Gaming the Introduction of an Urban Road Charging Scheme From Zona a Traffico Limitato to Torino Centro Aperto in Turin Master thesis Spatial Planning Specialisation in Urban and Regional Mobility Nijmegen School of Management Radboud University Tibor Rongen October, 2019 Gaming the Introduction of an Urban Road Charging Scheme From Zona a Traffico Limitato to Torino Centro Aperto in Turin Colofon Title Gaming the Introduction of an Urban Road Charging Scheme: From Zona a Traffico Limitato to Torino Centro Aperto in Turin Author Tibor Rongen Student number s1014704 Issue Master Thesis Spatial Planning Specialisation Urban and Regional Mobility University Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University Supervisor Dr. S. Lenferink (Radboud University) Second Reader Dr. S.V. Meijerink (Radboud University) External supervisor Dr. V. Rappazzo (Politecnico di Torino) Version Final Issue date October 2019 2 Abstract Early 2019, the municipal administration of Turin (Italy) announced the replacement of a limited traffic zone (ZTL) by an urban road charging scheme (TCA) to diminish the negative externalities caused by motorised traffic in the city. Due to various reasons, the proposition has led to resistance among different stakeholder groups. In an attempt to deliberate the public debate, this research investigated how serious game (SG) methodology can be employed to learn focus group (FG) participants about the rationality to introduce TCA. The SG design aimed to reflect the user perspective on Turin’s transportation system using different transport modes while simulating a ZTL and TCA scenario. Hence, participants could experience the effect of the policy transformation on their daily mobility. In-situ game data was used to calculate and discuss Generalised Travel Costs (GTC) and external costs as a result of participant’s gameplay, to provide insight into the welfare principles of road pricing. The SG was incorporated in an FG setting, in which an information lecture and a group discussion helped participants to relate the game to real-world practices. Ex-ante and ex-post questionnaires were used to test for participant’s attitudinal change which could verify the gained knowledge. The results indicate that the shared experience of playing the game led to the socialisation of knowledge. However, the research shows that the integration of the SG in a learning process of complementary educative elements is vital to make its simulation meaningful to the real-world context of Turin. Finally, the research contributes to theory development through providing experimental game simulation results, which can be used to test hypotheses of road pricing in relation to learning or to further develop the SG used in this investigation. Keywords Focus groups; Planning Support Systems; policy knowledge; road pricing; serious gaming; social learning 3 Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT ...................................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE ....................................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE ..................................................................................................................................... 12 1.5 SOCIETAL RELEVANCE ....................................................................................................................................... 13 2 THEORY ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 ROAD PRICING ................................................................................................................................................ 14 2.1.1 Introduction to transport policy ............................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Planning for accessibility ........................................................................................................................ 15 2.1.3 Road pricing: introduction ..................................................................................................................... 16 2.1.4 Economic background of road pricing ................................................................................................... 17 2.1.5 Differentiation in pricing schemes ......................................................................................................... 18 2.1.6 Implementation barriers to pricing ........................................................................................................ 19 2.1.7 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 POLICY LEARNING ............................................................................................................................................ 20 2.2.1 Policy knowledge and public attitudes................................................................................................... 20 2.2.2 Planning Support Systems ...................................................................................................................... 22 2.2.3 Serious games and learning ................................................................................................................... 22 2.2.4 Applications for policy learning.............................................................................................................. 24 2.2.5 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................................... 25 2.3 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE ....................................................................................................................................... 25 3 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 27 3.1 STRATEGY ...................................................................................................................................................... 27 3.1.1 Research philosophy .............................................................................................................................. 27 3.1.2 Mixed-methods strategies ..................................................................................................................... 28 3.1.3 Validity and reliability ............................................................................................................................ 28 3.1.4 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................................................ 29 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................................ 29 3.2.2 Focus groups and discussions ................................................................................................................ 30 4 3.2.3 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................................................ 32 3.2.4 Serious games ........................................................................................................................................ 32 3.3 TRAFFIXED: OUTLINE OF THE GAME ..................................................................................................................... 34 3.3.1 Context of the game .............................................................................................................................. 34 3.3.2 The course of the game.......................................................................................................................... 34 3.3.3 Gameplay components .......................................................................................................................... 35 3.3.4 Performance indicators .........................................................................................................................