Transcript No Slide Title

Road User Charging: Building a consensus, Wednesday 26th October
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What do we know
about public attitudes?
Professor Glenn Lyons
Centre for Transport & Society, UWE, Bristol
Overview
 Origins of the presentation
 Attitudinal surveys’ results
 Topic area findings
 Summarising remarks
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Origins of the presentation
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 A review commissioned in March 2004 to inform the
Government’s National Road Pricing Feasibility Study
 An evidence-based review of attitudes to road pricing
with the following objectives:
– to undertake a comprehensive review of the evidence-base
on attitudes to road pricing in the United Kingdom, and in
other countries; and
– to highlight and prioritise areas where our understanding
of public and business attitudes could usefully be
developed.
 Some 200 articles catalogued and reviewed
 24 studies concerning attitudinal surveys
 Key topic areas identified
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Attitudinal surveys’ results
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‘Revenue-return’ versus ‘no return’
Study
Year
CfIT25a
Base proposition
‘no-return’
ratio
‘revenuereturn’
ratio
%
difference
2000 urban congestion charging
0.51
0.95
+86
CfIT25a
2000 motorway charging
0.18
0.37
+106
CfIT25b
2001 urban congestion charging
0.79
1.80 
+128
CfIT25c
2002 congestion charging
0.53
2.52 
+375
0.41
0.74
+80
Dublin107 2003 urban congestion charging
RAC79
2003 satellite tracking and charging system
-
revenue return = improvements to public transport
ratio = % support / % oppose (if ratio>1 then net support)
2003 surveys occurred after the launch of
the London scheme
1.75 
-
‘Direct’ versus ‘indirect’ returns
Study
Year
Base proposition
‘direct’
ratio
CfIT25a 2000
urban congestion charging
1.17
CfIT
motorway charging
0.54
CfIT25b 2001
urban congestion charging (VED)
1.89
CfIT25b 2001
urban congestion charging (FD)
1.93
CfIT25c 2002
congestion charging (VED)
CfIT25c 2002
congestion charging (FD)
RAC79
satellite tracking and charging system
25a
2000
2003
‘Direct’ = benefit to individual car user
‘Indirect’ = benefit to public transport
2003 survey occurred after the launch of
the London scheme

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‘indirect’
ratio
% difference
in ratios
0.95
-23
0.37
-46

1.80

-5

2.43 
2.16 
2.28 
1.80

2.52 
2.52 
1.75 
-7
+4
+14
-30
Limitations of
inter-study comparisons
 incomplete understanding of the nature, design
and timing of each survey
 prevailing externalities
 seldom designed with inter-study comparison in
mind
 time-series surveys an exception
ABD website:
“Road Pricing Proposals - Feedback to a
Commercial Radio Online Survey July 2004
65% of respondents were OPPOSED to
Darling's road pricing proposals.”
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Topic area findings
1. The importance of trade-offs
6. Technologies
2. Informed attitudes
7. Equity
3. Determinants of attitudes
8. Business attitudes
4. Disaggregating the public
9. Success and failure
5. Attitude shapers
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The importance of trade-offs
 across national cultures acceptability of road pricing improves
significantly when the revenues are hypothecated to the development
of transport generally
 most evidence on trade-offs concerns urban road pricing
 unclear what monetary value motorists attach to congestion
reduction and time saving
 it is possible to achieve the twin goals of effectiveness and
acceptability
 RESEARCH NEEDED TO BETTER UNDERSTAND
THE (DYNAMICS OF) TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN
EFFECTIVENESS AND ACCEPTABILITY
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Informed attitudes
 level of knowledge or awareness is a determinant of attitude
 any proposed road pricing scheme needs to be one which can be amenable
to public understanding
 an S-shaped time profile of acceptability may describe the process of urban
road pricing acceptability
 the motivation for knowledge acquisition changes from scheme concept to
planned implementation
 it is posited that the act of information provision could in itself could
engender trust and acceptance
 how perceptions and attitudes are influenced by the media, personal
contacts and government information campaigns is poorly understood
 RESEARCH NEEDED TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE
DYNAMICS OF HOW ATTITUDES ARE FORMED OVER
TIME IN THE FACE OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
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Determinants of attitudes
 perceptions are facts to those who hold them
 non car users perceive both themselves and society as being better off
while car users face conflicting motives of self-interest and social interest
 relatively few studies have addressed the question of which determinants
influence the degree of acceptability
 perception of the primary policy objectives is significant
 social norms, personal outcome expectations and perceived effectiveness
are positively connected with acceptability while socio-economic
characteristics such as income exert much less influence
 attitudes appear to be more than just a reflection of self-interest
 RESEARCH NEEDED TO RECOGNISE AND
UNDERSTAND THE LINKS BETWEEN
UNDERLYING VALUES AND THE
FORMATION OF ATTITUDES
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Disaggregating the public
 attitudes to pricing are more sympathetic in London than in other parts of
the country
 reasons for these differences are not clear nor is there an understanding of
what distinguishes supportive Londoners from unsupportive Londoners
 few accounts of attitudinal surveys attempt substantially to disaggregate
their sample in order to pinpoint respondent characteristics of significance
 surveys focus on the state of collective attitude rather than on
understanding the makeup of that collective view
 LONGER TERM RESEARCH NEEDED TO BETTER
UNDERSTAND THE INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL,
SPATIAL, SOCIAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND PERSONAL
DIFFERENCES ON ATTITUDES
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Attitude shapers
 careful choice of which authority regulates, administers and implements
any pricing measure, and the legitimacy that such an agency has in the
eyes of stakeholders, may have an important influence over acceptability
 the way in which the process leading to implementation is handled can be
significant with international evidence reflecting both successes and
failures
 little understanding of the interplay and dynamics of policies on pricing
held by different key voices (e.g. Select Committee, CfIT, AA)
 the influence of leadership and policy entrepreneurs is acknowledged
 it is conjectured that the media can influence the results of attitude
surveys as can the dissemination of such results to the public at large
 RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND THE
INFLUENCE AND DYNAMICS OF AND INTERPLAY
BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT POLICY ‘VOICES’
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Technologies
 if road pricing technology does not work or is not easily understood by the
public then its credibility is fatally undermined
 technology can be instrumental in changing attitudes and acceptance at the
point of and beyond implementation by allowing the charging system to be
adapted to the needs and sensitivities of the public
 although technology allows greater scope for design there is an impression that
many proposed schemes remain unimaginative
 there is little evidence on the significance of protection of privacy though
available findings suggest this is currently of relatively minor importance
though this may change if road pricing becomes a more popular policy solution
 THERE IS A GENERAL NEED TO ACCOUNT FOR
HOW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS CAN
POSITIVELY OR OTHERWISE DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY INFLUENCE ATTITUDES
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Equity
 despite several surveys revealing equity to be a prime element in
acceptability much debate on equity issues has been theoretical
 perceptions of inequity can fuel opposition to road pricing propositions
 for affected individuals or organisations equity can be spatial and/or social
 it is important to understand different perceptions of fairness amongst
stakeholders and incorporate responses to these in scheme design
 A NEED FOR RESEARCH TO
UNDERSTAND HOW INTERPRETATIONS OF
FAIRNESS DIFFER ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF
STAKEHOLDERS AND HOW TO ACCOMMODATE
THIS INTO SCHEME DESIGN TO MAXIMISE THE
NUMER OF ‘WINNERS’
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Business attitudes
 the evidence base is much more limited in relation to business attitudes
to road pricing and surveys to date have tended to be restricted in scope
in terms of the size and type of business contacted
 impacts of charging for businesses in London were found to vary
considerably by economic sector
 one study suggests that business may be as much concerned with fairness
and equity issues as they are with the potential for economic
displacement
 there is a lack of studies which attempt to examine the structure and
representative character of national and local business networks in
relation to the road pricing debate
 MORE REPRESENTATIVE SURVEYS OF BUSINESS
ATTITUDES ARE REQUIRED WHICH CONSIDER
EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC SECTOR, SIZE AND
LOCATION AND HOW BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE
AND ATTITUDES MAY SHIFT OVER TIME
Success and failure in the
introduction of road pricing
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 while a number of articles examine reasons for success or failure of specific
schemes, comparative studies are uncommon
 reasons for success include: intolerable traffic problems; adequate alternative(s)
to car use; political conviction and stability; a single empowered delivery
agency; accepted technology; hypothecation and compensation of losers;
education; and clear business strategy
 reasons for failure include: political uncertainty; poor communication from
government to the electorate; loose ends to be seized on by opponents; failure
to engage with the public in debate and failure to be specific about use of
revenue
 it is suggested that gaining national acceptance for a national scheme will be
more challenging than the education and participation of a discrete and defined
section of the public concerning a local scheme
 A COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY IS
ADVOCATED TO DEVELOP A ‘BEST PRACTICE’
GUIDE TO POLICY MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Summarising remarks
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 There is an abundance of literature on attitudes to road
pricing which ably points to the pertinent issues but
leaves a trail of evidence gaps
 It is suggested that a knowledge of what attitudes are
held is of less value (though far from unimportant) to
policy considerations than a much needed greater
knowledge of why different attitudes are held and
whether and how attitudes can be influenced
 Attitudes are not static and recent developments in the
UK have moved us into uncharted territory in terms of
factors that affect attitudes – as such the relevance of
much research is diminished over time