Assessing the potential acceptability of road pricing in Santiago

Abstract

Studying road pricing acceptability has become increasingly relevant. Even though the policy has been effective in reducing the growing levels of congestion in several cities by curbing the indiscriminate use of the car, it still faces an initial rejection among the population in general. We discuss this issue based on a comprehensive review and set out to define what could be an acceptable road pricing scheme for Santiago de Chile. For this purpose, we estimated a hybrid discrete choice model that allowed us to segment the population according to their attitudes toward the measure. The preferred road pricing scheme in Santiago would charge only for entrance to the smallest of three cordons, around the historic centre of the city, during either the morning (or morning and evening) rush hours, provided that revenues were used to enhance public transport in the city. Since this is different from the best technical solution, which would imply charging in the largest cordon area, we suggest testing the preferred scheme in a pilot trial, following international recommendations and successful previous cases.