The Psychology Behind Road Pricing: Identification of Socio-Cognitive Factors Inducing Changes in Activity-Travel Behaviour

Abstract

The overall final objective of this study is to investigate the effect of road pricing on people’s tendency to adapt their current travel behaviour. In order to reach this goal, a two-stage hierarchical model is estimated, concentrated around the concept of public acceptability. The research was conducted in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, by means of an interactive stated adaptation survey, administered on the internet, involving 300 respondents. It is found that behavioural changes themselves are not dependent on the perceived acceptability of road pricing. In addition, earlier findings concerning the acceptability of push measures are validated, and the relevance of using latent factors rather than aggregate indicators is illustrated.