User
Groups |
Sixth and Final User Group Meeting,
The sixth and final CURACAO User Group Meeting toke place on 18 and 19 March 2009 in Milano, Italy.
The focus of the discussion on the final versions of the Curacao products is on Curacao Policy Recommendations.
One of the bigger discussion points is the way to give recommendations about referendums related to urban road user charge. This is a complex issue.
Some of the points raised during the discussion are reflected here:
- URUC ambitions should be reflected in election manifestos, so that the electorate can decide also during local elections how they look at this.
- On the other hand: a referendum can also give a strong basis for URUC that can provide the continuation of URUC across parties and legislative periods, in this sense one could say that the Western extension of the London Congestion Charge is withdrawn due to inexistence of a referendum.
- This issue is related to national culture and law on local decision making processes (e.g. elected mayor or not, public enquiries rewarded?)
- The Trondheim referenda gave a mandate for a specific period, not forever.
Please see the meeting agenda here (177Kb PDF file).
Fifth User Group Meeting,
The fifth CURACAO User Group Meeting toke place on 26 November 2008 in Barcelona, Spain.
This phase provides CUG members with answers to questions such as:
- How can I overcome the barriers to implementing RUC, using the knowledge acquired within the CUG activities?
- How can I disseminate the knowledge I acquired from Curacao within my own organisation and to my local politicians?
- How can I continue to share knowledge (e.g. through research projects) on the topic of RUC?
This phase aims to assist User Group members with taking up the Curacao results. Links with local politicians are established and tools are provided to take the knowledge back to the members’ respective organisations. Tools that are used include:
- Fact sheets for easy dissemination of results.
- Two meetings: one political meeting in Barcelona, and the final event to take place in Italy in spring 2009.
Please see the meeting agenda here (58Kb PDF file).
Fourth User Group Meeting, Berlin, September 2008
The fourth CURACAO User Group Meeting will take place on 29 September 2008 in Berlin, Germany.
During the meeting, the state of play EU policy initiatives that affect urban road user charging will be presented. The CURACAO project findings on environmental impacts of urban road user charging and economic impacts of urban road user charging will be presented as well and discussed with the representatives of the CURACAO User Group. During that meeting the final assessments of the CURACAO products will be performed. Please see the meeting agenda here (150Kb PDF file).
Third User Group Meeting, Amsterdam, February 25 2008
The third CURACAO User Group meeting took place on February 25, 2008 in Amsterdam, Holland.
Meeting programme (120Kb MS DOC file)
Second User Group Meeting, Stockholm, September 2007
The Curacao User Group, gathering 20 European cities that want to learn how to implement urban road user charging policies, was held for the 2nd time on 24 – 25 September 2007 in Stockholm, the Swedish capital that has recently reactivated its congestion charge after a successful trial and a controversial referendum.
Chaired by Ed Minihane of Bristol, the user group’s meeting focused on the issues of prediction, appraisal and evaluation. The user group members did indicate that they would need detailed, technical information, provided by these practitioners that have put the Stockholm system into place. Speakers from the Swedish Road Administration, the City of Stockholm and WSP, on of the congestion charge’s principal consultants explained how they have worked to achieve the success of the Stockholm pricing scheme. A site visit on the second day of the seminar was organized to complete this learning experience.
For more information, please contact icre@polis-online.org
All presentations of these events are available below:
First Seminar and meeting, London, March 2007
The first CURACAO User Group meeting took place in London March 21 and 22, 2007.
On the first day of the event, the representatives of 17 CURACAO User Group cities were introduced to the project's objectives and set-up.
The content of the first state-of-the-art report was discussed and the draft evaluation framework was presented for feedback. Several presentations from Transport for London (TfL) told the story behind the London Congestion Charging system.
On the second day, the joint seminar of the Independent Transport Commission (ITC) and CURACAO took place. The Curacao User Group met with an additional 35 pricing experts to learn about public and political acceptance and scheme design. UK case studies and experts' opinions were presented against the background of the scientific synthesis that has been developed within CURACAO.
The conference ended with a look across the Atlantic Ocean to Kiran Bhat's presentation about the US experience in local pricing policies.
All presentations of these events are available here.
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Project funded by the 6th framework programme