Investigating the acceptance and willingness-to-pay of an urban pricing scheme: The case of Athens

Abstract

Urban pricing strategies have been widely implemented in order to reduce externalities generated by traffic. These strategies have been considered effective schemes that not only it is possible to relieve congestion from metropolitan areas that have heavy traffic, but can also reduce emissions from cars and promote public transport usage. The scope of this paper is to investigate the users’ perceptions towards the measure of urban tolls in the center of Athens. Applying discrete choice models to data from a stated preference survey, it was resulted that the majority of respondents would not accept such measure. Furthermore, it was found that drivers are willing to pay an extra 8-euro cents in order to save 1 minute on the travel time of their trip.