Inventive ways to charge motorists to use roads in the future have been put forward by five finalists to the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize, whose shortlist was announced on Thursday.

 

The finalists for the £250,000 prize – to be announced in July – are Catriona Brown, a lawyer and mother of two children; Edmund King of the AA and his wife Deirdre; a team from Volterra Partners and Jacobs led by Paul Buchanan; academic and planning specialists Jamye Harrison and Russell King; and transport planner Gergely Raccuja.

 

Two further finalists for a ‘lightbulb’ award for originality are Edward Glaeser, a Professor at Harvard, for an entry looking at autonomous vehicles; and David Williams, a research associate from the University of the West of England for looking to harness energy from highways.

 

“Road congestion is a source of daily misery for millions of people,” said the Prize founder Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise. “As the political parties put together their programmes for Government they would do well to turn their attention to the plight facing users of Britain’s road network.”

 

Catriona Brown’s submission puts forward the case for a new ‘stepped approach’ to road pricing called ‘TForward’; and Edmund and Deirdre King’s idea is for a pricing system that charges drivers beyond an initial 3000 free road miles each year, with the support of retail sponsors. 

 

Volterra Partners and Jacobs’ entry proposes a system that makes charges and journey times clear in advance and compensates for delays; and Jamye Harrison and Russell King’s customer led demand management idea is to encourage people to switch to pricing in return for a cut in fuel duty.

 

Gergely Raccuja’s proposal is to replace vehicle excise duty and fuel tax with a new system that charges people on the distance they drive and the vehicle they own.

 

To read each of their submissions click here.