Congestion Charging Schemes for Greener Policies

In Seoul, traffic congestion in Central Business District (CBD) and other roads including urban motorways is one of the biggest issues in the transport sector. These traffic congestions are not only causing delays in travel time but severe environmental problems such as fine dust and exhaust gases. In Seoul, as greenhouse gases and fine dust problems are getting worse, there have been several countermeasures to reduce greenhouse gases and fine dust from the transport sector. But there still needs a fundamental solution to reducing the traffic. In this study, the congestion charge policy on urban motorways in Seoul was applied as a solution for reducing traffic, and the environmental effects of the congestion charge on urban motorways were investigated. First, changes in travel patterns were investigated according to the congestion charge. A traffic simulation was performed to identify travel pattern changes and to calculate environmental and fuel-saving benefits. Next, the environmental benefits of pricing were identified by combining pollutant coefficients with the amount of pollutant decreased. Lastly, fuel-saving benefits were calculated. The result showed that the passenger car share in Seoul metropolitan area decreased by 0.95 % after implementing the congestion charge, while the bus and subway share increased by 0.44 %, and 1.45 % respectively. The environmental benefits of applying the congestion charge were 17,350 million KRW/y and the fuel-saving benefits were 59,260 million KRW/y.