Mode choice behavior in a tradable mobility credit scheme: A stated-preference experiment

Tradable Mobility Credit (TMC) schemes are considered a promising policy instrument to mitigate the production of transport externalities while enhancing equity and preserving social acceptance. Nevertheless, research lacks a disaggregated analysis of their potential impacts on mode choice, while the empirical user behavior has remained largely unstudied. We address this gap by presenting the results of the first large-scale stated-preference (SP) experiment examining the complex trade-offs between travel time, internal and external travel costs, and other level-of-service attributes in a multimodal TMC scheme. Using multinomial logit models, we derive the value of travel time (VTT) and the own- and cross-elasticities under such a scheme to discuss policy implications. Our results confirm the potential of TMC to reduce car usage; despite its complexity, citizens understand the concept of TMCs and make decisions according to the underlying economic theory of TMC. Furthermore, the modeling results suggest the presence of different behavioral effects: loss aversion, and the budget depletion and period effects, which modulate the sensitivity to the credit charges. Our findings and the VTT and elasticity estimates are informative to improve behavioral modeling in future research on TMC schemes. Interestingly, we find that a traditional road user charging scheme would require a 77% tax on the car trips’ internal costs for a comparative modal share impact. Hence, our results support the notion that TMC schemes are promising policy instruments for achieving sustainability goals.     «

Tradable Mobility Credit (TMC) schemes are considered a promising policy instrument to mitigate the production of transport externalities while enhancing equity and preserving social acceptance. Nevertheless, research lacks a disaggregated analysis of their potential impacts on mode choice, while the empirical user behavior has remained largely unstudied. We address this gap by presenting the results of the first large-scale stated-preference (SP) experiment examining the complex trade-offs betw...     »