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

[en] 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 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.

Research Center/Unit :

Lepur : Centre de Recherche sur la Ville, le Territoire et le Milieu rural - ULiège
LEMA - Local Environment Management and Analysis

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)
Civil engineering

Author, co-author :

Cools, Mario ; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Brijs, Kris; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Tormans, Hans; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Moons, Elke; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Janssens, Davy; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Wets, Geert; Universiteit Hasselt - UH

Language :

English

Title :

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

Publication date :

2011

Journal title :

Transportation Research. Part A, Policy and Practice

ISSN :

0965-8564

eISSN :

1879-2375

Publisher :

Elsevier, Oxford, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

779-788

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 26 October 2012

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