Citation

Schade J, Schlag B. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2003; 6(1): 45-61.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S1369-8478(02)00046-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several research projects all over the world have considered transport pricing measures and policies as promising attempts to solve urgent traffic problems in urban areas. One important precondition for the successful implementation of pricing strategies is public acceptability. However, empirical findings have shown that the acceptability of such strategies is low. Until now economists have been looking for reasons for this refusal by analysing first of all socio-economic characteristics of the drivers concerned. But it is doubtful whether these alone have high explanatory value. Based on a heuristic acceptability model [IATSS Research 21 (1997) 134] different determinants of the acceptability of road pricing strategies are identified and analysed in more detail. A public acceptability survey was carried out in four European cities (N=952 motorists) to investigate two main questions. Firstly, how high is the current acceptability level of different urban transport pricing strategies? Secondly, do the factors as outlined in the acceptability model explain the level of acceptability? As expected, motorists' stated acceptability of the investigated pricing strategies is rather low. Concerning the factors influencing the degree of acceptability the analyses showed that in particular the variables 'social norm', 'personal outcome expectations' and the 'perceived effectiveness' are positively related with the acceptability of pricing strategies. These variables account for nearly 40% of the criterion variance and thus can explain acceptability of such measures much better than the socio-economic variables included.