Transit's Effect on Mileage Responses to Oregon's Experiment in Road Pricing

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2009

Subject Area

policy - fares, economics - pricing, mode - mass transit, mode - pedestrian

Keywords

Walking distance, Value pricing (Road pricing), Transit access, Transit, Road pricing, Residential areas, Public transit, Peak periods, Oregon, Mileage-based pricing, Mass transit, Local transit, Distance based fares, Behavior modification, Accessibility

Abstract

The Oregon Department of Transportation tested a system to collect a vehicle-based mileage fee as a replacement for the Oregon gas tax. Preliminary analysis of the results for that experiment found that access to transit affected people’s response to pricing. However, the measure used was a self-reported estimate of distance to “the nearest bus or rail stop that could take you places you want to go.” Since this is not a commonly defined measure, household addresses were used to identify actual distance to transit services in relation to various measures of transit service available. The measures of transit service available were not found to affect people’s response to the mileage charges, but actual distance either to any transit or to frequent transit service did have a statistically significant effect on the changes in peak-hour miles in response to the prices. There was also an effect on changes in total miles driven, but it was not statistically significant.

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