Transportation Policies: Coupling Beirut Bus Rapid Transit and Congestion Charge

Abstract

The Lebanese Transport sector is highly dependent on private cars. This fact made the sector energy-intensive. It is the second large energy consumer in Lebanon, only after power generation. Plus, it accounts for 23% of the national Green House Gases emissions. The Greater Beirut Area is Lebanon's transport hub due to its position on the T-section linking the coastal road and Beirut-Beqaa Road.

This thesis evaluates the mobility parameters, (city and transport system chracteristics, and transport externalities), in GBA. As expected, public transportation is highly needed to present an alternative for passengers. In addition, A national framework has to be established. A job centralization within both Beirut district and GBA create a flow from different region toward this key area.

Beirut Buses Rapid Transit (BBRT) project is presented as a solution for mobility in GBA. Or, through an economic analysis, it appears that this project requires 50 million USD subsidies only in the first year, which makes it economically unsustainable. The proposed solution is to introduce a transport policy in order to make a modal shift from private cars to the BBRT and at the same time collect revenues that can be diverted to finance the project. Through policy analysis, the congestion charge was the appropriate choice. The coupling of the Congestion charge and BBRT has proven to be successful. At a fee of 0.5 USD, the congestion charge made the project profitable from the first year. The shifting passengers have covered the deficit in the BBRT budget. The coupling also presented an environmental advantage, with both projects alone, achieving 3% of Lebanon NDC’s GHG reduction target. Still, Social equity has to be addressed as well and additional measures should be studied.