Navigating the Razor's Edge: Public Acceptance of Climate Policies and the Case of Transport Pricing

Abstract

Transport pricing (TP) can be a helpful policy instrument for climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable mobility modes. Yet few cities have implemented TP. The main barrier to instituting road usage charges is a lack of public and political acceptance, especially in regions with entrenched socio-technical systems and cultures of automobility. The dominance of automobility can be a reason for TP to be unacceptable to the public and politicians. Yet, policies for low-carbon mobility may ultimately fail if they are designed within automobility. This article considers this tension in transport-pricing policy design, as a subset of broader climate policies. How can public acceptance be secured for TP, both navigating within automobility to gain sufficient public uptake but also beyond automobility towards more transformative climate action? Regarding the proposed TP policy for Vancouver, we review components of public acceptance of TP in eight cities and present qualitative research from Oslo, Norway. Our findings suggest that TP policy-design that meaningfully parts with an automobility regime—and rather is carried out within a low-carbon paradigm—may confront greater short-term challenges with public acceptance, but will better position such an innovative policy for success on the long-term.

Keywords: climate action, transport pricing, public acceptance, human dimensions, transformations to sustainability, urban mobility, low carbon mobility