Acceptability of road pricing and revenue use in the Netherlands. It is generally acknowledged that road pricing measures meet public resistance and that acceptability is nowadays one of the major barriers to successful implementation of new and more efficient pricing measures. Previous studies also suggest that the level of acceptance strongly depends on the way revenues are distributed. This paper presents the results of a survey asking for the opinion of Dutch commuters on acceptance of road pricing measures including revenue use. The results confirm previous findings that road pricing is in general not very acceptable and that revenue use is very important for the explanation of the level of acceptance. Road pricing is more acceptable when revenues are used for abolishment of existing car taxation or lower fuel taxes, indeed those targets that are in the direct interest of the respondent. For all types of measures it was found that education, the VOT of the respondents, financial compensation (partly or full) by the employer and the number of driven kilometers are important explanatory variables. Higher educated people, as well as respondents with a higher VOT, seem to find road pricing measures more acceptable than other people. The same holds for people that receive financial support for their commuting costs and for respondents driving many kilometers in a year. (Author/publisher)
Abstract