User acceptance of demand management tools: Preliminary results of the CONCERT-THETIS project

User acceptance of telematics systems is the most important stage toward a wider implementation and deployment of such systems. The main objective of the CONCERT (Cooperation for Novel City Electronic Regulating Tools) Project is to implement and analyse smart demand management tools and demonstrate the impacts of such implementation on the travel demand user acceptance and behavior and modal shift toward the use of public transport. The site project of Thessaloniki is concerned with the implementation of roadside information system and the restriction of traffic entrance to the commercial city center. The results of the surveys carried out before the system implementation showed that changing the travel route for all travel purposes is the main impact of the information system on the travel behavior. Concerning the public acceptance of the zone access control, the results showed that the public is not in favor of urban road pricing, however, such system is acceptable when it is combined with other charging policies such as time based payment. Finally, the analysis showed that modal shift to public transport is expected to be considerably high for all trip purposes when complete measures of demand management tools are introduced in the city.