Behavioral change in activity-travel patterns in response to congestion pricing schemes: results of a field experiment

Abstract

The problem of traffic congestion and associated externalities has become a major focus of transport policies in recent years. In the United Kingdom legislation has been passed to empower local authorities to implement road user charging. This study investigates the effect of a hypothetical congestion charging scheme in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Previous studies tend to focus on measuring user's willingness to pay, often neglecting the impact on the activity schedule. This paper focuses on the way participants adapt not only their travel behavior but also their activity participation and rescheduling pattern. These changes are looked at from a two-level approach: the aggregate day level and the more disaggregate tour level from intra-day activity rescheduling. Results show that the scheme is effective in reducing car usage during peak time in the city. The overall activity participation however remains largely unchanged.