Urban freight transport and policy changes: Improving decision makers' awareness via an agent-specific approach

This paper derives policy implications from agent-specific data with respect to the implementation of policy changes in the case of urban freight transport. In particular, the research, based on the case of Rome's Limited Traffic Zone, discusses alternative policy scenarios. After describing attribute definition and selection, questionnaire administration, data collection and treatment, willingness to pay estimates are calculated. The paper tests, from a policy-maker's perspective, the implications deriving from the presence of inter-agent heterogeneity and the specific policy composition of an improving and equally impacting interventions on all agent-types' utility. The paper shows how an agent-specific approach might increase decision makers' awareness and help taking better decisions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.