Economic Evaluation of Route Choice Characteristics for Owner–Operator Truck Drivers in Southern California Freeways

This paper presents the results on the demand survey obtained from owner–operator truck drivers for their willingness to use truck-only toll lanes on Southern California freeways. The stated preference survey method was used to estimate the values placed by them on time, reliability, and safety measures given nine different scenarios geared toward assessing those values. The data was collected by meeting in person with owner–operator truck drivers near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to understand their perspectives on truck-only toll lanes. The completed 31 survey responses out of 100 were used for analysis of variance and two sample $t\text{-}\mathrm{tests}$. The results showed that 75.27% of the owner–operator truck drivers are willing to pay toll fees when they choose routes. The tolerated average toll fees are $\$13.77/\mathrm{h}$ and $\$12.82/\mathrm{h}$ for weekdays and weekends, respectively. The results showed that owner–operator truck drivers will prefer truck-only toll lanes in four out of six comparisons according to three measures despite sharing a common departure and destination. Drivers are willing to pay the highest toll fee of $\$0.31/\mathrm{mi}$ or $\$18.35/\mathrm{h}$ on any day when the main factor being compared is time measure. The toll fees associated with reliability and safety measures are $\$0.30/\mathrm{mi}$ or $\$8.94/\mathrm{h}$ and $\$0.22/\mathrm{mi}$ or $\$11.01/\mathrm{h}$, respectively. These results are meaningful for legislators and transportation agencies as they will help better understand the contemporary issues and demands in estimating the utility of a truck-only toll lane.