Using incentives as traffic management tool: empirical results of the "peak avoidance" experiment

Abstract

Although positive incentives have been successfully applied in various domains to influence behavior, they have received limited attention in transportation. This paper reports on the Dutch 'Spitsmijden' ('Peak Avoidance') project, in which travelers received positive incentives if they avoided travelling in the peak by car. Incentives could be financial (3 to 7 EURO per day) or credits to earn a smartphone at the end of the experiment. Travelers' responses were measured using electronic detection equipment and travel diaries. The results of the study indicate that positive incentives are able to reduce the amount of peak traffic of the participants by about 60%. Travelers mainly responded to the incentives by shifting their car trips to the periods before and after the peak period. Although the experiment was intended to achieve a structural change in travel behavior, we observed that travelers returned to the peak period when the incentives ended.

Charging versus rewarding: A comparison of road-pricing and rewarding peak avoidance in the Netherlands

“…Since only the monetary reward is comparable to the road pricing study, we refrain from further discussion of the Smartphone variant. Interested readers can find more information in Ettema et al (2010) and Ben-Elia and Ettema (2011a). Most of the participants have good education levels (university degree), are either cohabiting or with children.…”

“…If we focus on traffic congestion rather than on changing the entire car taxing system, an incentive/reward for avoiding peak hour travel could achieve a behavioural response similar to that of pricing (Ettema and Verhoef, 2006;Ettema et al, 2010;Ben-Elia and Ettema, 2011a). The basic idea is to reward travellers who are willing to shift to earlier or later departure times or to alternative modes of travel or activities (i.e.…”

“…Thus, the potential of rewards as a base for congestion management policy is well worth considering, provided it is based on robust behavioural foundations. In the Netherlands, the notion of using rewards to change people's driving behaviour has been recently implemented in the context of the "Spitsmijden" (translated freely as peak avoidance) programme (Ettema and Verhoef, 2006;Ettema et al, 2010;Ben-Elia and Ettema, 2011a), thus far the largest systematic effort to analyse the potential of rewards as a policy instrument in this regard.…”

The Potential Impact of Incentives on Managed Lane Travel

“…Ettema et al [10] offered cash or credits to earn a smartphone if the traveler Journal of Transportation Technologies avoided travelling in the peak period by car. Travelers generally responded by traveling alone but before or after the peak period.…”

Tradable credits for managing car travel: a review of empirical research and relevant behavioural approaches

“…To date, the "peak avoidance" experiment in the Netherlands is the largest programme that used rewards in a real-life road pricing setting (Ben-Elia & Ettema, 2011;Ettema, Knockaert, & Verhoef, 2010;Knockaert, Tseng, Verhoef, & Rouwendal, 2012). Frequent morning peak hour drivers were asked to volunteer in the experiment and could earn money or credits to earn a smartphone at the end of the experiment each time when they did not longer travel during morning peak hour.…”