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Effect of Auto Restraint Policies on Travel Behavior

Auto restraint policies are becoming increasingly popular among urban planners and policy makers as a way of managing travel demand and traffic in city centers. Because urban access is considered crucial to the economic success of a downtown area, certain constituencies, such as business and retail, have historically been opposed to such policies. To address these concerns and design appropriate policies, it is important to understand how visitors to a city center are likely to respond to new policies. This paper presents a model for estimating the likely response to two potential auto restraint policies in the center of Tel Aviv, the largest metropolitan area in Israel: an increase in parking cost and the use of congestion pricing in the form of a cordon around the city center. The models are based on the responses of center visitors to a stated preference survey. The results show that for both workers and nonworkers, most drivers who respond to the policy will do so by changing their mode of travel, and, in the case of congestion pricing, by also changing the time of their trip. The minority will respond by changing their destination or canceling their trip. This is an encouraging result from a policy point of view because changing time or mode is considered a positive shift, whereas changing destination or canceling the trip is considered negative. The results indicate that auto restraint policies can be effective in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution in city centers without hampering their economic vitality.