How much support is there for the introduction of tradeable peak credits in order to solve congestion? Lizet Krabbenborg (former PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology, currently researcher at KiM) conducted research into this question, which resulted in a thesis entitled Tradable Credits for Congestion Management: support/reject? Lizet was involved in research project U-SMILE – Urban Smart Measures and Incentives for quality of Life Enhancement – which was led by the Department of Spatial Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Urban car use causes problems such as congestion and environmental pollution. Pricing policy is an efficient and effective tool to reduce congestion, but there is insufficient support for taxes, and forms of remuneration are expensive. U-SMILE designed and evaluated experiments with budget-neutral blends of tax and remuneration, including tradeable peak credits. The main research question of U-SMILE – a SURF (Smart Urban Regions of the Future) project, which is part of van VerDuS (Connecting Sustainable Cities) was: Which ‘smart’ measures can we develop to influence driver behaviour in order to reduce congestion?
Within this project, Lizet investigated the extent of public support for the introduction of (various elaborations of) tradeable peak credits. The average support base for tradeable peak credits is comparable to that for peak charges, but increases depending on the effect. Particularly among motorists, there is a group that rejects peak charges, but does support peak rights. This concept therefore appears to be an interesting alternative in the long search for an effective policy instrument to reduce the negative effects of car use. The dissertation increases the understanding of opinions about this innovative tool and compares public support with support for mainstream pricing policy tools.
Lizet Krabbenborg will defend her thesis on March 18, 2021 from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. The defense ceremony can be followed here.
March, 2021
Ellen Woudstra