Road Pricing and Accidents: Evidence from Milan

Abstract

In 2008, the municipality of Milan, Italy, introduced ‘Ecopass’, the country’s first pollution charge, which was then replaced in 2012 by ‘Area C’, a congestion charge. By using a synthetic control methodology, we analyse the distinct impacts of these two traffic measures on the number and severity of accidents in the city. Our analysis reveals that Ecopass had no significant effect on road safety, whereas Area C led to a reduction of around 16% in the number of accidents. However, don’t observe a corresponding decrease in the severity of accidents within the charged area following the introduction of Area C.

Keywords: Road pricing, accidents, Milan, Synthetic Control