MobilityCoins – First results on social acceptance, system boundaries and individual budgets in a tradeable credit system in Germany

Abstract

We propose a holistic, budget-based mobility management system that accounts for negative transport externalities and transport equity. Based on research in tradeable credit schemes – a cap and trade system - the concept of MobilityCoins incentivizes sustainable mobility by offering the possibility to earn credits with active mobility and by making resource-intense modes more costly. As the allocation of individual mobility budgets might be socially contested and requires tracking of daily trips, we conducted a qualitative analysis through expert interviews to evaluate acceptance and equity issues. Representing different sectors, the experts assessed that i) the system would contribute mostly to traffic efficiency and climate mitigation, ii) data security and user effort would be the most critical issue for social acceptance, iii) a yearly budget allocation cycle and a regional-to-national enrollment would be suitable and iv) mobility impairment and public transport supply should be high-priority parameters when setting up the budget allocation function.