A User Acceptance Survey of Pay-How-You-Drive Urban Pricing Schemes

Urban congestion pricing is widely regarded as an effective way of traffic management in order to relief metropolitan centers from heavy traffic, reduce emissions, air pollution and as a means to promote public transport usage. Until recently, pricing strategies were formed mostly by taking into account peak hours and exemption provisions (e.g., for taxis or clean-fuel vehicles). However, recent advancements in smartphone sensing have enabled the monitoring of driving behavior, a practice which can act as an additional parameter for the determination of urban tolls. The aim of this paper is to investigate drivers’ perception towards PHYD urban pricing schemes and identify factors that may affect their acceptance in the city of Athens using a questionnaire survey. Our preliminary results have shown that men tend to be more aggressive and exceed speed limits than female drivers do. The findings reveal that women are more likely to accept PHYD urban pricing schemes. In addition, commuters are also more likely to accept such a measure contrary to those travelling for other purposes. Finally, eco-minded drivers are more willing to accept PHYD pricing systems. Such results can be really useful for both researchers and decision and policy makers who are willing to design user friendly and easy acceptable pricing systems.