Acceptability of a mobility pricing scheme: Reducing externalities in urban transportation

The growing reliance on private motorised transportation in urban areas has been associated with societal effects such as congestion, adverse effects of climate change, health effects from traffic emissions and crashes. Road pricing has long been used as a means to manage road traffic or to raise revenue for new infrastructure. Nonetheless, it is not only cars that produce external effects but also other modes. This study introduces an innovative mobility pricing scheme to encourage a shift from modes with high external costs to more sustainable alternatives by internalising transportation’s external costs. It then explores the factors explaining the public’s willingness to adjust travel behaviour in order to mitigate those externalities. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted in metropolitan Munich, Germany, gathering data (N = 1013) about respondents’ reactions to the mobility pricing scheme. Using exploratory factor analysis and discrete choice modelling, we confirmed the prevalence of attitudes and travel behaviour over sociodemographic characteristics in explaining the acceptability of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, an elasticity analysis of explanatory variables revealed that latent attitudes may be the most important determinant of acceptability but also associated with the highest uncertainty. Although this study provides only first insights into the complex subject of mobility pricing, which intends to internalise the external costs of cars, public transport, cycling, walking and shared mobility, it could be helpful to decision-makers when refining relevant policies and opens the discussion about their applicability.