Comparing Road User Charging Acceptability in the City of Tunis and Damascus

Department of Transport Technology and Economics, Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

^a Corresponding author: mshatanawi@edu.bme.hu

Abstract

Worldwide, multiple studies have been trying to reduce traffic issues without physically changing the road network, this is when the congestion fees strategy has been considered as a favorable solution for the urban traffic issues. A fundamental condition that needs to be checked before the implementation of the road-pricing scheme is the acceptability of both the political and the public parties. The acceptability is so variable and depends on many features and differs from one individual to another, thus, a survey with a set of variant questions might help to understand the expectations and the worries of the citizens and aim to improve them for better effectiveness of the road-pricing project. This report aims, through analyzing the responses of a distributed survey, to evaluate the acceptability of the citizens of Tunis, Tunisia and Damascus, Syria in order to draw a comparison between the two cities. Moreover, it assesses the degree of acceptability and the variable expectations of the implementation of the congestion fees of the two societies.