An international comparison of factors influencing modal split: implications for environmental taxation
Abstract
There are various possibilities of transport regulation such as taxes, congestion charging or normative regulation. To choose efficiently, one has to understand the main factors of transport behavior.
If the fuel price is an important factor, then public policy may use environmental taxes to influence the modal split, otherwise other instruments should be used. Thus it is worth analyzing the importance of the fuel prices for the determination of modal splits.
In this paper, we try to reap the information content of the Urban Audit and statistically analyze the determinants of the modal split for the travel to work. Although the Urban Audit data quality and usability precludes a clear answer, our results indicate that the fuel price is among the determinants of the modal split.
The results and methodology in this paper must be seen as a first attempt to analyze the information potential of the Urban Audit for answering inquiries related to transport in European cities.