Paying for the use of roads - the external accident cost of heavy goods vehicles

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Paying for the use of roads - the external accident cost of heavy goods vehicles

Lindberg, G.

The cost of traffic accidents in Europe is huge. It is well known that internalisation of the marginal external cost is a necessary condition for optimal decisions in a decentralised transport system. This paper examines the theory of marginal external accident cost and presents some preliminary conclusions vis-a-vis the cost for heavy goods vehicles in Sweden. It is shown that the external marginal accident cost will depend on four elements, the cost of an accident, the accident risk, the proportion of the cost already born by the examined user and the risk elasticity. The latter expresses the change in risk as the traffic volume change. Previous studies on the accident cost and its internalisation has often presented the average accident cost. The approach taken in this report is to find the true marginal external accident cost. We have assumed that the user understand his risk and consequently already bear the value related to his own risk to be a victim. This assumption, in addition to the low values on the risk elasticity we find, explains why the cost is lower than previously thought. The paper draws heavily on a forthcoming report form the UNITE project financed by the European Commission.