New Jersey Turnpike time-of-day pricing initiative's behavioral impacts: Observed role of travel distance on underlying elasticities

This paper discusses the key findings of a research project aimed at assessing the behavioral impacts of the time-of-day pricing implementation on the New Jersey Turnpike. Analysis of data collected by the authors, including behavioral and travel patterns before and after the time-of-day pricing initiative, revealed the following: (a) about 7.0% of individual drivers (6.6 % of car trips) changed behavior as a consequence of the time-of-day pricing initiative, which translated into market elasticities for toll changes of -0.398 with the number of individuals used as the unit of demand and of -0.545 with the number of trips per month used; (6) users responded to time-of-day pricing by implementing multidimensional strategies, including changes in facility usage, time of travel, productivity of car travel, and mode or occupancy; (c) users traveling relatively shorter distances exhibited more elastic behavior than those traveling long distances; and (d) only around 5% had more than one-half hour of flexibility and traveled during peak hours (they could be the target of the time-of-day pricing initiative because of the flexibility to shift to off-peak periods).