Incorporating attitudinal aspects in roadway pricing analysis

The impacts of behavioral attitudes are rarely explored when it comes to roadway pricing strategies. The existing literature mainly focuses on observed traveler or trip characteristics and is less likely to capture latent preferences or heterogeneity of roadway users. Motivated to address this knowledge gap, the study herein puts an effort to examine how underlying behavioral attitudes will affect drivers’ choices in utilizing managed lane facilities. Based on the data from the South Florida Expressway Stated Preference Survey, factor analysis was conducted based on ten attitudinal statements, and four latent attitudinal factors were identified: willingness to pay, willingness to shift travel schedule, utility (cost/time) sensitivity, and congestion tolerance. In order to assess managed lane’s utility for drivers, two sets of multinomial logit (MNL) models were developed using combined revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) data, with and without these attitudinal factors. Results indicated significant contribution of attitudinal parameters in the model, both in terms of coefficients and model performance. The factors were further used in a cluster analysis which identified major segments of roadway users. Such market segmentation is expected to provide valuable insights in capturing travelers’ behavior while accounting for attitudinal aspects, which could enhance transportation planning efforts and policy making procedures.