The socio-cognitive links between road pricing acceptability and changes in travel-behavior

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of road pricing on people's tendency to adapt their current travel behavior. To this end, the relationship between changes in activity-travel behavior on the one hand and public acceptability and its most important determinants on the other are investigated by means of a stated adaptation experiment. Using a two-stage hierarchical model, it was found that behavioral changes themselves are not dependent on the perceived acceptability of road pricing itself, and that only a small amount of the variability in the behavioral changes were explained by socio-cognitive factors. The lesson for policy makers is that road pricing charges must surpass a minimum threshold in order to to entice changes in activity-travel behavior and that the benefits of road pricing should be clearly communicated, taking into account the needs and abilities of different types of travelers. Secondly, earlier findings concerning the acceptability of push measures were validated, supporting transferability of results. In line with other studies, effectiveness, fairness and personal norm all had a significant direct impact on perceived acceptability. Finally, the relevance of using latent factors rather than aggregate indicators was underlined.

Shedding light on the psychological and behavioral determinants of travel mode choice: A meta-analysis

“…Different strategies have been hence proposed to lower the ecological footprint of current travel patterns and to shape new, more sustainable mobility-related behaviors. Given the inconsistent results of literature on transport mode choice and the awareness of the need to gain better understanding of socio-cognitive factors affecting such choice (Cools et al, 2011;Eriksson et al, 2006), we run a metaanalysis to synthesize available evidence, investigating the psychological and behavioral correlates of both private car use and alternative, environment-friendly transport modes. We build on the work of Gardner and Abraham (2008), including recent studies and broadening the analysis encompassing new predictors and perspectives; moreover, we run heterogeneity analysis to explain the variability of results.…”

The relationship between young people׳s transit use and their perceptions of equity concepts in transit service provision

“…Studies from the last decade show that perceived fairness relates to the acceptability of road pricing schemes and that the findings are replicated across countries in Europe, United States and Asia (Viegas, 2001;Fujii et al, 2004;Cools et al, 2011;Di Ciommo et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2013). A recent study in Scandinavia found fairness relevant to the implementation of safety policy measures (Eriksson and Bjørnskau, 2012).…”

Measuring regional differences in users' perceptions towards interurban toll roads

“…The study of the acceptability of toll road pricing constitutes a complex issue that can be approached from different perspectives (Zheng et al, 2014) such as the perceived fairness of charges (Cools et al, 2011;Fujii et al, 2004), political bias (Hårsman and Quigley, 2010) or existing community values (Yusuf et al, 2014). Particularly, Smirti et al (2007) acknowledged that the level of acceptability may sometimes be highly context-specific, so attitudes may change across roads or, at an upper level, even across territories with different characteristics.…”