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International Best Practices for Congestion Charge and Low Emissions Zone 能源基金会（美国）北京办事处 Energy Foundation - Beijing Office 北京建国门外大街 19 号国际大厦 2403 室 邮编 100004 CITIC Building, Room 2403, No.19 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Beijing 100004, China 电话 Tel +86 10 58217100 传真 Fax +86 10 65253764 网站 Website www.efchina.org PREFACE China is the global largest new vehicle market and is expected to exceed the United States as having the world’s largest vehicle fleet in coming ten years. In addition to the fast growing oil consumption in China because of the increasing vehicle population, local cities are facing the challenges to deal with the deteriorating traffic and urban air quality. One hand, municipal governments and national government are exploring improving the urban function and space planning so that the transportation demand could be reduced, promoting public transportation system so that trips growth made by private vehicles could slow down, and developing electric vehicles so that technically vehicles could meet zero emissions. On the other hand, in order to control the new vehicle sales, plate auction, lottery system, and the policies combing the two are enforced in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou etc.. In a whole, top-down administrative rules are the preferred options. And there is much space for economic policies to regulate vehicle usage and reduce the intensity. During the winter season in 2012 and 2013 serious air pollution episodes happened widely in China and continued for quite a long time. As a result, both national government and local governments adopted a series of policies to address this challenge. For example, Beijing adopted its ‘2013-2017 Clean Air Action Plan’, in which the tasks, ‘conducting researches on low emissions zone and congestion charge, promoting intelligent vehicle identification and toll collection system, and reducing vehicle usage intensity in the city center’, are included. Following that, ‘Important Tasks Allocation Plan for the Clean Air Action Plan’ required Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport and Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau to lead the development of policies on low emissions zone and congestion charge. Besides, other mega cities are also showing growing interests in congestion charge. In order to support the interests, especially the efforts of Beijing, with the guidance from the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and the support from the Energy Foundation China (EFC), China Academy of Transportation Sciences under MOT, Vehicle Emissions Control Center under MEP, and Department of Transportation in Zhejiang Province organized an International Forum on Economic Policies for Traffic Congestion and Tailpipe Emissions Control on December 12 and 13, 2013 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. International experts from London in U.K., Stockholm in Sweden, Milan in Italy, Singapore, and Minnesota and New York in U.S. presented the their own experiences on the research, development, and enforcement of congestion charge and low emissions zone. Feedbacks from the forum were very positive and based on the requests from the participants, EFC invited the six experts for papers to systematically summarize their experiences and lessons in more details and they all accepted the invitations. Consequently, all these papers are combined together and lead to this report, ‘International Best Practices for Congestion Charge and Low Emissions Zone’. It took about half year to write, translate, proof reading, format, and print this report. EFC appreciates a lot to the support and contributions from Mr. Steve Kearns (Transport for London, U.K.), Mr. Gunnar Soderholm (Environment and Health Administration, City of Stockholm, Sweden), Dr. Jonas Eliasson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden), Ms. Silvia Moroni (Mobility, Environment and Land Agency, City of Milan, Italy), Mr. Goh Shou Xian (Land Transport Authority of Singapore), Mr. Kenneth R. Buckeye (Minnesota Department of Transportation, U.S.), and Mr. Charles Komanoff (the Nurture Nature Foundation, New York, U.S.). We are also appreciated of the help from Dr. Michael Wang (Senior Scientist, Argonne National Lab, DOE, U.S.) during the process of developing this report and organizing the international forum. Constrained by the limited time and resources, the report may still have some mistranslation and errors, please contact the EFC by [email protected] for your comments and inputs. Transportation Program & Sustainable Cities Program of EFC August 2014 Bio of Writers Steve Kearns has worked for Transport for London for the past 12 years, including seven years on the Central London Congestion Charging project. His job involved managing the concept, design and implementation of traffic and transportation measures to support the Charging scheme. From 2008-2012 he worked in Transport for London’s Technology Delivery Group, promoting new technology initiatives such as trialing reservations of on-street booking facilities for freight vehicles and usage of electronic devices for traffic management purposes. Prior to working for Transport for London he spent 15 years as a transport planner in local authorities and community organizations in London where major projects included promoting the new Cross rail link and preparing the transport and business case for international rail station at Stratford, East London (used extensively during 2012 Olympic Games). He has a Master of Science degree in Transport Planning from University of Westminster, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation and also a member of the European Union’s ITS Urban Experts Group. Dr. Jonas Eliasson is Professor of Transport Systems Analysis at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and director of the Centre for Transport Studies. Prof. Eliasson has a long involvement in analyzing, developing and applying transport policies and appraisal methodologies. He directed the design and evaluation of the Stockholm congestion charges, introduced 2006, and has acted as expert advisor to many city leaders and national governments around the world on strategic transportation issues, often involving sustainable transport planning, transport pricing and social and economic appraisal. He is a frequent advisor to the Swedish Government in transport policy issues, has chaired the national committee for analysis of the National Transport Investment Plan, is a member of the standing expert advisory board to the National appraisal guidelines committee, and has been responsible for forecasts and evaluations of several major infrastructure investments. He has published over 50 scientific papers on various topics such as cost-benefit analysis, transport modeling, transport pricing, acceptability of transport policies and social valuation of travel time and reliability. Goh Shou Xian has been the Assistant Manager, Policy Division at the Land Transport Authority since 2011. He is involved in private transport policy formulation and his work focuses on vehicle ownership and usage policies, as well as policies relating to land transport emissions. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport that spearheads land transport developments in Singapore. 'To provide an efficient and cost-effective land transport system for different needs' is our mission statement. Ken Buckeye is Program Manager for Value Pricing with the Office of Policy Analysis, Research and Innovation with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT). Ken has more than 20 years of experience in transportation planning and project management covering nearly all modes of travel. Most recently his work at Mn/DOT has focused on value pricing alternatives as a means to manage demand and to help finance transportation systems. He currently is leading the department in implementation of its telework initiative created through the national Urban Partnership Agreement. Ken has a BA in Urban Affairs and Business Management from St. Cloud State University and a Master Degree in City and Regional Planning from Southern Illinois University. Charles Komanoff is widely known for his work as an energy- policy analyst, transport economist and environmental activist in New York City. He “re-founded” NYC’s bike-advocacy group Transportation Alternatives in the 1980s, co-founded the pedestrian- rights group Right Of Way in the 1990s, and wrote or edited the landmark reports Subsidies for Traffic, The Bicycle Blueprint, and Killed By Automobile. Earlier, Komanoff gained prominence for deconstructing the disastrous economics of nuclear power in the United States as author- researcher and expert witness for states and municipalities across the U.S. He wrote his visionary oil-saving report, Ending The Oil Age, after witnessing at close range the traumatic events of 9/11. Komanoff's current work includes modeling and advocacy for traffic pricing and free transit in New York City in partnership with renowned civic activist Ted Kheel. He also directs the Carbon Tax Center, a clearinghouse for information, research and advocacy on behalf of revenue-neutral carbon taxes to address the climate crisis. A math-and-economics graduate of Harvard, Komanoff lives with his wife and two sons in lower Manhattan. Silvia Moroni achieved her PhD in Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2002 with a thesis titled ‘Vehicular Traffic emissions and Air quality: elements for the management in a large urban area’ concerning
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