A behavioural experiment on intelligent road user charging

In view of services such as road pricing for passenger cars, we devised an innovative and versatile technological solution that can aid in solving some of the mobility problems. In it, each vehicle was equipped with an on-board unit, that transmitted their locations in real-time to a map-matching back-end server. The current cost per kilometre, differentiated between location, time, and vehicle type, and was then sent back such that each driver instantly knew the current cost of the trip. Based on this smart technology, we then organised an experiment that researched human behaviour and responses to an example service, i.e., road pricing stimuli within a large geographic region. As a result, road users adapted their behaviour, resulting in a lower overall cost. As a side effect, the experiment provided a solution to drive and support the city‟s mobility objectives.