|
on Transport Economics |
| By: | Cats, Oded (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands ); West , Jens (KTH ); Eliasson, Jonas (KTH ) |
| Abstract: | One of the most common motivations for public transport investments is increased capacity. However, appraisal methodologies for projects meant to increase capacity are relatively less well developed compared to methodologies for projects aiming to reduce travel times. Each of the consequences of capacity limitations - crowding, risk for denied boarding and unreliable waiting and travel times - can increase the generalized travel costs. The appraisal of capacity improvements requires supply and demand models able to capture the processes that lead to uneven distributions of vehicles and passengers and monetary valuations of e.g. crowding, delays and unexpected waiting times. This paper integrates these building blocks into a comprehensive framework for appraisal. A case study of a metro extension that partially replaces an overloaded bus network in Stockholm demonstrated that congestion effects may account for a substantial share of the expected benefits. A cost-benefit analysis based on a conventional static model will miss more than half of the benefits. This suggests that failure to represent dynamic congestion effects may substantially underestimate the benefits of projects primarily designed to increase capacity rather than reduce travel times. |
| Keywords: | Public transport; Capacity; Appraisal; Dynamic assignment; Cost-benefit analysis |
| JEL: | R40 |
| Date: | 2015–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2015_002&r=tre |
| By: | Briones, Roehlano M. ; Gundaya, Debbie M. ; Domingo, Sonny N. |
| Abstract: | The bus transport sector evolved from a highly regulated and concentrated market with a handful of players in the 1970s to a more liberalized albeit still regulated market with hundreds of small operators. Major reforms in bus transport regulation were carried out in the early 1990s and 2000s among which were more liberal policy and a supposed moratorium on new franchises. The current market operates under a complicated regime where regulation and enforcement is shared by several agencies. Market inefficiencies manifest in too many operators and buses, and indiscipline in the road adding to traffic congestion problems in the Metro. The fragmented nature of both the sector`s regulatory and supply side impedes synchronization among stakeholders and incurs huge costs to industry operators and the riding public. |
| Keywords: | competition policy, Philippines, bus transport sector, congestion cost, transport policy |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2015-02&r=tre |
| By: | Yoshifumi Konishi Author-Name: Meng Zhao |
| Abstract: | We investigate the efficiency of vehicle taxation in second-best settings. A random-coefficients logit model is estimated for quarterly automobile sales data between 2004 and 2012 from the Japanese new car market. The quasi-experimental nature of the data is exploited in two ways. First, we construct the location of product-specific tax rates in the characteristics space as a set of instruments to control for endogeneity of observed car prices. Second, the large and persistent variation in effective vehicle prices, caused due to Japan's green car tax policy since 2009, are used to obtain consistent estimates of the own- and cross-price elasticities. Our results indicate evidence for substantial scale and composition effects: Though the policy successfully reduced sales-weighted average emissions, it also increased total sales substantially. Consequently, the policy-induced reduction in annual vehicle CO2 emissions was small. In contrast, a modified version of the emissions-based vehicle tax ¨¤ la Fullterton and West (2002), based on the fuel efficiencies of car models, could have reduced annual vehicle CO2 emissions substantially more while increasing total economic surplus relative to the no policy counterfactual. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcr:wpaper:e82&r=tre |
| By: | Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia ; Bofinger, Heinrich C. ; Cubas, Diana ; Millan-Placci, Maria Florencia |
| Abstract: | Every discussion of the Caribbean states considers their characteristics as sea-locked countries, small economies, highly vulnerable to natural disasters, and a geographic platform that calls for regional cooperation and integration. The Caribbean Sea is the most important vehicle and the most challenging obstacle Caribbean countries have to connect with the world. This report measures and analyzes the Caribbean region's air and maritime connectivity, by taking a sample of 15 countries that represent 64 percent of the Caribbean population and 59 percent of the region's gross domestic product. The report finds that the most salient issue of Caribbean logistics is the huge costs associated with trade, driven by embedded inefficiencies in customs systems and document preparation processes. The report also documents how the Caribbean air transport network is characterized by fierce competition between the islands for tourists from abroad, rather than coordinated efforts to promote Caribbean tourism. This has led to suboptimal routing based on distorting subsidy schemes with often unstainable volumes and load factors, raising questions about the sustainability of many of the extra-Caribbean routes, and indicating a need for route consolidation. Air connectivity within and among Caribbean states is poor and represents an opportunity to develop alternative and more competitive private sector-led services such as inter-island ferries and low-cost air shuttle services. Maritime connectivity for freight is well structured around two coexisting and functional hub-and-spoke systems (intra-regional with a hub in Trinidad and extra-regional with a hub in the Miami area) that effectively serve all the Caribbean countries. Yet, tariffs are high by worldwide standards and are likely driven by high market concentration in a handful of shipping liners. |
| Keywords: | Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Cultural Policy,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry,E-Business |
| Date: | 2015–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7169&r=tre |
| By: | Akio Kawasaki |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the problem of hub airport privatization, similar to the studies by Matsumura and Matsushima (2012) and Mantin (2012). However, differentiating from their papers, this paper introduces a domestic airline network. That is, each country has one major hub airport and some local airports. The main result obtained in this paper is as follows. When at least one country has a small domestic airline network, the same result as that by Matsumura and Matsushima (2012) and Mantin (2012) is obtained. However, when both countries have a large domestic airline network, the public airport may be an equilibrium outcome. Furthermore, depending on the size of the airline network and the degree of airline competition, asymmetric equilibrium can also appear. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcr:wpaper:e64&r=tre |
| By: | Cantos-Sánchez, Pedro ; Gutiérrez-i-Puigarnau, Eva ; Mulalic, Ismir |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of the Spanish car scrappage program introduced in May 2009 on short-run car purchases. The scrappage program was simultaneously discussed and implemented, and was therefore exogenous to the consumers. We analyse the effect of this program on household new car purchase decision and household expenditures. The results show that the scrappage program increased the probability to buy a new car, but decreased the mean expenditure devoted to the purchase of this new vehicle. We also evaluate the impact of the financial aid on the household welfare, which suggests that the scrappage program was neutral. |
| Keywords: | Car demand; scrappage program; economic crisis; subsidy. |
| JEL: | H20 R21 |
| Date: | 2015–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61224&r=tre |
| By: | DEFRYN, Christof ; SÖRENSEN, Kenneth |
| Abstract: | In this paper, a metaheuristic approach is presented to solve the Clustered Vehicle Routing Problem (CluVRP). The CluVRP, in which customers are grouped into predefi?ned clusters, can be seen as a generalisation of the classical Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP). When serving all these customers with a given fl?eet of vehicles it should be ensured that clients belonging to the same cluster are served by one vehicle, sequentially in the same path (CluVRP with hard cluster constraints). In a second phase, these constraints will be relaxed as we will de?ne the CluVRP with so? cluster constraints. Th?e proposed metaheuristic approach tries to fi?nd the optimal solution for both problems by combining two variable neighbourhood search algorithms, exploring the distribution area at two different levels. ?The algorithm is tested on di?erent benchmark instances from the literature with up to 484 nodes, obtaining high quality solutions. |
| Keywords: | Clustered Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP), Variable neighbourhood search, Metaheuristics |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2015002&r=tre |
| By: | Kallas, Zein ; Gil, José Maria |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse the opinions, attitudes and willingness of consumers to pay for biodiesel as an alternative to diesel in Barcelona province. Data were gathered from face-toface structured questionnaires from 300 diesel car owners/users that regularly purchase fuel. A variation of the traditional choice experiments (CE) was used by excluding the price attribute from the design. In a subsequent contingent valuation (CV) exercise, respondents were asked to state their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for their preferred choice sets using the “payment card” format. The relative importance of the attributes and levels were calculated by estimating a random parameter logit model. The results demonstrated, contrary to the literature in Spain, that consumers were not willing to pay for biodiesel, especially when its production may negatively affect food prices. The main limitation was that car manufacturers do not recommend its use. The public authorities are asked to work jointly with the automotive industry to address this drawback. |
| Keywords: | Biodiesel, Willingness to pay, Choice Experiments, Catalonia, Consumer/Household Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae14:182801&r=tre |
| By: | Marie Delaplace ; Frédéric Dobruszkes |
| Abstract: | This paper explores OUIGO (pronounced ‘we go’), the low-cost high-speed rail (HSR) service launched by the French state-owned railways in April 2013. In this exploration, we: (1) compare OUIGO with the traditional French HSR and the low-cost airlines (LCAs), and (2) analyse fares proposed by OUIGO and its competitors. We thus analyse the new service in terms of production conditions, communication, marketing, booking, network geography, at-terminal and on-board experience and fares. We find that the railway industry’s constraints (including market regulations, technical rigidities and incumbent employment relations) affect the OUIGO business model, which appears as a hybrid between LCAs and traditional French HSR carriers, although fares can be very attractive indeed. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/186381&r=tre |
| By: | Wolf-Peter Schill ; Clemens Gerbaulet |
| Abstract: | We analyze future scenarios of integrating electric vehicles (EV) into the German power system, drawing on different assumptions on the charging mode. We use a numerical dispatch model with a unit-commitment formulation which minimizes dispatch costs over a full year. While the overall energy demand of the EV fleets is rather low in all scenarios, the impact on the system’s load duration curve differs strongly between charging modes. In a fully userdriven mode, charging largely occurs during daytime and in the evening, when power demand is already high. User-driven charging may thus have to be restricted in the future because of generation adequacy concerns. In contrast, cost-driven charging is carried out during night-time and at times of high PV availability. Using a novel model formulation that allows for intermediate charging modes, we show that even a slight relaxation of fully userdriven charging results in much smoother load profiles as well as lower charging costs. Different charging patterns go along with respective changes in power plant dispatch. By 2030, cost-driven EV charging strongly increases the utilization of lignite and hard coal plants, whereas additional power in the user-driven mode is predominantly generated from natural gas and hard coal. Specific CO2 emissions of EV are substantially larger than those of the overall power system, and highest under cost-driven charging. Only in additional model runs, in which we link the introduction of EVs to a respective deployment of additional renewable generation capacity, electric vehicles become largely CO2-neutral. |
| Keywords: | Electric vehicles, power system, dispatch model, renewable energy |
| JEL: | Q42 R41 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1442&r=tre |
| By: | Ferro, Gabrielle ; Grogan, Kelly |
| Keywords: | Motor Vehicle, Inspection Programs, Emissions, Ozone, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea15:196870&r=tre |
| By: | Proulx, Frank |
| Abstract: | In this talk, an overview of the recently completed National Cooperative Highways Research Program project 07-19 will be presented. In NCHRP 07-19, research was conducted on a variety of methods and technologies for collecting bicyclist and pedestrian volume data. Research included a practitioner's survey, in-depth interviews with count program managers, and field testing and accuracy evaluation of six counting technologies. Counters were installed at roughly 15 different sites and evaluated for precision and reliability. The main product of this project is a guidebook on conducting counts of pedestrians and bicyclists, to be published in early 2015. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, pedestrian, bicycle, volume data collection |
| Date: | 2014–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt06z8t1h3&r=tre |