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Users’ perceptions and willingness to pay in interurban toll roads: identifying differences across regions from a nationwide survey in Spain

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Abstract

Users’ acceptability is considered one of the key drivers for the successful implementation of transport policy measures. This is especially crucial in the case of toll roads since they are financed through drivers’ contributions. Previous literature in this field has mainly focused on measuring users’ attitudes towards urban congestion pricing strategies. However limited research has been developed concerning interurban toll roads. Previous research shows that socioeconomic variables are not conclusive to explain users’ perceptions towards tolls. By contrast, other drivers such as regional differences seem to play a more important role, especially when charging conditions within the same nation greatly vary across regions. This paper analyzes regional differences in users’ attitudes within an asymmetrical distribution of the toll road network across regions. Based on a nationwide survey conducted to road users in interurban toll roads in Spain, we develop both a binomial logit and a censored regression (tobit) model to explore drivers’ perceptions and willingness to pay. The research concludes that users from regions with a more extensive tolled network generally show a more negative attitude towards charges, but not necessarily a lower willingness to pay. The paper also points out that an asymmetrical distribution of toll roads across regions may result in negative perceptions among those users perceiving to be unfairly treated when compared to citizens in other regions.

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Notes

  1. In this research, we use the terms “users’ perceptions” and “users’ attitudes” interchangeably as it has usually been done in the literature.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), which has funded the project “EU Support Mechanisms to promote Public Private Partnerships for financing TransEuropean Transport Infrastructure” [TRA 2012-36590].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación del Transporte (TRANSyT), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Profesor Aranguren s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Gomez & José Manuel Vassallo

  2. Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anestis Papanikolaou

Authors
  1. Juan Gomez
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  2. Anestis Papanikolaou
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  3. José Manuel Vassallo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Gomez.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 7.

Table 7 Variables measured and questions addressed in the survey
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Appendix 2

Table 8.

Table 8 Main characteristics of the toll roads included in the sample
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Gomez, J., Papanikolaou, A. & Vassallo, J.M. Users’ perceptions and willingness to pay in interurban toll roads: identifying differences across regions from a nationwide survey in Spain. Transportation 44, 449–474 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9662-6

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