User Perspectives on Distance- and Time-Based Road Tolling Schemes: European Case Study

Abstract

Understanding users' attitudes toward national-level road pricing schemes is crucial for successful implementation. Despite the European Union (EU) policy agenda, there is a gap in understanding users' attitudes toward distance-based (DB) and time-based (TB) pricing considering features of pricing technology, willingness to pay, and previous pricing scheme experiences. This gap is especially prominent in the southern and eastern European countries. This research explores factors affecting the maximum acceptable price for DB and TB pricing, as well as users' experience and attitudes, using a case study of North Macedonia. The analysis framework uses statistical modeling of questionnaire data, including structural equation modeling. The findings show that the TB concept is more suitable for daily users, while a DB scheme is more suitable for less frequent motorway users. In addition to use frequency, income and previous experience with pricing technology were the strongest predictors of willingness to pay. The findings provide lessons on the distributive benefits and burdens of DB and TB schemes, as well as their implications for policy learning by considering context-dependent trade-offs between user and policymaker perspectives in medium-income transition European countries.

Political and technical complexities of electronic toll collection: Lessons from Taiwan

“…For example, previous studies have focused primarily on financial related implications of road pricing such as PFI (e.g. Acerete et al, 2009), equity (Di Ciommo & Lucas, 2014), or WTP (Glavić et al, 2021), but in the thematic analysis undertaken here, issues of finance arose as being key to the practical application and the publicity and marketing of ETC for interviewees (and hence this is why finance related data is presented in the section on publicity and marketing below). In addition, issues of equity, whilst dealt with seperately in much previous research (e.g.…”

“…those moving from a former communist rule to a market based economy and pluralist democracy (Glavić et al, 2017), identifies complexities of both determining and also constructing decision-support frameworks for governments to help them select optimal toll collection systems (Milenković et al, 2018). This is critical, as levels of Willingness to Pay (WTP) are country dependent, even in the same continent, for example Europe (Glavić et al, 2021). Furthermore, impacts of road pricing schemes can even be city dependent, and thus have different outcomes in different cities within the same country (Santos & Rojey, 2004).…”

“…Vehicle type and speed are also considerations regarding what to charge, particularly in relation to aims to reduce congestion (Button, 2004). Further, whether to adopt Time Based (TB) vignette systems charging, or Distance Based (DB) charging systems is important, and a decisión that is linked with technical requirements, as DB charging requires greater roadside infrastructure (Glavić et al, 2021). The sourcing of finance is also a complexity for governments, who may or may not have the funding for introducing tolling infrastructure.…”

The impact of highway construction on the volume and distribution of traffic flows: Case study for highway A2 in Serbia

“…1 https://www.putevi-srbije.rs/index.php/en/organisation/sector-for-the-maintenanceof-public-roads-of-i-and-ii-category/department-for-highway-preservation-andmaintenance (Accessed: 10/09/2023 at 17:32) Dužina izgrađenih i neizgrađenih autoputeva (IA kategorije), koji se nalaze na teritoriji Republike Srbije, prikazana je u Tabeli 1. Na svim autoputevima u Srbiji je prisutno plaćanje putarine po kilometru [3], dok je tehnologija koja se primenjuje DSRC sa barijerama, kao i ručno plaćanje putarine [4]- [6].…”

“…Određeni broj vozila, a posebno teški kamioni, izbegavanjem putarine oštećuju sekundarnu mrežu i na taj način povećavaju, ubrzavaju propadanje parametara kvaliteta kolovoza i povećavaju troškove održavanja putne mreže i povećanu emisiju polutanta [3], [10], [11].…”