Does license plate rule induce low-carbon choices in residents' daily travels: Motivation and impacts

With increasing traffic and corresponding environmental problems, the measure of license plate rule has adopted on travel restriction in urban cities of China. This paper uses large-scale survey data to make an independent test and estimation model to analyse whether the vehicle policy of license plate rule has a significant impact on the low-carbon choice of residents' daily travel. The moderate effect for whether the increase in household vehicle holdings weakens the license plate rule policy was also explored in our paper. This study found that the license plate rule policy can induce low-carbon travel, but the impact is inefficient in comparison to the control of household vehicle holdings. The results also showed that household vehicle holdings moderate the impact of license plate rule on low carbon choices of residents daily travel. These findings can provide more support for the government when it seeks to make future decisions in low-carbon travel policies.