ABSTRACT
As congestion costs vary from time to time and place to place, new pricing methods will be required, such as those suggested by the ‘smeed’ committee. Road users in cities might be charged up to one shilling a mile for a private car, or even more, while users of uncongested roads would pay comparatively little. Techniques for making such differential charges have been worked out and are now available for application. Any form of distribution which disregards individual consumer preference as expressed in choice between freely-priced goods or services offered on an open, competitive market needs special justification. The need for a revolution in motoring habits would present the most obvious – and perhaps most serious – political obstacle. Motorists would strongly dislike having to fit their cars with meters, change these unfamiliar bits of apparatus from time to time.
