Aplanet road pricing

Last registered on April 26, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Aplanet road pricing
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013170
Initial registration date
April 22, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 26, 2024, 12:04 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Alice Ciccone
Affiliation
Institute of Transport Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Gøril Andreassen
PI Affiliation
Institute of Transport Economics
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Cloé Garnache
PI Affiliation
University of Oslo
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-04-10
End date
2025-07-19
Keywords
Behavior, Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
Transportation, road pricing, RCT, active transport, congestion, externalities, attitudes
JEL code(s)
C12; C8; C9; C93; H3; I12; R4
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We plan on running an RCT in the field during the spring of 2024 with a representative sample of residents in the Oslo area (capital of Norway). We will investigate individual mobility and transport modes using surveys and an app tracking mobility. In particular we are interested in study the impact of road pricing (first best price differentiated on time and space for car driving) on travel behavior and on acceptability for such policies.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Andreassen, Gøril, Alice Ciccone and Cloé Garnache. 2024. "Aplanet road pricing." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13170-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
University of Oslo
Type
URL
https://www.uio.no/english/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention consists of a baseline survey, an RCT in the field on road pricing and active transport, and a post survey.
The aim of the intervention is to study the effect of road pricing on driving behavior and the role of policy packaging and information on acceptability.
The post survey will collect information on policy acceptability, including how experience with road pricing affect acceptability of such policies.
Intervention Start Date
2024-05-13
Intervention End Date
2024-07-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
External cost in $ (for research questions 1&2) and Policy acceptability (for research questions 3-5)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
For research questions 1&2: our primary outcome are the external costs associated with one's choice of travel, including congestion, accident risk, air pollution, etc. These costs depend on the transport mode, time and location of the trip.

For research questions 3-5: our primary outcome is policy acceptability. We want to understand which factors affect policies for reducing the external costs associated with transportation, in particular road pricing.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
For research questions 1&2 only:
• Km driven total
• Km driven in rush h/total km
• Km driven in urban/total km
• Km public transport
• Km/min Cycle
• Km/min walk
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We want to track the number of kilometers driven during or outside rush hour, in urban and non-urban areas; as well as the number of kilometers travelled with public transport, with walking or cycling. The goal is to track how behavior for individual transport model, time, and location, changed between the observation period and the treatment period and between the control and the treatment groups.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our RCT will consist of a 2-week observation period and 6 weeks of treatment.

There will be two treatment groups and one control group. All participants will download and use a mobile app that automatically tracks their travel. The number of treatment arms will be finally decided based upon the number of users with an activated app. Inclusion/exclusion criteria will also be decided based on data collected during the observation period, before the experiment starts.

A representative sample of 200,000 people (over 18 years old) living in the Oslo area and several neighbour municipalities are randomly recruited by the Norwegian tax authority agency from the national Norwegian population.

These people are contacted with an online survey and, if they drive a car at least 2 days a week (during week days) and do not work off-shore or in the transportation sector, are offered to download our mobility app.

Of those who download the app, after about 2 weeks of observation, treatment begins and participants are randomized in the three groups: control, road pricing group, and road pricing and active transport group.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
no cluster
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
about 1000 individuals per arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We based our power calculation on a similar study conducted in Switzerland. They observed an effect of about 5% reduction in external costs. Mostly driven by switching in/out rush-hour.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
TØI-IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-18
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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