U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) / Research & Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) / Volpe Center
RSG conducted a study with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) to measure changes in travel behavior in response to road pricing projects in Seattle and Atlanta. The study purpose was to provide an in-depth understanding of all the dimensions of traveler behavior changes at the individual, household, and segment level (such as low income households) that result from road pricing and the corresponding changes in roadway travel conditions (including reliability). The study was designed as a longitudinal panel of approximately 3,000 households in each city that included vanpoolers, transit users, and auto travelers. All adults in households in the panel completed detailed before (2010)-and-after (2012) two-day household travel behavior diary surveys that also included attitudinal, real-time traveler information, commute behavior, and behavioral change questions about how, why, and to what extent the household’s travel had changed over the course of the project. The study also included a panel management approach of sharing preliminary results, optional mini-surveys immediately after the implementation of congestion pricing, and focus groups on the travel behavior impacts of tolling.