Cars Users Reaction To The Introduction Of Road Pricing: Evidence From Trento (Italy)

Road pricing is increasingly becoming popular among decision makers, as a policy tool meant to rationalize transport flows in a given area. This paper aims at studying the modal choice as a function of personal characteristics of commuters by considering an original dataset of more than 9,000 commuters in the Trento district (Italy) collected in 2001. We further provide empirical estimates of drivers reaction to the introduction of road pricing and to quality improvement of public transport services. We find that the introduction of a system of road pricing results by far more effective.