The True Cost of Road Transport in the United Kingdom

No doubt the growth in road transport reflects the considerable benefits which it makes available. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that the success of private transport is also to some extent due to the fact that it succeeds in “externalising” a range of impacts, i.e., shifting many of the costs for which it is responsible on to other people without the motorist being charged for those costs. Costs in economic language comprise losses of well-being or “welfare”. The result of this shifting of costs onto others is that there are currently many journeys undertaken where the costs to society outweigh the benefits to the individual. Economists are generally of the opinion that any policy to tackle these problems must involve confronting the motorist with the true cost of his or her journey. Only by these means will society be able to derive the utmost benefit from its road network or rely upon price signals for the purposes of planning investment projects. In fact, there have been many attempts to quantify the external costs of road transport, presumably with the intention of influencing transport policy. These have not had the impact that the researchers working on these projects have intended. One reason for this is that researchers have, often without appreciating it, ended up confusing equity and efficiency issues.