Arthur Pigou had previously developed the concept of economic externalities in a publication of 1920 in which he proposed that what is now referred to as a Pigouvian tax equal to the negative externality should be used to bring the outcome within a market economy back to economic efficiency. Nobel-laureate William Vickrey then built on the ideas of the economist Arthur Pigou, outlining a theoretical case for road pricing in a major work on the subject of 1955 proposing in 1959 that drivers should be charged by electronic means for use of busy urban roads. The first published reference to 'road pricing' was possibly in 1949 when the RAND Corporation proposed "use of direct road pricing to make freight journeys more expensive on congested routes or to influence the time of day at which freight traffic operates". Road pricing also includes congestion charging, which are charges levied on qualifying road users to reduce peak demand, and thereby reduce traffic congestion and also to place a charge on road users for other negative externalities, including traffic accidents, noise, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Road pricing is a general term that may be used for any system where the driver pays directly for use of a particular roadway or road network in a particular city, region or nation. Revenues that exceed direct costs of road construction and maintenance, but which may still not cover external costs fully), whether and how "losers" from tolling previously free roads should be compensated, and whether to privatize highways. Economists disagree over how to set tolls, how to cover common costs, what to do with any "excess" revenues (i.e. A 2006 survey of economic literature on the subject finds that most economists agree that some form of road pricing to reduce congestion is economically viable and overall beneficial, although there is disagreement on what form road pricing should take. The tendency seems to reverse however, when the system is already in place, with popularity of existing systems often increasing while merely discussed systems face an uphill battle in public opinion. Many recent road pricing schemes have proved controversial, with a number of high-profile schemes in the US and the UK being cancelled, delayed or scaled back in response to opposition and protest. Mileage based usage fees (MBUF) or distance based charging has been implemented for heavy vehicles based on truck weight and distance traveled in New Zealand (called RUC), Switzerland (LSVA), Germany ( LKW-Maut), Austria (Go-Maut), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and in four US states: Oregon, New York, Kentucky and New Mexico. In some European countries there is a period-based charge for the use of motorways and expressways, based on a vignette or sticker attached to a vehicle, and in a few countries vignettes are required for the use of any road. Examples of pollution pricing schemes include the London low emission zone and the discontinued Ecopass in Milan. The application of congestion charges is currently limited to a small number of cities and urban roads, and the notable schemes include the Electronic Road Pricing in Singapore, the London congestion charge, the Stockholm congestion tax, the Milan Area C, and high-occupancy toll lanes in the United States. Road congestion pricing for entering an urban area, or pollution charges levied on vehicles with higher tailpipe emissions are typical schemes implemented to price externalities. In most countries toll roads, toll bridges and toll tunnels are often used primarily for revenue generation to repay for long-term debt issued to finance the toll facility, or to finance capacity expansion, operations and maintenance of the facility itself, or simply as general tax funds. These charges may be used primarily for revenue generation, usually for road infrastructure financing, or as a transportation demand management tool to reduce peak hour travel and the associated traffic congestion or other social and environmental negative externalities associated with road travel such as air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, visual intrusion, noise pollution and road traffic collisions. Road pricing (also road user charges) are direct charges levied for the use of roads, including road tolls, distance or time based fees, congestion charges and charges designed to discourage use of certain classes of vehicle, fuel sources or more polluting vehicles.
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