User talk:Zahra Shirani

Scoping of homework 8

These suggestions and comments are about the question of the variable that was built in homework 8. The final question is presented in the main page.

Can pricing regimes in road congestion be used to control travel behaviour among typical users for example drivers or is it a constraint (that can be defined by for instance choosing specific alternatives such as cycling in order to prevent paying additional costs) in EU countries?

----#: . I understand that you want to study congestion charge and whether there are reasons that make it a non-optimal or even non-viable solution. But the details are not clear to me. You start with: Can pricing regimes be used to control travel behaviour? This is a question that needs some criteria that you can measure or evaluate: if they fail, you should not use these pricing regimes. You could consider specifying them, or rephrase your question in another way to be more explorative: what problems and benefits would occur if you apply...?

The text in the parenthesis looks like it defines what you mean by constraint. However, if you define a constraint to be something that makes people to choose another transport mode, then you want to have a constraint. This is in contradiction to how you used the word in the first sentence where it seemed to be something that might prevent you from using pricing regimes.

Could you please clarify? --Jouni (talk) 13:08, 6 October 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: comment)

Comments to the previous version of the question:

----#: . Your question is very broad for a variable. It is an OK statement for a discussion when you are interested in people's opinions, but with variables, you hope to have a question that can be answered by doing scientific research. You might want to rephrease your question. --Jouni (talk) 08:20, 4 October 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: comment)

←--#: . Also, your question contains an embedded value judgement which makes it tricky to answer the question: before you can answer, you need to define whether a certain amount of nudging is actually a constraint or whether people still have a free choice between options. It becomes even more complex when you think about different individuals: some people are poor or handicapped and their individual choices are constrained already now, while some people can easily pay for any additional charges without having to change behaviour. --Jouni (talk) 08:20, 4 October 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: defence)