ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the range of transport demand management (TDM) measures and the reasons for their inclusion. It explores the important issue of how taxation can be used to contribute to TDM objectives. The book reviews the effects of changes in purchase and circulation tax that have been enacted in various northern European countries to stimulate the sales of more environmentally-friendly vehicles, and shows that, where evaluated, these have been associated with significant increases in the proportion of less-polluting cars that have been purchased. It considers road user charging (RUC) from an economic perspective. They review the economic theory behind RUC, before presenting examples of actual schemes. The book highlights the distributional impacts of RUC, noting that capitalist economies use markets to allocate most resources and that in many ways the unpriced allocation of road space is an anachronism.
