Exploring the Relationship between Perceived Acceptability and Referendum Voting Support for Alternative Road Pricing Schemes

Abstract

stakeholders as a pre-condition for gaining support from politicians. This paper explores the key influences and the extent to which particular road pricing schemes are acceptable to the community at large, and how this translates into support if a scheme were subject to a vote in a referendum. Using data collected in Sydney in 2012 from a sample of car users, we estimate a recursive simultaneous bivariate probit model that recognises the endogeneity effect of scheme acceptability on voting plans. We find that there is a very strong link between voting intentions and scheme acceptability, and provide a series of direct elasticity estimates of the influence that the cost elements of road pricing reform schemes have on the joint probability of accepting and voting for a scheme.