nep-tre New Economics Papers
on Transport Economics
Issue of 2017‒04‒30
seventeen papers chosen by
Erik Teodoor Verhoef
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  1. The Greenest Path: Comparing the Effects of Internal and External Costs of Motor Vehicle Pollution on Route Choice and Accessibility By Mengying Cui; David Levinson
  2. Citywide Effects of High-Occupancy Vehicle Restrictions: Evidence from the Elimination of "3-in-1" in Jakarta By Hanna, Rema; Kreindler, Gabriel; Olken, Benjamin A.
  3. The Safest Path: Analyzing the Effects of Crash Costs on Route Choice and Accessibility By Mengying Cui; David Levinson
  4. Vehicle Routing at a Food Service Marketplace By Didugu Kavitha Chetana; Soman, Chetan
  5. Hidden Costs of Carpooling in Family Life: Travel Behavior of Hispanic Families with Children in the US By Miwa Matsuo
  6. A hybrid solution approach for the 3L-VRP with simultaneous delivery and pickups By Henriette Koch; Andreas Bortfeldt; Gerhard Wäscher
  7. What drives car use in Europe? By Focas Caralampo; Panayotis Christidis
  8. Full cost analysis of accessibility By Mengying Cui; David Levinson
  9. Cross-Elasticities in Frequencies and Ridership for Urban Local Routes By Joseph Totten; David Levinson
  10. Driving factors of GHG emissions in EU transport activity By Lidia Andrés Delgado; Emilio Padilla Rosa
  11. Infrastructure & economic growth from a meta-analysis approach: do all roads lead to Rome? By Víctor Adame; Javier Alonso; Luisa Pérez; David Tuesta
  12. Surge Capacity: Selling City-owned Electricity Distributors to Meet Broader Municipal Infrastructure Needs By Steven Robins
  13. Spatiotemporal Traffic Forecasting: Review and Proposed Directions By Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson
  14. Local content, supply chains, and shared infrastructure By Olle Östensson
  15. Induction et évaporation de trafic : revue de la littérature et études de cas By Yves Crozet; Aurélie Mercier
  16. The Employment Effects of Countercyclical Infrastructure Investments By Buchheim, Lukas; Watzinger, Martin
  17. An Introduction to the Network Weight Matrix By Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson

  1. By: Mengying Cui; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: On-road emissions are a dominant source of urban air pollution, which damages human health. The "greenest path" is proposed as an alternative pattern of traffic route assignment to minimize the costs of emissions or exposure, pursues an environmentally optimal. The framework of a link-based emission cost analysis is built for both internal and external environmental costs and applied to the road network of the Twin Cities Metropolitan area based on the EPA MOVES model. The greenest (internal/external) path is skimmed for all OD pairs to compare the work trip flows on the roads and accessibility distribution. It is shown that the emission cost that travelers impose on others is greater than which they bear. Considering only external emissions costs thus produces a lower accessibility than considering only internal emissions costs. This research contributes to understanding the full cost of travel.
    Keywords: accessibility, Social Costs, Emissions, Pollution exposure, Environmental economics
    JEL: R40 Q53 R20
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:greenestpath&r=tre
  2. By: Hanna, Rema (Harvard University); Kreindler, Gabriel (MIT); Olken, Benjamin A. (MIT)
    Abstract: We use high frequency data on traffic congestion from Google Maps to measure the impact of Jakarta's main traffic congestion reduction policy, a high-occupancy vehicle restriction policy. We find that the unexpected lifting of the policy led to a large, sudden and persistent increase in travel delay during operating hours on affected roads, with delays rising between 45-85 percent. Surprisingly, this increase in traffic was not just substitution of traffic from unaffected roads to previously restricted roads. Instead, we find that the removal of the high-occupancy vehicle restriction led to worse traffic throughout the city, both on other roads that had never been restricted and during times of the day when there restrictions had never been in place previously. The results suggest that targeted restrictions on road use can have positive general equilibrium effects on traffic throughout the city.
    Date: 2016–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp17-008&r=tre
  3. By: Mengying Cui; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: The "safest path" is proposed to optimize the on-road safety of individuals and minimize the cost of crashes. In this study, the framework of a link-based crash cost analysis is built and applied to assess the crash cost of each link segment on the road network of the Minneapolis - St. Paul area based on Safety Performance Functions from the perspective of travelers. The safest path is then found for all OD pairs to compare flow patterns and accessibility distributions with those based on the traditional shortest travel time path. While, the safest path does not coincide with the shortest path, the accessibility distributions have similar patterns.
    Keywords: accessibility, safety, safety performance function
    JEL: R41 R10 J28 D62 H23
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:safestpath&r=tre
  4. By: Didugu Kavitha Chetana; Soman, Chetan
    Abstract: In this paper, we explore the case of an aggregator-cum-restaurant that also offers pickup and delivery services to third party restaurants registered with it. The aggregator must decide on its fleet size and the optimal routes to assign to each vehicle deployed. We propose a heterogeneous, compartmentalised vehicle routing model with pickup and delivery for the aggregator involving time windows and source selection, to minimise the route duration (or the total cost) of its fleet. The model accounts for traffic conditions (captured by speed data) over the route, maximum service radius of the fleet and time windows for customers as well as restaurants. This paper, to the best of our knowledge, is probably the first one that deals with vehicle routing problem for an online hyperlocal food service marketplace (also referred to as aggregator) that functions as a quick service restaurant (QSR) as well.
    Date: 2017–04–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:14568&r=tre
  5. By: Miwa Matsuo (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan)
    Abstract: In the U.S., Hispanic immigrant households who have low access to private vehicles typically depend on carpooling rather than taking transit, the tendency that is not observed for immigrants of other race/ethnicity groups. Moreover, my previous paper reveals that females of Hispanic immigrants are heavily dependent on others’ mobility and delay becoming drivers, even though they seem to choose auto-dependent lifestyle at household level. These findings leave a question how much time is wasted by dependence on carpooling when many household members are transportation disadvantaged, such as children under driving age. This paper explores travel characteristics of Hispanic immigrant households with children in the following points; (1) whether they are lower mobility at household level, (2) whether adult members’ time is wasted for transporting children, and (3) whether children’s total travel time and active non-commuting trip frequency are different by the number of drivers and/or vehicles in the household, using the National Household Travel Survey data of 2009.
    Keywords: Mobility, Immigrants, Hispanics, Children, National Household Travel Survey
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2017-13&r=tre
  6. By: Henriette Koch (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Andreas Bortfeldt (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg); Gerhard Wäscher (Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg)
    Abstract: This paper deals with a special vehicle routing problem with backhauls where each customer receives items from a depot and, at the same time, returns items back to the depot. Moreover, time windows are assumed and three-dimensional loading constraints are to be observed, i.e. the items are three-dimensional boxes and packing constraints, e.g. regarding load stability, are to be met. The resulting problem is the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pickup (VRPSDP), time windows, and three-dimensional loading constraints (3L-VRPSDPTW). This problem occurs, for example, if retail stores are supplied by a central warehouse and wish to return packaging material. A particular challenge of the problem is to transport delivery and pickup items simultaneously on the same vehicle. In order to avoid any reloading effort during a tour, we consider two different loading approaches of vehicles: (i) loading from the back side with separation of the loading space into a delivery section and a pickup section and (ii) loading at the long side. A hybrid algorithm is proposed for the 3L-VRPSDPTW consisting of an adaptive large neighbourhood search for the routing and different packing heuristics for the loading part of the problem. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted with VRPSDP instances from the literature and newly generated instances for the 3LVRPSDPTW.
    Keywords: vehicle routing, backhauls, three-dimensional loading constraints, large neighbourhood search
    Date: 2017–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mag:wpaper:170005&r=tre
  7. By: Focas Caralampo (University of Oxford); Panayotis Christidis (European Commission – JRC)
    Abstract: The methodology is based on the results of a recent EU-wide travel survey that maps user preferences and on the application of a Random Forest classification model that explains the interaction of the main variables that affect these choices. The results of the analysis suggest that it is probably too early to assume that car travel demand is close to a peak throughout Europe. It would be more accurate to claim that a plateau has been reached in a few EU Member States with a developed economy, high car ownership rates and slowly changing demographic profiles. Evidence shows that in some of these countries car use has peaked. However, significant growth in car use should be expected in Eastern Europe. The trends concerning the use of passenger cars are certainly not uniform across the EU since each Member State has its own socio-economic conditions and follows a different path as regards car dependency. In addition, some of the indications of changes in trends can be circumstantial or temporary, as for example the impacts that the economic crisis may have on car ownership and use. Others are long term and perhaps not clearly visible yet. The changing structure of the economy, the longer periods of education for the young, the more fragmented and deregulated labour market and the changing cultural values (i.e. the high value of digital connectivity) may be gradually changing the role of the car in the society in the long term, but there is still not sufficient evidence to suggest that they already are having an impact throughout Europe. Part of the impact of the factors analysed here may simply be the result of postponing decisions related to car use. However, even postponement alters the total level of demand, for if one age group now makes fewer trips than it did before, it lowers the overall level of demand. Evidence also shows that the young groups who are now postponing driving a car do not reach the levels of car use in their 30s and 40s that the generation before had. Some who postpone using the car will forever abandon car driving.
    Keywords: Transport economics, transport policy, mobility, car use, passenger
    JEL: R40 R41 R49
    Date: 2017–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc105792&r=tre
  8. By: Mengying Cui; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: Traditional accessibility evaluation fails to fully capture the travel costs, especially the external costs of travel. This study develops a framework of extending accessibility analysis combining the alternate (internal and external) cost components of travel, time, safety, emission and money, with accessibility analysis, which makes it an efficient evaluation tool for the potential needs of transport planning projects. An illustration of this framework based on a toy network was also built in this paper, which proves the potential of applying the extending accessibility analysis into the network of metropolitan areas.
    Keywords: accessibility, full cost analysis
    JEL: R40 D62 H23 R20 Q50
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:accessibilityfullcost&r=tre
  9. By: Joseph Totten; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: Observational data from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region’s Metro Transit, are analyzed to determine the effects of service levels on ridership levels at different intervals. This research is innovative because it compares changes in service levels and ridership in several service intervals, and includes the elasticities and cross elasticities, or the influence that these service levels have on different service intervals’ ridership. These cross-elasticities are not known to have been researched previously, and are found to have little effect during the week; however, weekend ridership was found to be influenced by rush hour and overnight frequencies. Future research should replicate this study in other cities, and should use express and suburban routes.
    Keywords: Transit ridership, Cross-elasticity
    JEL: R40 H43 L91
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:transitcrosselasticity&r=tre
  10. By: Lidia Andrés Delgado (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Emilio Padilla Rosa (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)
    Abstract: This research identifies the driving factors of greenhouse gas emissions in transport activity in the EU-28 and the contribution of each of them to its changes during the period 1990–2014. The analysis is based on the STIRPAT model, which is broadened to investigate in depth the impact on transport emissions of changes in the transport activity and in the whole economy. In short, the study takes into account the population, economic activity, transport volume, transport energy intensity and structural composition of transport activity in terms of transport modes’ share and of energy sources’ mix. Using panel data econometric techniques, the significance of each factor and the impact of its change on emissions are identified. A better knowledge of the key driving forces is crucial for implementing policies focused on successfully reducing emissions in transport activity. The results allow a preliminary assessment of the potential effectiveness of the 2011 Transport White Paper measures aimed at cutting transport emissions.
    Keywords: Greenhouse gas emissions; STIRPAT model; transport activity
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1702&r=tre
  11. By: Víctor Adame; Javier Alonso; Luisa Pérez; David Tuesta
    Abstract: In a context of extended global economic fragility, multilateral institutions and governments have been recommending to increase infrastructure investment to spur economic growth. However, the impact of this policy can widely differ depending on many aspects
    Keywords: Economic Analysis , Global , Working Paper
    JEL: O40 H54 R15
    Date: 2017–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:17/07&r=tre
  12. By: Steven Robins
    Keywords: Public Investments and Infrastructure
    JEL: E6 L3 R4
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdh:ebrief:257&r=tre
  13. By: Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: This paper systematically reviews studies that forecast short-term traffic conditions using spatial dependence between links. We synthesize 130 extracted research papers from two perspectives: (1) methodological framework, and (2) approach for capturing and incorporating spatial information. From the methodology side, spatial information boosts the accuracy of prediction, particularly in congested traffic regimes and for longer horizons. There is a broad and longstanding agreement that non-parametric methods outperform the naive statistical methods such as historical average, real time profile, and exponential smoothing. However, to make an inexorable conclusion regarding the performance of neural network methods against STARIMA family models, more research is needed in this field. From the spatial dependency detection side, we believe that a large gulf exists between the realistic spatial dependence of traffic links on a real network and the studied networks. This systematic review highlights that the field is approaching its maturity, while it is still as crude as it is perplexing. It is perplexing in the conceptual methodology, and it is crude in the capture of spatial information.
    Keywords: Traffic Forecasting, Spatial Correlation, Systematic Review, Traffic Network, Life-cycle
    JEL: R40 C21 C22 B23
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:spatiotemporal&r=tre
  14. By: Olle Östensson
    Abstract: Local content policies in the context of extractive industries have attracted increased interest in recent years. Most countries with a significant extractive industry have included local content requirements either in their legislation or exploitation contracts. Such efforts may be constrained by low capacity of potential suppliers, low skills, and a number of other factors constituting the general business environment. A number of extractive industry companies have introduced supplier development programmes that attempt to reduce the constraints and skill gaps. Government policies on local content vary, with some prescribing quantitative targets for local content, while others focus on improving skills and raising the capacity of domestic industry. Infrastructure built for extractive industries can often be used by local populations and other economic activities. Difficulties in finding suitable financing arrangements have, however, limited the number of successful greenfield multi-client/multi-user extractive industry-related infrastructure projects.
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2017-96&r=tre
  15. By: Yves Crozet (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Aurélie Mercier (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: La circulation automobile en zone urbaine est un casse-tête dans toutes les grandes agglomérations. La démocratisation de l’accès à la voiture particulière a en effet conduit, dans les pays développés il y a quelques décennies et dans les pays en développement aujourd’hui, à une saturation récurrente des voiries. Accompagnée d’effets externes comme la pollution ou le bruit, la congestion routière est devenue une question centrale et redoutable pour les décideurs publics locaux. Face à la marée automobile, les réponses politiques ont évolué avec le temps, sans pouvoir trouver la « martingale » qui réglerait définitivement le problème. L’objectif de ce rapport est d’abord, dans une première partie, de dresser un état des lieux des connaissances et des pratiques en matière de gestion de la congestion routière. Pourquoi cette dernière est-elle plus ou moins inévitable et parfois considérée au moins autant comme une solution que comme un problème ? Pourrait-on envisager de substituer une régulation de la congestion à la régulation par la congestion qui prévaut un peu partout aujourd’hui (I) ? Dans cette perspective, la seconde partie teste, pour l’agglomération lyonnaise, différents scénarios de régulation du trafic (II). Par ailleurs, un document annexe rassemble les fiches techniques rédigées pour résumer certains documents clés.
    Keywords: gestion de la congestion routière,scénarios de régulation du trafic,agglomération lyonnaise
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01480663&r=tre
  16. By: Buchheim, Lukas (University of Munich); Watzinger, Martin (University of Munich)
    Abstract: We estimate the causal impact of a sizable German infrastructure investment program on employment at the county level. The program focused on improving the energy efficiency of school buildings, making it possible to use the number of schools as an instrument for investments. We find that the program was effective, creating one job for one year for each €25\'000 of investments. The employment gains reached their peak after nine months and dropped to zero quickly after the program\'s completion. The reductions in unemployment amounted to two-thirds of the job creation, and employment grew predominately in the construction and non-tradable industries.
    Keywords: infrastructure investments; job creation; employment dynamics; countercyclical fiscal policy;
    JEL: E24 E62 H72
    Date: 2017–03–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:20&r=tre
  17. By: Alireza Ermagun; David Levinson (Nexus (Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems) Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: This study introduces the network weight matrix as a replacement for the spatial weight matrix to measure the spatial dependence between links of a network. This matrix stems from the concept of betweenness centrality and vulnerability in network science. The elements of the matrix are a function not simply of proximity, but of network topology, network structure, and demand configuration. The network weight matrix has distinctive characteristic, which are capable of reflecting spatial dependence between traffic links: (1) The elements are allowed to have negative and positive values, which capture competitive and complementary nature of links, (2) The diagonal elements are not fixed to zero, which takes the self-dependence of a link upon itself into consideration, and (3) The elements not only reflect the spatial dependence based on the network structure, but they acknowledge the demand configuration as well. We verified the network weight matrix by modeling traffic flows in a 3x3 grid test network with 9 nodes and 24 directed links connecting 72 origin-destination (OD) pairs. The results disclose models encompassing the network weight matrix outperform both models without spatial components and models with the spatial weight matrix. This leads inexorably to the conclusion that the network weight matrix represents a more accurate and defensible spatial dependency between traffic links, and thereby augments traffic flow prediction.
    Keywords: Spatial Weight Matrix, Spatial Econometrics, Traffic Flow, Traffic Network
    JEL: R40 C21 C22
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nex:wpaper:networkweightmatrixintroduction&r=tre

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