Is car drivers' response to congestion charging schemes based on the correct perception of price signals?. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Link, Heike
• Is Part Of: Transportation research. Volume 71(2015)
• Page Start: 96
• Page End: 109
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: Discrete choice models -- Latent variables -- Marginal cost pricing -- Complex price structures; Transportation -- Research -- Periodicals; 388.011
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.11.004
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0965-8564

Abstract

Highlights: The paper analyses how charge complexity impacts on the response to a congestion charge. The paper contributes to existing literature by incorporating the effect of charge complexity in a hybrid choice model. The model used in this paper explains responses which cannot be fully explained by pure utility maximisation. The model achieves a higher explanatory power than a conventional discrete choice model. The paper suggests that charge complexity decreases driver's resistance to consider changes. Abstract: This paper deals with the question of whether the capability of car drivers to estimate the cost of a new hypothetical, highly differentiated congestion charge influences their decision to change travel behaviour. The analysis makes use of an integrated choice and latent variable model (ICLV) which merges classic choice models with the structural equation approach (SEM) for latent variables. This hybrid model improves the explanatory power considerably compared with a conventional discrete choice model. The results suggest that charge complexity decreases the resistance in considering behavioural changes. Car drivers tend to avoid a travel option where the price is not known beforehand, a phenomenon known as ambiguity avoidance.