Which drivers switch at what price? Latent attitude and heterogeneous price sensitivity in CBD parking

초록

Parking pricing has long served as a core instrument of transportation demand management, particularly in dense central business districts where road space is scarce and transit options are well developed. In practice, however, drivers respond to fee changes in very different ways. A single uniform price often charges more than necessary from those who would readily switch, while doing little to move those who are more reluctant. This study examines whether a latent pro-transit attitude systematically structures the observed heterogeneity in parking-price sensitivity among drivers traveling to the Seoul Central Business District. The analysis uses stated preference data from 971 drivers in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. The survey followed a sequential ascending design, so that each respondent's switching threshold could be observed directly at the individual level. A partial ICLV model identifies a latent pro-transit attitude from seven attitudinal indicators and links it to mode choice alongside manifest attitudinal measures. To see how this latent construct maps onto observable behavioral patterns, respondents are then grouped into price-sensitivity segments based on their switching thresholds. A discrete-time hazard model is also estimated as a robustness check, since the sequential structure of the experiment progressively narrows the set of remaining respondents at each fee level. The latent attitude has a positive and highly significant effect in the choice model. Across the price-sensitivity segments, its mean value declines monotonically from the most responsive group to the most resistant, and the hazard analysis confirms that this pattern is not an artifact of the sequential design. These findings suggest that the most price-resistant drivers are characterized less by the prices they face than by a weaker orientation toward transit. For this group, further fee escalation is unlikely to be effective. A more promising direction may lie in improving both the actual and perceived quality of transit alternatives, through service-side investments and programs.

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