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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Escobar-Garcia, Diego (Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Colombia); Garcia-Orozco, Francisco (Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Colombia); Cadena-Gaitan, Carlos (UNU-MERIT/MGSoG) |
| Abstract: | The construction of cable-propelled systems, fully integrated to urban public transport systems, has become an innovative trend in recent years for some Colombian cities. The most prominent examples include the cities of Medellin and Manizales, where these infrastructures have been built and running for several years. In fact, it should be highlighted that Manizales hosted, during the first half of the 20th century, the longest cable system in the world, which operated for nearly 40 years and was a cornerstone in the development of the region. This historic cable enabled the transportation of large shipments of coffee to the Magdalena River, to be exported across the world. In this paper we provide a thorough assessment of the current cable system in Manizales. We evaluate its costs in a comparative perspective against the impacts generated by the system, via time savings in daily travel. Due to its full integration with the public transport system, we also provide empirical evidence of the related passenger demand variability. Upon the implementation of the first cable system, additional similar projects have been initiated. We provide insights into a cable system designed and being built for recreation, and describe the planning process for the most recent public transport cable system being designed. All these systems are evaluated from the supply-side, measuring accessibility, from the demand-side, modelling the complete urban transport system for the city, and from the political side, describing the determinants of the decisions that ultimately stimulate the implementation of these projects in sustainable mobility. Based on the results obtained, we offer conclusions regarding the actual competitiveness of cable-propelled systems, arguing that they should be considered valid urban passenger transport solutions. |
| Keywords: | O33, R41, R42 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2013017&r=tre |
| By: | Yuichiro Yoshida (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Abu Nur Rashed Ahmed (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the optimality condition of transport network development in a closed city with residents’ and absentee land ownerships. We set up an urban land use model in which, taking prices and characteristics of transport network as given, households that are identical in their preferences and endowments maximize utility by choosing residential location, lot size, and travel modes. Social planner then optimizes with respect to the characteristics of transportation network so as to maximize the level of utility in the spatial equilibrium. The key findings of this paper include that under resident landlord case the general optimality condition of the transport network improvement is such that the marginal cost of improvement is equal to the marginal increase in the aggregated differential land rent evaluated at current level of land rent. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:12-23&r=tre |
| By: | Roberto Bonfatti; Steven Poelhekke |
| Abstract: | Mine-related transport infrastructure specializes in connecting mines to the coast, and not so much to neighboring countries. This is most clearly seen in developing countries, whose transport infrastructure was originally designed to facilitate the export of natural resources in colonial times. We provide first econometric evidence that mine-to-coast transport infrastructure matters for the pattern of trade of developing countries, and can help explaining their low level of regional integration. The main idea is that, to the extent that it can be used not just to export natural resources but also to trade other commodities, this infrastructure may bias a country's structure of transport costs in favor of overseas trade, and to the detriment of regional trade. We investigate this potential bias in the context of a gravity model of trade. Our main ndings are that coastal countries with more mines import less than average from their neighbors, and this effect is stronger when the mines are located in such a way that the related infrastructure has a stronger potential to affect trade costs. Consistently with the idea that this effect is due to mine-to-coast infrastructure, landlocked countries with more mines import less than average from their non-transit neighbors, but more then average from their transit neighbors. Furthermore, this effect is specific to mines and not to oil and gas fields, arguably because pipelines cannot possibly be used to trade other commodities. We discuss the potential welfare implications of our results, and relate these to the debate on the economic legacy of colonialism for developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Mineral Resources, Transport Infrastructure, Regional Trade Integration, Gravity Model, Economic Legacy of Colonialism |
| JEL: | F14 F54 Q32 R4 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:107&r=tre |
| By: | Admasu Shiferaw (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary); Måns Söderbom (Economics Department, University of Gothenburg, Sweden); Eyersusalem Siba (Economics Department, University of Gothenburg, Sweden); Getnet Alemu (College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates firm level responses to a large scale public investment program on road infrastructure in Ethiopia during 1997 to 2010. Firms' location choices and average start-up size are examined by combining town level panel data on road accessibility with a panel of manufacturing firms for the period 1996 to 2009. We find econometric results showing that better road access increases a town's attractiveness for manufacturing firms. While towns with initially large number of firms continue to attract more firms, there has been a tendency toward convergence in the distribution of firms, reducing their geographic concentration. Average startup size in isolated locations is also smaller relative to firms entering well connected markets in terms of road access. We conclude that improved road infrastructure has a favorable impact on the entry patterns and structure of the manufacturing sector in Ethiopia. |
| Keywords: | Road infrastructure, Firm Entry, Location Choice, Startup-Size, Ethiopian Manufacturing |
| Date: | 2013–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:129&r=tre |
| By: | Talarico, L.; Sörensen, K.; Springael, J. |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a variant of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem that models the problem of routing vehicles in the cash-in-transit industry by introducing a risk constraint. In this problem, which is called the risk-constrained cash-in-transit vehicle routing problem (rctvrp), the risk associated with a robbery, which is assumed to be proportional both to the amount of cash being carried and the time or the distance covered by the vehicle carrying the cash, is limited by a certain risk threshold. A library containing three sets of instances for the rctvrp, some with known optimal solution, is generated based on VRP instances from the literature. A mathematical formulation is developed and small instances of the problem are solved using ibm cplex. Four constructive heuristics as well as a local search block composed of six dierent local search operators are developed and combined using two dierent metaheuristic structures: a multi-start structure and a perturb-and-improve structure. In a statistical experiment, the best parameter settings for each component are determined, and the resulting heuristic congurations are compared in their best possible setting. The resulting methods are able to obtain solutions of excellent quality in very limited computing times. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2013005&r=tre |