance what the charge to be levied would be, as part of the process of deciding whether and how to make journeys.  Administration and enforcement of "speed related" or "time spent" schemes could also be more complicated.  Pure distance-based charging is not an option with the technology currently available (each individual vehicle would have to be tracked), but it would be possible to divide up an area into a number of small zones (each with a charged cordon) as a proxy.  This would also have the benefit of being able to capture orbital as well as radial journeys and journeys within the designated area.  It is noted that the Singapore ERP does allow charges to be geared to time of day and thus increased during peak periods[43].