Evidence from Highway Drivers in Greece Showing Toll Avoidance and Utility of Alternative Routes

Abstract

Road tolling plays a significant role on highways’ financial sustainability since it consists the major revenue source. This paper aims to examine the factors that affect the drivers’ route choice and urge them to avoid toll roads when an alternative toll-free route is available. The paper presents the results of a case study that is dealing with the issue of toll avoidance at the last non-privatized highway of Greece, the Egnatia Odos (EO) road. Data from a combined revealed and stated preference survey were collected and binary choice models were built for car and truck drivers so as to determine the utility of alternative routes. The results show that travel cost and toll fees are critical route choice criteria for car drivers, while travel time is a key decision factor for truck drivers. The high safety standards for the toll route were appreciated by both categories of drivers. Additional trip and personal characteristics, such as gender, trip frequency, type of transported cargo, and total trip length also affect drivers’ choices. The elasticity of travel time and cost was estimated to shed light on drivers’ sensitiveness to the route attributes and it was found that truck drivers’ choices are greatly influenced by their working time schedules. These findings highlight the key factors that influence the utility of toll roads and therefore could assist highway authorities and concessionaires in developing successful toll pricing policies which will not act as a deterrent to the use of highways.