The External Costs of Using Private Cars in Tehran City

With the rapid increase in urbanization during the past decades، urban transportation is turning into one of the major issues in city planning. As use of the private vehicles in big cities، such as Tehran، has contributed to traffic، this has been followed by sudden rise in distances travelled by private cars as well as the worsening of air pollution. On the other hand، people who drive on roads are exposed to serious environmental hazards، so much so that their health is at stake. Thus، the identification and pricing of external cost of using private cars (e. g. air pollution، traffic congestion، sound pollution، accidents، etc.) are gaining more importance. This article intends to suggest some suitable and appropriate ways for the measurement and evaluation of any type of pollution in a big capital city as vast as Tehran. This is to be followed by the specification of the rate of pollution per km by each private car in traffic and non- traffic periods (based on facts and figures obtained from the 2007 survey). The total costs of external costs of using private cars was estimated at around Rls. 855 (for the peak- traffic period) asnd Rls. 695 (for non- peak traffic). The maximaum cost was spent on accidents، wheras the minimum was allocated to sound pollution. Finally، a range of strategies are suggested to decrease the pollution.