Congestion and variable user charging as an effective travel demand management instrument David A. Hensher * , Sean M. Puckett Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Received 4 April 2006; received in revised form 4 July 2006; accepted 28 July 2006 Abstract Interest at the political level in congestion charging is gaining pace as cities struggle with ways to reduce the effects of growing traffic congestion on the liveability of cities. Despite a long history of promotion of a wide array of travel demand management (TDM) initiatives, very few have had a noticeable impact on the levels of traffic on the road networks of metropolitan areas. TDM success in this context has almost become ‘band-aid’ in the absence of a pricing strategy that not only promotes efficient use of the system but also hypothecates revenues to support essential complementary infra- structure and services such as public transport. This paper takes a look at the stream of pricing consciousness that is sur- facing around the world. Although very few jurisdictions have implemented congestion charging, or any form of efficient variable car and truck user charging, the winds of change are well in place. The adage ‘‘it is not a matter of if but of when’’ seems to be the prevailing view. Our overview of global trends in positioning the debate and hopefully follow-through com- mitment to implementation provides a backdrop to papers submitted for this special issue on travel demand management. The predominance of papers on pricing is indicative of the priority that must be given to efficient charging and revenue disbursement. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Variable user charges; Road pricing; Congestion; Travel demand management 1. Introduction New [Australian] federal transport minister Warren Truss has called for acceleration of the pace of transport reform. Variable road pricing is probably the key, and the challenge will be to discourage excess motor car use without burdening the economy with greatly increased freight transport costs. One of the difficulties will be to combine motor car disincentives with upgraded, accessible, reliable and quick public transport. (Australian financial Review, 30 July 2005) 0965-8564/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tra.2006.07.002 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9351 0071; fax: +61 2 9351 0088. E-mail addresses: davidh@itls.usyd.edu.au (D.A. Hensher), seanp@itls.usyd.edu.au (S.M. Puckett). Transportation Research Part A 41 (2007) 615–626 www.elsevier.com/locate/tra