Road user charging in rural areas: the Upper Derwent valley case

Road user charging in urban areas and highways has been studied and implemented in several places worldwide. However, limited attention has been given so far to the impacts of a local road user charging scheme for rural or other protected areas, particularly in the UK. The focus of this paper is the road user charging scheme, which has been proposed for implementation in the Upper Derwent valley of the Peak District national park. By applying both quantitative and qualitative methods it is shown that such schemes share considerable differences compared to other urban or highway schemes, such as diverse objectives, trip purposes, visitors' value of time and dispersion of traffic in neighbouring areas. Nonetheless, management of a rural scheme, the evaluation method used, as well as equity issues appear to be equally significant as in other urban or highway schemes. The conclusion is that a road user charging scheme in the Upper Derwent valley could bring positive impacts by reducing high car usage at peak periods and creating additional revenue to serve essential improvements in the area, but is sensitive to the income and age of the visitors.