Factors driving public support for road congestion reduction policies: Congestion charging, free public transport and more roads in Stockholm, Helsinki and Lyon

• Published in: Transportation research. Part A, Policy and practice Policy and practice, 2015, Vol.78, p.452-462
• Main Authors: Börjesson, Maria, Hamilton, Carl J., Näsman, Per, Papaix, Claire
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 11 Road: Personal transport; 22 Road: Traffic control and traffic information; acceptability; Attitude (psychol); Congestion (traffic); Congestion charging; Decrease; Expansion; factor analysis; Free (no charge); Free public transport; Interview; More roads building; More roads building, acceptability; Ordered logit; Public opinions; Public opinions, factor analysis; Public transport; Road network
• ISSN: 0965-8564; 1879-2375; 1879-2375
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2015.06.008

•We model the support for road pricing, free public transport (PT) and more roads.•Support for free PT and more roads is higher than support for congestion charging.•General attitudes are more important for transport policy opinions than self-interest.•Environmental concerns is a strong predictor of opinions on all measures everywhere.•Support for free PT and more roads, but not charges, is located along a left–right axis. Based on an across-the-board survey conducted among residents of Stockholm, Helsinki and Lyon, we explore the opinions on three policy measures to combat road congestion: congestion charging, free public transport and building more roads. The support for the two latter policies is substantially higher than the support for congestion charging, which is only supported by a majority in Stockholm. Self-interest is important for the formation of the opinion to all three policies. However, fundamental values and general political views, indicated by four attitudinal factors, are even more important in forming opinions towards the three transport policies. Of all attitudinal factors, the one indicating environmental concern most influences the support for all policies. Equity concerns, however, increase the support for free public transport and opposition to taxation increases the support for building more roads. Our results further suggest that the opinions towards free public transport and building more roads can be mapped along the left–right political axis, where Environment and Equity are to the left and Pricing and Taxation are to the right. However, the opinion towards congestion charging cuts right through the political spectrum. The impact of the fundamental values and self-interest variables are similar for Stockholm and Helsinki, indicating that even if experience increases the overall support for charging, it does not change the relative strength of different political arguments to any major extent.