This paper focuses on urban road pricing as a demand management policy that is often regarded as
radical and generally unacceptable. Road pricing often gets delayed or abandoned due to low
acceptability. This may be due to the fact that complex interactions and drivers of change affect road
transport management and require cooperation within implementation networks. The implementation
network is a group of people (referred to as partners and actors) who co-ordinate the introduction of
policy tools. The drivers of change include any internal or external influences that have an effect on the
time, place, or ‘shape’ of the policy measures being introduced.
Demand management measures that focus on 'sustainable transport' usually address a limited set of
objectives and are often implemented alone i.e. are not necessarily combined with other policy measures.
When combined with other measures, it is not always clear whether the multiple interactions between
policy tools and implementation networks have been sufficiently considered. Examples of ongoing
implementation of policy package in the UK are the support of road pricing initiatives combined with
public transport improvements by the Transport Innovation Fund.
The objectives of the paper are twofold. First, we present a review of the UK urban road pricing
situation. Second, we contrast the emerging issues against six key implementation factors. The analysis of
three existing UK road pricing examples - London, Edinburgh and Durham – shows the importance of
combining policy tools. Furthermore, through the above examples and theoretical arguments, we
emphasise the additional need of creating and maintaining strong networks when implementing policy
packages.
