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

Statistics

Number of views

106 (6 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

492 (6 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Arbuckle, J., Wothke, W., 1999. Amos User's Guide Version 4.0. SPSS, Incorporated, Chicago, IL.
Bamberg S., Rölle D. Determinants of people's acceptability of pricing measures: replication and extension of a causal model. Acceptability of Transport Pricing Strategies 2003, 235-248. Elsevier, Oxford. J. Schade, B. Schlag (Eds.).
Beatley T. The many meanings of sustainability: introduction to a special issue of JPL. Journal of Planning Literature 1995, 9:339-342.
Blythe P. Congestion charging: technical options for the delivery of future uk policy. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2005, 39:571-587.
Bollen K.A. Multiple indicators: internal consistency or no necessary relationship?. Quality and Quantity 1984, 18:377-385.
Bonsall P., Shires J., Maule J., Matthews B., Beale J. Responses to complex pricing signals: theory, evidence and implications for road pricing. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2007, 41:672-683.
Browne M., Cudeck R. Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Testing Structural Equation Models 1993, 136-162. Sage, New Park, CA. K. Bollen, J. Long (Eds.).
Byrne B.M. The Maslach burnout inventory: validating factorial structure and invariance across intermediate, secondary, and university educators. Multivariate Behavioral Research 1991, 26:583-605.
Condeço-Melhorado A., Gutiérrez J., García-Palomares J.C. Spatial impacts of road pricing: accessibility, regional spillovers and territorial cohesion. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2011, 45:185-203.
Cools M., Moons E., Janssens B., Wets G. Shifting towards environment-friendly modes: profiling travelers using q-methodology. Transportation 2009, 36:437-453.
Dunlap R.E., Liere K.D.V., Mertig A.G., Jones R.E. Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues 2000, 56:425-442.
Eliasson J., Mattsson L.G. Equity effects of congestion pricing: quantitative methodology and a case study for Stockholm. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2006, 40:602-620.
Eriksson L., Garvill J., Nordlund A.M. Acceptability of travel demand management measures: the importance of problem awareness, personal norm, freedom, and fairness. Journal of Environmental Psychology 2006, 26:15-26.
Eriksson L., Garvill J., Nordlund A.M. Acceptability of single and combined transport policy measures: the importance of environmental and policy specific beliefs. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2008, 42:1117-1128.
European Environment Agency, 2008. Climate for a transport change, TERM 2007: indicators tracking transport and environment in the European Union. Number 1/2008 in EEA Report, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
Gaunt M., Rye T., Allen S. Public acceptability of road user charging: the case of edinburgh and the 2005 referendum. Transport Reviews 2007, 27:85-102.
Goodwin P., Lyons G. Public attitudes to transport: interpreting the evidence. Transportation Planning and Technology 2010, 33:3.
Hickman R., Ashiru O., Banister D. Transport and climate change: simulating the options for carbon reduction in London. Transport Policy 2010, 17:110-125.
Hu L.T., Bentler P.M. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 1999, 6:1-55.
Isaksson K., Richardson T. Building legitimacy for risky policies: the cost of avoiding conflict in Stockholm. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2009, 43:251-257.
Jakobsson C., Fujii S., Gärling T. Effects of economic disincentives on private car use. Transportation 2002, 29:349-370.
Janssens D., Cools M., Moons E., Wets G., Arentze T.A., Timmermans H.J.P. Road pricing as an impetus for environment-friendly travel behavior: results from a stated adaptation experiment. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2009, 2115:50-59.
Janssens, D., Moons, E., Nuyts, E., Wets, G., 2009b. Onderzoek Verplaatsingsgedrag Vlaanderen 3 (2007-2008): Verkeerskundige interpretatie van de belangrijkste tabellen. Technical Report. Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek.
Jarvis C.B., Mackenzie S.B., Podsakoff P.M., Mick D.G., Bearden W.O. A critical review of construct indicators and measurement model misspecification in marketing and consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research 2003, 30:199-218.
Loukopoulos P., Jakobsson C., Gärling T., Meland S., Fujii S. Understanding the process of adaptation to car-use reduction goals. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 2006, 9:115-127.
May A.D., Page M., Hull A. Developing a set of decision-support tools for sustainable urban transport in the UK. Transport Policy 2008, 15:328-340.
Moss S., Prosser H., Costello H., Simpson N., Patel P., Rowe S., Turner S., Hatton C. Reliability and validity of the PAS-ADD checklist for detecting psychiatric disorders in adults with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 1998, 42:173-183.
Rotaris L., Danielis R., Marcucci E., Massiani J. The urban road pricing scheme to curb pollution in Milan, Italy: description, impacts and preliminary cost-benefit analysis assessment. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2010, 44:359-375.
Sanders R.D., Allen D.N., Forman S.D., Tarpey T., Keshavan M.S., Goldstein G. Confirmatory factor analysis of the neurological evaluation scale in unmedicated schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research 2005, 133:65-71.
Schade J. European research results on transport pricing acceptability. Acceptability of Transport Pricing Strategies 2003, 109-123. Elsevier, Oxford. J. Schade, B. Schlag (Eds.).
Schuitema G., Steg L., Forward S. Explaining differences in acceptability before and acceptance after the implementation of a congestion charge in Stockholm. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2010, 44:99-109.
Schwartz S. Normative influences on altruism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 1977, vol. 10:221-279. Academic Press, New York.
Steg L., Gifford R. Sustainable transportation and quality of life. Journal of Transport Geography 2005, 13:59-69.
Stern P.C. Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues 2000, 56:407-424.
Stern P.C., Dietz T., Abel T., Guagnano G.A., Kalof L. A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: the case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review 1999, 6:81-97.
Tillema T., van Wee B., Ettema D. The influence of (toll-related) travel costs in residential location decisions of households: a stated choice approach. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2010, 44:785-796.
Wittneben B., Bongardt D., Dalkmann H., Sterk W., Baatz C. Integrating sustainable transport measures into the clean development mechanism. Transport Reviews: A Transnational Transdisciplinary Journal 2009, 29:91-113.
Xie L., Olszewski P. Modelling the effects of road pricing on traffic using ERP traffic data. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 2011, 45:512-522.