Global climate change calls for wide-ranging policy interventions in different areas and on different levels. One challenging area is transportation, which is responsible for 20 to 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce emission, changes in behavior and travel mode choices are necessary.
There are different policy strategies to limit car use and many of these policy interventions can be implemented at local level by municipalities. Some of the most effective approaches to decrease private car use in cities, according to reviews of the existing literature, are congestion charges, mobility service, limited traffic zone and reduced space for cars and increased infrastructure for active travel. However, for these policies to be successfully implemented and complied with, they need to be accepted by the people.
Research on acceptance of climate change policies, such as carbon taxes, suggest that perceived fairness is a strong predictor for acceptance, besides perceived effectiveness, environmental concern and personal values. However, most studies explore acceptance of national level policies, and less research attention are devoted to local urban interventions.
This paper examines acceptance for urban mobility policies, drawing results from a survey in the municipality of Uppsala in Sweden. Acceptance to policy packages (push strategy combined with pull strategies) are explored using a conjoint analysis. Moreover, we explore if fairness and effectiveness influence acceptability.
We also look at how these factors relate to behavior change intentions. Aspects such as frequency of car use, distance travelled and number of cars in the household, besides personal values and sociodemographic factors will be controlled for. The paper thereby addresses questions whether there are combinations of strategies that are perceived more acceptable than others and if perceived fairness and effectiveness increase the acceptability of mobility policies. And at last, are there any correlation between policy acceptance and behavior change intentions?
