Study of the accessibility inequalities of cordon-based pricing strategies using a multimodal Theil index

The implementation of an appropriate pricing policy in an urban
area could alleviate both environmental and congestion problems
by encouraging a shift towards more sustainable modes of
transportation. However, any positive net social welfare balance
delivered by the policy can hide unacceptable regressive effects.
Therefore, it is crucial to investigate any change in relative levels
of accessibility among different categories of transport network
users.
This study focuses on the application of a cordon-based
congestion pricing scheme on a multimodal network, where
private cars and public transportation coexist, and includes a
sensitivity analysis by varying the size of the charging area and
the amount of the toll, for a monocentric urban reality. Taking
into account an elastic demand associated with each proposed
charging scenario, the related distributional effects are explored
using the Theil index, with a quantitative assessment of the
inequalities in the accessibility variations across the users of the
network.