The Smeed Report and road pricing : the case of Valletta, Malta

Abstract

In 1964 the Ministry of Transport in the UK published a seminal paper on Road Pricing, namely „Road Pricing: The Economic and Technical Possibilities‟ which became known as the Smeed Report, named after Reuben Smeed the Chair of the Panel on Road Pricing and who, at the time, was Head of Traffic and Safety Division within the UK Road Research Laboratory. The Report detailed seventeen requirements for a road pricing system, which were seen as either important or desirable. These requirements are as relevant today as they which have failed to advance beyond the drawing board. One scheme that has been successfully implemented recently in Malta is the Valletta road pricing scheme, referred to as the Controlled Vehicular Access (CVA) system. The aim of this paper is to compare the Valletta scheme against the requirements for a road pricing system outlined in the Smeed Report (hereinafter referred to as the Smeed Requirements), with the intention of ascertaining whether there are any lessons that can be learnt which are of benefit to those, world-wide, considering the introduction of a road pricing scheme.