A Disaggregated Approach to Estimate the Spatial Distributional Effects of Implemented Toll Road Systems

Abstract

This study presents a methodology in a disaggregated manner to assess the spatial distributional effects of implemented toll road networks. Existing zone-based research focuses only on revealing the existence of regressivity. This approach provides limited information in understanding the spatial distribution of travelers from low-income groups known to have suffered welfare loss due to toll roads. For road pricing to be a win-win strategy for all income groups, the revenue from toll roads should be used to improve the mobility of low-income groups. Therefore, it is desirable to have more detailed location information and regressivity effects for each income group due to toll roads. This study proposes a new method to better represent the spatial distributional effects by utilizing disaggregated and recently available data (e.g., smartphone navigation data), enabling analysts to easily estimate the welfare loss of low-income groups due to toll roads. Applying the proposed method in Chungcheongnam-do, Korea, reveals that installing toll roads would be regressive in terms of income. However, the analysis results provide sufficient information to interpret spatial distributional effects’, current status, and causes. This method improves the existing zone-based analysis, which cannot distinguish who has greater welfare loss among high- and low-income groups in a particular zone. This information would be extremely useful in establishing mitigation policies for low-income groups affected by installing toll roads in the future.