Development of a credit scheme for managing mobility in university communities: Results from a feasibility study

Abstract

Transportation planners and policymakers' main endeavour is to identify mechanisms to ensure that traffic congestion externalities and their adverse impacts are mitigated using various economic and market-based instruments. This paper proposes a framework integrating the concept of designing economic mechanisms for planning and promoting sustainable mobility using credit schemes on a disaggregated level of university communities. The mechanism uses a systems approach to model the components of policy, credit scheme, the choices of the populations and their impacts on society. Travel behavior data of different user groups are collected, informing the formulation of the system and the credit scheme while disincentivizing single-occupant vehicle trips and incentivizing sustainable transportation options, such as shared micro-mobility services, public transportation, and carpooling. The results of the framework's application suggest that parking pricing schemes that function as disincentives are more efficient when gradually introduced. Externalities are not minimized if parking pricing or incentives towards sustainable transportation are imposed solely. On the contrary, externalities are minimized when incentives and disincentives are integrated. Lastly, the framework could be extended to other large institutions or organizations, allowing the gradual diffusion of sustainable transportation and the unification of credit schemes.