Inclusive low carbon transport in Thailand: Towards a viable policy pathway for congestion charging

According to TomTom’s Traffic Index Ranking 2024, Bangkok has one of the largest vehicle ownership rates per capita and in 2024 was rated the 2^nd most congested city in the world. Congestion leads to loss of time, increased fuel consumption, higher stress levels and decreased economic productivity. A study from GIZ found that on average, people in Bangkok lose over eight days in traffic congestion per year.

Congestion charging emerged in the early 2000s as a tool for disincentivizing car use, in London, Milan and Stockholm among others, with success not just in tackling congestion but also reducing harmful pollutants, improving road safety, and freeing up urban space for other uses such as walking and cycling.

As part of the UK PACT-funded programme on sustainable transport in Thailand, this 25-month project responds to new government interest to explore the feasibility of congestion charging policy in Bangkok. It follows a mixed-methods and co-creative approach, to investigate implications of potential congestion charging scenarios on vulnerable groups, and consider broad societal costs and benefits, including health and safety impacts. 

SEI’s consortium will be working in parallel with initiatives on congestion charging, social and behavioural change, and transport apps, led by ARUP, Toolmorrow, and Mahidol University respectively. SEI’s consortium is a collaboration with UDDC, Urbansphere Solutions and Mahidol University. The consortium is working closely with Thailand’s Office for Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP).

The SEI-led initiative includes four key packages of work. The first package is a scoping report on international good practices for congestion charging, including key case studies from leading global cities such as London, Singapore, Stockholm, and Milan. The review covers various models of congestion charging, highlighting their design, implementation challenges, financing mechanisms and applicability to the Thai context.

The second package of work is a socio-economic impact assessment of the potential impacts of implementing a congestion charge, drawing on primary data collection in the form of questionnaires, focus group discussions with key representative groups (ranging from disability NGOs to retail sector to public transport providers), and community participatory mapping workshops. This will raise key local challenges, such as high dependency on private vehicles, limited public transport capacity and prices, over-supply of parking in the inner city, and the socioeconomic diversity of road users. This assessment will also explore potential synergies with other planned or existing mobility initiatives, such as cheaper public transport networks, in recognition that many commuters are “captive” drivers, meaning they have no choice besides driving due to living beyond transit services and last mile solutions.

The third package of work will seek to assess costs and benefits of rolling out a congestion charge in Bangkok, by revising SEI’s Road Transport Decarbonisation Pathway Tool to the Thai context in the form of the Bangkok Congestion Charge Health Impacts Tool. Health and safety benefits will be a key element of the tool, which will be rolled out through training of relevant government actors and will be used to co-evaluate congestion charging scenarios.

The fourth work package will focus on the legal and regulatory measures necessary to make congestion charging feasible in the Thai context, and will lead to developing a roadmap focusing on institutional and socio-economic measures necessary for implementing an equitable congestion charge system in Bangkok.

All the findings from the project will be communicated through a range of outputs, including project reports and policy briefs targeted at government agencies, a dissemination workshop, and at least one peer-reviewed paper.