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When Are Transport Pricing Policies Fair and Acceptable?

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Abstract

This study examines the relative importance of six policy outcomes related to different fairness principles for the perceived fairness and acceptability of pricing policies aimed at changing transport behaviour. The fairness and acceptability of six different types of transport pricing policies were systematically higher if policy outcomes were related to environmental justice and equality. The policy measures were evaluated as more acceptable and fair when respondents believed that future generations, nature and the environment were protected (reflecting environmental justice), and to a lesser extent, when everybody was equally affected by the policy outcomes (reflecting equality), irrespective of absolute differences in fairness and acceptability of the policies. Policy outcomes reflecting egoistic concerns (e.g. being financially worse off and being worse off than others) and equity (e.g. proportional to people’s income and contribution to problems) were related to the fairness and acceptability of some policy measures, but no systematic pattern was found across six policy measures. This suggests that policy outcomes related to distributions that focus on collective considerations appear to be more important for the fairness and acceptability of transport pricing policies than those focusing on individual interests. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Overall, the six policy outcomes did not strongly or systematically correlate. However, strong correlations (between .35 and .71; p < .001) were found between the evaluation of ‘protection of nature, environment and future generations’ and ‘proportional to contribution to problems’ for all six pricing measures. Furthermore, strong correlations (between .51 and .81, p < .001) were also found between the evaluation of the policy outcomes ‘being worse off than others’ and ‘being financially worse off’ for all six measures.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Dr. C.A.J. Vlek and Prof. Dr. J.A. Rothengatter for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Geertje Schuitema, Linda Steg & Monique van Kruining

  2. Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Haslegaardsvej 10, 8210, Aarhus, Denmark

    Geertje Schuitema

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  1. Geertje Schuitema
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Correspondence to Geertje Schuitema.

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Schuitema, G., Steg, L. & van Kruining, M. When Are Transport Pricing Policies Fair and Acceptable?. Soc Just Res 24, 66–84 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-011-0124-9

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