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Sydney Morning Herald - Drivers could be charged to solve Sydney's traffic woes
"A national road-pricing scheme charging motorists according to how far they drive in exchange for cheaper petrol prices and registration fees - is likely to be explored in a study commissioned by the federal government.
The interest in a potential road pricing system comes amid business calls for new methods of curbing chronic traffic congestion in Sydney.
Paul Fletcher, the Federal Minister for Major Projects, said the government would respond to a recommendation from advisory body Infrastructure Australia that it commission a study into how a road pricing scheme would work.
"We don't think this is happening overnight but the policy advice has been fairly consistent on it, so the immediate question that we need to look at is whether it makes sense to take the next steps that Infrastructure Australia has recommended which is doing a detailed study on the design," Mr Fletcher said.
He said the government was already looking at a system of road pricing for heavy vehicles, which would more closely link vehicle charges to how far and where they travelled.
But the government is also taking seriously the recommendation by Infrastructure Australia last month that it examine the social, technological and economic implications of replacing current fuel and car taxes with charges based on how far and when people drive.
"We will be responding to the Infrastructure Australia report in the next couple of months, and that's clearly one of the major recommendations which will be responding to," Mr Fletcher said. He added that any scheme would probably have a "10 to 15 year timeframe."
Mr Fletcher's interest in the long-term possibility of a scheme represents a change in position by the federal government.
Former prime minister, Tony Abbott, responded to a previous call for a road pricing scheme by the Productivity Commission by saying "that particular recommendation . . . [was] unlikely to be accepted by any government".
The business group, Committee for Sydney, meanwhile, said it was writing to the Premier, and roads and transport ministers calling on the government to review potential road pricing models in Sydney.
Committee for Sydney's intervention followed a report by Fairfax Media last week into the deterioration in driving conditions in Sydney, with some peak hour speeds on major roads falling by up to 25km/h in the past two years.
"Road pricing is already used in Sydney - through individual tolls on major roads - but to be a truly effective way to manage the demand for Sydney's roads, it must be systemic and integrated," said the chief executive of Committee for Sydney, Tim Williams.
"Perversely, congestion itself is an inefficient form of demand management - charging people in time," said Dr Williams, who added that any money raised from such a scheme should be spent on transport and public transport.
Motoring groups, including the NRMA, have already said they would be open to a road-pricing scheme if it removed inequities in the current system.
However the issue is sure to be politically contentious. A 2011 NSW parliamentary inquiry into road pricing, for instance, failed to ever report. Proponents of road pricing also argue that the government will eventually have to reform petrol taxes, because more fuel-efficient cars will reduce this form of tax revenue.
Dr Williams said that international evidence showed that attempting to reduce congestion without using some form of pricing scheme would not work. There were a number of potential models for pricing roads, including congestion charges for central business districts, a tolling system covering all major roads, or a charge for each vehicle calculated by kilometres driven."
14 March 2016
