When perceived fairness and acceptance go hand in hand–Drivers of regulatory and economic policies for low-carbon mobility

Abstract

Restrictive measures are indispensable to achieving sustainable and low-carbon mobility. At the same time, these are often not implemented due to concerns that public support will not materialize; therefore, they are relegated to the background in the debate on policy measures that can be applied to change mobility behavior. In this national study (N = 1,083), we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the drivers of and differences between regulatory and economic transport policies. We find that policy-specific beliefs and, in particular, perceived fairness are key drivers of public acceptance. Our results indicate that policies must be perceived as fair, effective, and minimally intrusive for them to be accepted by the public and thus implementable. No major differences were found between the two types of policies examined, namely, regulatory and economic policies. Overall, public acceptance of the proposed measures is low. We discuss these results in terms of the study content and methodology and conclude by describing their implications for transport policy design.