Vickrey's first degree was in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from
Yale, and he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1996. In his ideal
world, engineering economics would occupy a position of prominence and
efficient pricing would be a central element of good engineering
practice.
William Vickrey: contributions to
public policy R. Arnott, International Tax and Public Finance
5(1998), 93-113.
P. Hills and P. Blythe. 2002. For whom the road tolls? Ingenia 14, 21-28.
Privacy is a critical issue since
charges, if they are to target
congestion, need to be specific
in space and time. Our attitudes
in this area are evolving rapidly.
Each time we use, or choose
not to use, a mobile phone, an
Oyster card or a Tesco Clubcard
we learn a little more of our own
individual trade-off between
personalisation, convenience
and privacy. As more and more
personal data is collected, the
focus of the privacy debate is
moving from data collection to
higher-level questions on data
access and the algorithms
which can search and correlate
across databases.
Data
Mashing. Foundation for Science and Technology Journal 19:2 , 14-17.
Beckmann, M., McGuire, C.B. and Winsten, C.B. 1956 Studies in the Economics of Transportation. Cowles Commission Monograph, Yale University Press.
Wardrop, J.G. 1952 Some theoretical aspects of road traffic research. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. 1, 325--378.
Reliability as well as time has value, and some studies indicate a higher
value of reliability for women than men, possibly because child-care
responsibilities reduce their scheduling flexibility. This may explain
the consistent finding across many studies that, other things being
equal, women are more likely than men to choose the tolled road or the
HOT lane.
D. Brownstone and K A. Small 2005
Valuing time and
reliability: assessing the evidence from road pricing
demonstrations.
Transport for London: Impacts Monitoring, and Technology Trials
The amount of time spent
travelling and the fraction of
income devoted to transport
vary substantially from individual
to individual. However, averages
over a population have been
remarkably stable over a very
wide range of geographical and
cultural settings, historical periods
and transport technologies. As
technologies have advanced
and our incomes have increased,
we have travelled faster and
further.
A. Schafer and D.G. Victor (2000)
The future mobility of the world
population, Transportation Research A34(3), 171-205.
Norwich Union's pay-as-you-drive.
Return to article on Road Pricing.