Which Factors Affect User Satisfaction with ETC? Evidence from Shanghai and Beijing

Abstract

Owing to the current development trend of globalization and informatization, traditional transportation technologies and means can no longer meet the needs of economic and social development. Thus, intelligent transportation will be an inevitable and revolutionary choice for the development of the transportation industry. As a subsystem of the intelligent transportation system, the electronic nonstop toll collection (ETC) system provides a good solution to the problems of traffic congestion, environmental pollution, energy consumption, and low toll operation efficiency caused by expressway toll collection. This high-technology system is utilized in many fields, such as radio communication and computer and automatic control in the transportation field. China’s expressway ETC systems have evident effects on congestion reduction at toll stations. Although the advantages of ETC lanes are significant, and China actively implements ETC-handling policies, some drivers are reluctant to install ETC on-board systems or they have negative experiences after handling them. According to a survey, existing literature lacks research on the factors affecting user satisfaction with ETC. On the basis of the questionnaire data of ETC user experience in Shanghai and Beijing, we comprehensively investigate the reasons of banking, ETC equipment, and drivers’ personal factors and travel characteristics to establish an ordinal logistics model. Through cluster analysis, drivers in the two cities are divided into three groups, and the significance of related variables is further analyzed. This research can help us understand the degree of influence of different factors on user satisfaction with ETC to a certain extent. Moreover, effective methods and measures can be used to promote the popularity of ETC vehicle equipment and the utilization rate of ETC-dedicated lanes.

Uncovering Equity and Travelers’ Behavior on the Expressway: A Case Study of Shandong, China

“…User classification is important for making targeted policies to improve service quality, for example, giving a discount to people at night who frequently use the expressway, in order to reduce traffic congestion. Previous studies did much work with survey data, which could collect specific information such as personal attributes, travel characteristics and travelers' satisfaction [50]. However, survey data cannot reflect the dynamic and long-term characteristics of the expressway user.…”

“…(1) Number of trips (NT) Number of trips for a user is defined as the total number of trips in the study period, which can reflect the travel frequency of the expressway users. In this paper, we divide NT values into five groups (0, 5): 'NT 1', (5,10]: 'NT 2', (10,20]: 'NT 3', (20,50]: 'NT 4', (50, +∞): 'NT 5'.…”