Acceptance and equity in advanced path-related road pricing schemes

The impact of the transport sector range between 20% and 40% in terms of consumption of fossil fuels and emissions. Many urban areas are trying to adopt planning strategies aimed at reducing the car usage and their emissions reaching a sustainable mobility. The introduction of a toll for the use of a road infrastructure and/or a service is one of the most common Transportation Demand Management policy. The development of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies allow extending and applying these pricing schemes (both for passenger and for freight) in several different and most rational (sustainable) ways, connecting the price both to the individual characteristics of the trip and to the type of vehicle used. The aim of the study is to propose an original transport-related acceptance & equity measure useful for enlarging both the consensus and the equity in the design of a road pricing scheme. Results of the research underline the importance in introducing acceptance&equity measures as an additional design criteria in road pricing schemes, jointly with the traditional ones (e.g. road traffic congestion reduction and pollutant reduction)