Possible Congestion-Mitigating Carrot-and-Stick Transport Policies for Jerusalem

We employ calibrated and validated MATSim multi-modal model of the Jerusalem Metropolitan Area traffic for assessing the effectiveness of Demand-Responsive-Transport (DRT) with ridesharing as a possible game-changer of the existing equilibrium between public transport and private cars. We investigate the combined effect of congestion charges, parking prices, and shared DRT services on the modal split and demonstrate that the DRT is effective when introduced together with congestion charges or parking prices. The policy effectiveness depends on the choice of the deterrence mechanism – given the overall payment for entering the controlled area, the effect of congestion charges depends on the size of the area. At the same time, parking prices are equally effective for an area of any size and, thus, seem advantageous.