All attempts to reduce traffic and to change the modal split in favour of public transport have failed to slow the further increase of private motorized traffic in urban areas in recent years. Therefore urban traffic has become a major problem in many countries all over the world. One promising approach to the overcoming of the problem and to the control of traffic demand in an efficient way is to introduce variable demand-based pricing schemes in urban areas. The MobilPASS field trial in Stuttgart, Germany has investigated the impact of variable road-pricing charges on road users' behaviour at a level of detail which is unique world-wide. Special attention was paid to the interaction between the charging schemes and the reduction in the number of trips, change of mode of transport, route change and time shift. The empirical results, which are presented in this paper, show that corrective efforts of time- and route-dependent road charges have the desired results.
Abstract