Road pricing and users' surplus

This paper presents an analysis of the urban transport system conducted in order to verify the existence of situations in which road pricing could produce not only a reduction in congestion and pollution, but also an increase in users' surplus. The results obtained by using a theoretical model of the transport system for urban areas travelled by private vehicles and public transport buses show that the efficiency of road pricing as a means to enhance user surplus essentially depends on how much part of the cost borne by users of public transport is due to congestion and on the proportion of users who are captive to public transport.