Costs of Road Infrastructure for Passenger and Freight Transport in The Netherlands

In this paper the costs of construction, maintenance, governance and land use of road infrastructure in The Netherlands are allocated to several transport modes in passenger and freight transport. Opposed to earlier research, a considerable number of weight categories are distinguished regarding freight transport. The results show that costs per kilometre allocated to the heavier truck categories are considerably higher than those allocated to the lighter truck categories. De reason behind this is that fairly large parts of building costs and maintenance costs are allocated to the different transport modes on the basis of 4th power axle loads. Furthermore, large relative differences in average truck loading between the different weight categories have a significant influence on the results. Concluding we can state that when the distinction between weight categories made in this study is ignored, then a large part of the costs caused by heavy truck categories is allocated to lighter trucks and passenger transport modes.