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on All new papers |
| By: | Bastian, Anne (KTH); Börjesson, Maria (KTH) |
| Abstract: | It has long been well-known that economic variables such as GDP and fuel price as well as socio-demographic characteristics and spatial distribution are key factors explaining car use trends. However, due to the recently observed plateau of total car travel in many high income countries, it has been argued that other factors, such as changes in preferences, attitudes and life-styles, have become more important drivers of car use. This would imply that traditional variables are no longer enough for explaining car travel trends. However, in this paper we show that economic variables alone can explain the observed car use trends in Sweden 2002-2012. We also find that urban populations, in particular those with low incomes, respond stronger to fuel price increases and economic downturn, i.e. are reducing car travel more. Among high income urban populations, however, we find signs of saturation in car ownership and distances driven. This underscores the importance of accounting for differences in accessibility with other travel modes and income distribution when explaining the Peak Car phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | Peak Car; Fuel price elasticity; Transport model; Urban car travel |
| JEL: | R40 |
| Date: | 2014–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2014_015&r=tre |
| By: | Narayanaswami, Sundaravalli |
| Abstract: | Dubai Metro is the city railway transport under the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai. It is operated as a cyclic schedule on fixed O-D pairs and two lines. The two lines are (i) the Red line which runs between Rashidiya and Jebel Ali and (ii) the Green line which operates between Al Qusias and Creek. Union and Khalid bin Waleed are the two cross-over stations between the two lines. Operational times are based on week days and weekends and the headways are based on peak hour and off-peak hours of the day. Light rails are used in Dubai Metro and each train has five cabins. On both lines, headways are designed at 90 seconds, whereas currently operated headway during peak hours is 3.5 minutes. A high ridership is observed during the last working day and particularly during peak hours, leading to severe over-crowding. To reduce over-crowding and alleviate congestions, three types of strategic solutions are available. (i) Reduce peak hour headways (ii) Increase number of cabins in trains operated during peak hours. (iii) Increase number of services between modified O-D pairs with denser traffic. The problem domain is modeled as a directed transit network and further as an LP formulation with a focus on the third solution for the Red line, under an assumption of known demand. Nodes represent arrival/departure times at each station and two types of arcs represent storage and movement of train cabins, respectively. Constraints on (i) consistency of flow, (ii) non-negativity of flow, (iii) indivisibility, (iv) demand satisfiability and (v) bounds are proposed. The objective has two components: (i) To minimize the number of train cabins in the system and (ii) To minimize the total car miles run by all trains in a schedule cycle. The LP Model developed for the third proposed solution is tested with actual data extracted in September 2012 using an open package LP/MILP IDE for Win32, namely GUSEC. Partial results are obtained and reported. Several interesting questions have arisen out of our model and we are trying to analyze some of them. Attempts continue (i) to acquire, test and evaluate validated data from RTA, (ii) apply the proposed model to green line and study congestion alleviation of red and green lines in a combined manner and (iii) evaluate the model against other possible solutions. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:12905&r=tre |
| By: | Narayanaswami, Sundaravalli |
| Abstract: | Optimizing operational plans of a classification yard is very important for freight management as it helps fully utilize the limited resources of its rail network. Typical yard planning performance measures are the number of inbound/outbound trains received/assembled, the number of blocks made, the number of cars handled, or the expected time in system per railcar and a common objective is to minimizing the total waiting time of railcars at the yard. To improve the overall yard throughput, an optimized yard operation plan is highly desirable. However, building a classification yard operation plan is challenging as it covers many interrelated operations and decisions. Given arrival times of the inbound trains, this problem is to find the humping schedule and the departure times of the outbound trains subject to the different operational constraints in the yard. The goal is to minimize the total waiting time of railcars in the yard and maximize the total number of railcar processed during a certain period. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:12904&r=tre |
| By: | Börjesson, Maria (KTH); Eliasson, Jonas (KTH); Hamilton, Carl (KTH) |
| Abstract: | Many cities have seen public support for congestion charges increase substantially after charges have been introduced. Several alternative explanations of this phenomenon have been suggested, but so far little evidence has been available to assess the relative importance of these explanations. We study attitudes to congestion pricing in Gothenburg before and after congestion charges were introduced in January 2013. Attitudes to the charges did indeed become more positive after the introduction, just as in previous cities. Using a two-wave postal survey, we are able to separate contributions to the attitude change from a number of sources: benefits and costs being different than anticipated, use of hypothecated revenues, reframing processes, and changes in related attitudes such as attitudes to environment, equity, taxation and pricing measures in general. We conclude that the dominant reason for the attitude change is status quo bias, rather than any substantial changes in beliefs or related attitudes, although some of these factors also contribute to some extent. Contrary to a common belief, nothing of the attitude change is due to benefits being larger than anticipated. |
| Keywords: | Congestion pricing; Acceptability; Attitudes; Gothenburg |
| JEL: | H23 H54 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2014–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2014_014&r=tre |
| By: | Julian Donaubauer; Birgit Meyer; Peter Nunnenkamp |
| Abstract: | We raise the hypothesis that aid specifically targeted at economic infrastructure helps developing countries attract higher FDI inflows through improving their endowment with infrastructure in transportation, communication, energy and finance. By performing 3SLS estimations we explicitly account for dependencies between three structural equations on the allocation of sector-specific aid, the determinants of infrastructure, and the determinants of FDI. We find fairly strong and robust evidence that targeted aid promotes FDI indirectly through the infrastructure channel. In addition, aid in infrastructure appears to have surprisingly strong direct effects on FDI |
| Keywords: | aid effectiveness, sector-specific aid, foreign direct investment, infrastructure |
| JEL: | F21 F35 O18 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1954&r=tre |
| By: | Tolga Ülkü (University of Berlin); Vahidin Jeleskovic (University of Kassel); Jürgen Müller (University of Berlin) |
| Abstract: | One of the main pillars of efficient airport operations is cost-minimization. Unit costs of operation with respect to the level of passengers served are a possible proxy to measure the cost efficiency of an airport. Due to compound production framework and sophisticated political-economic environment of airports, estimation of airport costs requires detailed specifications. Airport cost functions should be able to explain the total costs with the main inputs labor, material and capital as well as by taking the airport specific characteristics into account. In this paper, we apply such an approach and focus on airport specific characteristics. We use a spatial regression methodology to explain how these drive the unit costs and analyze the spatial relationship among the dependent variables. Two separate data samples from Norwegian and French airports are used in this research to test various hypotheses. Because a large number of regional airports in both countries cannot reach financial break-even, our first research question deals with the effects of subsidies, which often follow regional and political considerations. One must therefore find an efficient way to maintain these airports without any distortions on the incentives. When evaluating the relationship between subsidies and unit costs, we find negative effect of subsidies on airport cost efficiency. Second, we evaluate the importance of economies of scale by focusing on the relationship between airport size and unit costs. Finally, the results of spatial regression show that a denser spatial distribution of airports results in higher unit costs as a consequence of lower capacity utilization, indicating the negative effect of spatial competition on airport unit costs within an airport network. |
| Keywords: | Airport costs, airport subsidies, spatial regression, scale economies |
| JEL: | C23 C51 R11 R42 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201435&r=tre |
| By: | Narayanaswami, Sundaravalli |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:12906&r=tre |