MobilityCoins: First empirical findings on the user-oriented system design for tradable credit schemes

Abstract

Tradable Credit Schemes recently gained more popularity in the literature on travel demand and congestion management. The basic principle of TCS is a cap-and-trade system that incorporates the rationing of infrastructure use rights to internalize the external costs of transportation. However, there is a lack of empirical research regarding user behavior and user preferences in such schemes. This paper builds on the idea to use TCS not only as an alternative for congestion charging, but also for providing incentives for sustainable transportation choices. In this paper, we present first empirical findings on the user-oriented system design of such a scheme, the MobilityCoin system. These findings are based on fifteen expert interviews and pre-test results of a stated preference survey on mode choice and trading behavior. We specifically look at system elements in which user preferences and user characteristics may play a role in making such a scheme a success: credit allocation, market regulation, trading behavior (willingess-to-sell, willingess-to-pay) and user effort caused by the system. Our findings are that experts support the concept of MobilityCoins and of individual credit allocation based on different user-related parameters, but appeal to put emphasis on the right implementation, low user effort and a fair TCS market regulation. Survey respondents understand the system idea, clearly react to stimuli by showing a mode shift compared to the status quo and would trade MobilityCoins reasonably.