Trip timing and scheduling preferences

This note summarizes the results from the project SURPRICE: Trip timing and scheduling preferences. The general emphasis of this project is the importance of trip timing as a cause of congestion. It is important to recognize that departure time is a choice of travellers and that congestion arises because many travellers choose to travel at the same time. The design and evaluation of pricing schemes should explicitly take changes in departure time patterns into account, in particular with time-varying charges. Failure to take trip timing into account will lead to failure in identifying important benefits and will lead to less efficient pricing schemes.