Introduction to the Handbook on Transport Pricing and Financing

Pricing and financing constitute one of the main battlefields in the design and implementation of transport policy, and represent what many may associate with transport economics. Indeed, the price of a transport service is the most visible cost of moving around in geographical space, and funding and financing decisions are inevitable to achieve a stable operation of both physical infrastructure and various organised services provided on it. The Handbook delivers theoretical foundations and practical lessons on the wider toolbox that complements pricing in achieving financial stability and sustainability for transport projects and services. We believe the Handbook is timely, as transport pricing and financing policies will have an important role to play in strategies needed to address some of the main contemporary societal challenges. In this chapter, we cover the topics of climate change and sustainable development, externalities of spatial density, equity in transport policy and emerging themes such as the rise of the sharing economy and novel price-setting mechanisms, as an introduction to the 24 chapters that compose the Handbook.