Assessing the Effects of Road Pricing on an Industry: The Grain Handling and Transportation System in Saskatchewan

Policies in the Canadian grain handling and transportation industry have led to increased use of rural roads, accelerating road deterioration in the region. This paper develops a model to asses the effects of road pricing scenarios on a major portion of a regional road network that almost exclusively serves grain movement. The rural road network is in the west central region of Saskatchewan, Canada. A simulated optimization framework is used to compare road pricing schemes. The policy of differential road pricing based on known road maintenance costs generates the lowest total social costs. However, findings indicate that differences between the simulated social costs in the pricing scenarios are surprisingly small. This suggests that any attempt to improve social welfare by using externality pricing in this region and for this industry is not likely to be worthwhile.

• Record URL:
  • http://journals.oregondigital.org/trforum/article/viewFile/666/571
• 
• Summary URL:
  • http://journals.oregondigital.org/trforum/article/view/666
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/10461469
• Authors:
  • Larson, Eric K
  • Nolan, James F
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 69-86
• Serial:
  • Journal of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Volume: 46
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Forum
  • ISSN: 1046-1469
  • Serial URL: https://trforum.org/journal-of-the-trf/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Externalities; Freight transportation; Grain; Highway maintenance; Optimization; Road pricing; Rural highways; Strategic planning; Welfare economics
• Uncontrolled Terms: Maintenance costs
• Geographic Terms: Saskatchewan
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Freight Transportation; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01088660
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 25 2008 2:34PM