Road Space Rationing - Applications of Road Space Rationing

Applications of Road Space Rationing

Road space rationing based on license numbers has been implemented in cities such as Athens (1982), Santiago, Chile (1986 and extended 2001), México City (1989), São Paulo (1997), Bogotá, Colombia (1998), La Paz, Bolivia (2003), San José, Costa Rica, (2005) countrywide in Honduras (2008), and Quito, Ecuador (2010). All these cities restrain a percentage of vehicles every weekday during rush hours or for the entire day. When the restriction is based in two digits a theoretical 20% reduction of traffic is expected. Cities with serious air quality problems, such as México City and Santiago use more digits to achieve greater reductions in air pollution, and even the prohibition can be for more than one day a week. In Bogotá, Colombia from 2009 the plate restriction was extended from peak periods to the whole day (from 06:00 to 20:00 hours) in the whole city, due to the extensive construction sites in public spaces.

Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, proposed to impose a complete ban on motor vehicles in the city's inner districts, with exemptions only for residents, businesses, and the disabled, as a three-part plan to implement during a seven-year period. This proposal was made in 2005, in the context of Paris' bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics which ended up being won by London.

During the discussions regarding the proposal to introduce congestion pricing in New York, the commission created in 2007 by the New York State Legislature to evaluate other traffic relief options, considered road space rationing based on license plates as an alternative to congestion pricing. The proposal stalled in April 2008 as the legislature decided not to vote the proposed plan.