The Long-term Effectiveness of a Reward Scheme in Changing Daily Travel Choices

Abstract

Understanding behavioral response and attitudes of car users towards pricing policies and the public's acceptance of new pricing schemes are of the highest priority for generating a successful policy. The assumption underlying these policies is that travelers will adapt their current behavior when faced with pricing schemes. Behavioral psychology however claims the benefits of reward over punishment in terms of its effectiveness of influencing behavior. Although the arguments are compelling, the effects of reward schemes have not received much attention in the context of travel behavior. A fascinating reward scheme has been suggested in The Netherlands because of the massive public resistance against the implementation of road pricing in 2010. Based on Stated Intention (SI) data from the Dutch SpitsScoren reward scheme, we study the long-term effectiveness of the reward as an opposite of punishment or price. More specifically in this first analysis, we seek to understand travelers’ behavioral change over time as a function of socio-economic and situational variables using cross- sectional Mixed Logit (ML) models. Results support the results of former related studies. Driving off-peak is recognized as the most popular alternative. However, its utility decreases during the studied period. Results also show that by exploring and experiencing the different alternatives across time, travelers change from driving off-peak to the teleworking and changing route options. Socio-economic and situational variables strongly affect travelers’ decisions regarding alternatives chosen. However, their effectiveness changes over time.