Javier Gutiérrez^a,
Ana Margarida Condeço-Melhorado^b,
Juan Carlos Martín^c,
Concepción Román^c,
^a Departamento de Geografía Humana, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/Profesor Aranguren, s/n. 28040 Madrid, Spain
^b European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, C/Inca Garcilaso, s/n. 41092 Sevilla, Spain
^c Departamento de Análisis Económico Aplicado, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain


Highlights

•Road pricing appraisal has so far ignored direct revenue transfer between countries or regions.
•Revenue transfer between countries derived from the introduction of the Eurovignette directive has been analysed.
•A revenue transfer matrix was obtained using an OD trucks matrix and a Geographic Information System (GIS).
•Peripheral countries will be losers in terms of revenue transfers.


Keywords
Road pricing; Eurovignette directive; Revenue transfer matrix; GIS (Geographic Information Systems); European Union


Abstract
In 2011 the ‘Eurovignette’ directive on distance-based road pricing in Europe was finally passed by the European Parliament and the European Council. It will bring benefits to the environment and contribute towards financing the cost of maintaining road infrastructure, but wider effects are also expected. This study measures the transfer of revenue derived from the introduction of the Eurovignette directive using an OD trucks matrix and a Geographic Information System (GIS). A revenue transfer matrix is obtained reflecting the cost of the toll fees paid and collected by each country for the use of both its own roads and those of the other countries. From this matrix it is possible to know which countries will have positive or negative balances between revenue and payments as a consequence of introducing a common road pricing policy. The results obtained demonstrate that this revenue transfer between European countries will be highly asymmetrical, with a clear trend towards positive balances for central countries and negative balances for peripheral ones.



Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Data and methodology
2.1. Scenarios
2.2. Data
2.3. Methodology
2.4. Data and methodology limitations

3. Results
4. Final remarks
Disclaimer
Acknowledgements
References


Figures
   

Fig. 1.

Road and ferry network. Source: IPTS, Transtools model.


Fig. 2.

NUTS-2 regions. Source: IPTS, Transtools model.


Fig. 3.

Euros per km charged in toll fees for German exports on each section of the network.


Fig. 4.

Euros per km charged in toll fees for exports from the Netherlands on each section of the network.


Fig. 5.

Euros per km charged in toll fees for Portuguese exports on each section of the network.


Tables

Table 1. Revenue transfer matrix between countries with respect to toll fees (in thousands of euros per year) in the hypothetical road pricing scenario (2005).

Table 2. Payments to/revenue from other European countries with respect to toll fees (in thousands of euros per year) in the hypothetical road pricing scenario (2005).