nep-tre New Economics Papers
on Transport Economics
Issue of 2020‒03‒30
eight papers chosen by
Erik Teodoor Verhoef
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  1. Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Bay Area Rapid Transit Integrated Carpool to Transit Access Program Evaluation Report By Martin, Elliot; Cohen, Adam; Yassine, Ziad; Brown, Les; Shaheen, Susan
  2. Urban Air Mobility: Viability of Hub-Door and Door-Door Movement by Air By Bulusu, Vishwanath; Sengupta, Raja
  3. Traffic, Air Pollution, and Distributional Impacts in Dar es Salaam : A Spatial Analysis with New Satellite Data By Dasgupta,Susmita; Lall,Somik V.; Wheeler,David
  4. Steering cities towards a sustainable transport system in Norway and Sweden By Jussila Hammes, Johanna
  5. Trade, Transportation and the Environment By Forslid, Rikard
  6. Estimating Resiliency Benefits of Road Upgradation : Case of the East Road in Malaita, Solomon Islands By Marcelo Gordillo,Darwin; Raina,Aditi
  7. The impact of delays on the welfare effects of on-track competition: The case of transfer passengers with operator-tied tickets By Christina; Gernot Sieg
  8. Rail infrastructure and liberalization : guidelines for a strategical approach By Pierre Zembri

  1. By: Martin, Elliot; Cohen, Adam; Yassine, Ziad; Brown, Les; Shaheen, Susan
    Abstract: The Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration Program provides a venue through which integrated MOD concepts and solutions, supported through local partnerships, are demonstrated in real-world settings. For each of the 11 MOD Sandbox Demonstration projects, a MOD Sandbox Independent Evaluation was conducted that includes an analysis of project impacts from performance measures provided by the project partners and an assessment of the business models used. This document presents the Evaluation Report for the BART Integrated Carpool to Transit Access Program project. The project tested a number of hypotheses that explored the project impacts on carpooling, costs, enforcement, ridership, parking, and vehicle miles of travel (VMT). The evaluation generally found that the project increased overall carpooling to BART, commensurately increased the utilization of parking spaces by carpooling vehicles, and increased the number of people per vehicle parking at BART stations. The evaluation determined that the overall cost of enforcement per carpool space declined, primarily because spaces used for carpools increased without significantly increased enforcement burden. The evaluation did not have data available to determine whether illegal use of carpool spaces had changed significantly as a result of the project. On the related matter of enforcement, the evaluation did not have data to quantify changes in fraudulent use of carpool spaces and, instead, relied on discussions with enforcement staff, which suggested that fraudulent use had dropped as a result of the project. The evaluation did find that the project produced a wider distribution of arrival times to carpool spaces, which was an objective of BART, to permit greater flexibility of travel times in the morning for carpooling riders. The evaluation found that the project likely increased BART ridership, although not by margins large enough to be statistically noticeable within normal fluctuations of station ridership. Data were not available to determine whether this increase in ridership raised revenue that exceeded the costs of the project. However, users reported reduced personal transportation costs a result of the project. The project found that overall VMT very likely declined as result of the project due to the reduced driving alone to stations. Finally, expert interviews with project personnel produced lessons learned on implementation and policy that may inform similar projects in the future.
    Keywords: Engineering, Mobility on Demand, MOD, sandbox, shared mobility, mobility as a service, independent evaluation, transit, carpooling
    Date: 2020–02–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt1zg6w7p0&r=all
  2. By: Bulusu, Vishwanath; Sengupta, Raja
    Abstract: Owing to a century of innovation in connected and automated aircraft design, for the rst time in history, air transport presents a potential competitive alternative to road, for hub-to-door and door-to-door urban services. In this article, we study the viability of air transport, for moving people and goods in an urban area, based on three metrics - enroute travel time, fuel cost and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We estimate the metrics from emission standards and operational assumptions on vehicles based on current market data and compare electric air travel to gasoline road travel. For passenger movement, air is faster than road for all distances. It fares better on fuel cost and emissions only for longer distances (specic transition distances are stated in the text). For consolidated movement of goods, air is at par with road. Finally, for movement of unconsolidated goods, air again fares better than road on all three metrics. It is also noteworthy that these results are based on a road friendly urban design. Changes in design that facilitate easier access to air based hub-to-door and door-to-door services, would only make the case stronger for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), especially with connected and automated aircraft, as the next revolution in urban transportation.
    Keywords: Engineering, Urban air mobility, drones, VTOL
    Date: 2020–03–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt6wq6x800&r=all
  3. By: Dasgupta,Susmita; Lall,Somik V.; Wheeler,David
    Abstract: Air pollution from vehicular traffic is a major source of health damage in urban areas. The problems of urban traffic and pollution are essentially geographic, because their incidence and impacts depend on the spatial distribution of economic activities, households, and transport links. This paper uses satellite images to investigate the spatial dynamics of vehicle traffic, air pollution, and exposure of vulnerable residents in the Dar es Salaam metro region of Tanzania. The results highlight significant impacts of seasonal weather (temperature, humidity, and wind-speed factors) on the spatial distribution and intensity of air pollution from vehicle emissions. These effects on the metro region's air quality vary highly by area. During seasons when weather factors maximize pollution, the worst exposure occurs in areas along the wind path of high-traffic roadways. The research identifies core areas where congestion reduction would yield the greatest exposure reduction for children and the elderly in poor households.
    Keywords: Intelligent Transport Systems,Air Quality&Clean Air,Pollution Management&Control,Brown Issues and Health,Inequality,Health Care Services Industry,Railways Transport
    Date: 2020–03–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9185&r=all
  4. By: Jussila Hammes, Johanna (Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI))
    Abstract: This paper describes so-called city growth agreements and city environmental agreements in Norway and Sweden, respectively. We do case studies of two regions in Norway and two cities in Sweden. While the general aim of the agreements is similar in the two countries, namely for the central government to influence municipal infrastructure building in a more environmentally sustainable direction, the agreements differ in many respects. While the Norwegian agreements consist of several projects concerning the construction of roads and railroads, and infrastructure for public transport, pedestrians, and cycling, the Swedish agreements only concern one (type of) project at a time. Moreover, Norway emphasizes city planning more; even though the building of new housing is important also in Sweden, location and densification are less so. The Swedish projects are municipality driven, while the Norwegian system is based on reciprocal negotiations between the municipalities, the county, and the state. The Norwegian model fits better into a theoretical fiscal federalism-based framework than the Swedish one, with the state internalizing spatial spillovers arising from infrastructure projects. In Sweden, the agreements are better to be seen as means for institutionalized lobbying by municipalities
    Keywords: Co-financing; Cycling; Sustainable cities; Public transport; Infrastructure investment; State-local cooperation; City planning
    JEL: D70 H54 H71 Q54 R11 R42
    Date: 2020–03–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2020_004&r=all
  5. By: Forslid, Rikard (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University)
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the environmental impact of emissions related to trade and transportation. It is shown that transportation may in principle lower global emissions if the production sector is dirtier than the transport sector. The measure of a sector´s dirtiness is related to the emissions taxes and the abatement efficiency within that sector. It is shown that a firm´s abatement efficiency can be calculated from the emissions-to-cost ratio times the emissions tax. Using Swedish data to rank 5-digit industries in terms of their dirtiness reveals that several production sectors have a higher dirtiness index than transportation does.
    Keywords: Emissions; Trade; Transportation;
    JEL: F10 F18
    Date: 2020–01–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2020_0002&r=all
  6. By: Marcelo Gordillo,Darwin; Raina,Aditi
    Abstract: Governments and their multilateral partners are increasingly recognizing the importance of incorporating climate and disaster resilience considerations into infrastructure development plans as well as the related construction and financing decisions. The potential medium- and long-term benefits of increased resilience must be considered alongside short-term costs of resilient design and implementation. The objective of this paper to estimate the resiliency benefits, in terms of key socioeconomic outcomes, under several road upgradation options and rainfall scenarios. The estimated benefits are compared against the related lifecycle costs to inform investment decisions. The analysis is based on the methodology developed by the World Bank and Kyoto University to operationalize and measure key infrastructure resilience concepts at the project level. The East Road in Malaita in the Solomon Islands is used to pilot the this methodology and examine its applicability. The parameters selected to measure resiliency are based on the key benefits the road provides to the people living around it: economic benefits proxied by travel time, access to hospitals, and access to markets. Due to data constraints in Malaita, the report is based primarily on expert inputs and geo-spatial data. It considers mainly technical improvements to road upgradation that might impact resiliency.
    Date: 2020–03–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9190&r=all
  7. By: Christina (Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster); Gernot Sieg (Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster)
    Abstract: When connecting trains may be missed due to delays, and passengers are insufficiently flexible due to operator-tied ticketing, on-track competition may reduce effective frequency. We analyze passengers who share α-β-γô °€-preferences for being on time and a price-sensitive demand, but differ in the preferred arrival time. If the probability of missing a connection due to a delay is sufficiently high, both producer and consumer surplus in a duopoly with reduced effective frequency is smaller than in the monopoly case. Apart from reducing unpunctuality, ensuring the transferability of tickets, and switching to competition for the market, may constitute (regulatory) remedies.
    Keywords: Oligopoly model, Open access, Delays, Connecting trains, Operator-tied ticketing, Regulation
    JEL: L92 L98 R48
    Date: 2019–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mut:wpaper:28&r=all
  8. By: Pierre Zembri (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - UNIV GUSTAVE EIFFEL - Université Gustave Eiffel)
    Abstract: The management of the french rail network since the 1997 reform is little different from that which prevailed previously : exclusive preservation of the interests of the incumbent operator (SNCF) on the most promising part of its activity (high speed), lack of strategy on the traditional network (except the lines followed by high-speed services). Subsequently, the debt of the rail system has been growing and weighs on the financial balance of the infrastructure manager. The degradation of the network appeared in full light with the imposition of reduced speed limits which one believed initially held in the least attended lines. In spite of several audits, commitments of the government and other contracts of performance, the median age of the network still increase and degradations spread. The evolution of the structure of the network is from now on dependent on the state of its components, and the investments are explicitly dedicated to the most attended axes. To exceed this spiral of a more undergone than programmed decline, this article proposes to explore the ways of a really strategic approach of the rail network. This approach rests on two scales of management: that of the national network in its entirety and that of the Regions in their new contours. We intend to rehabilitate the concepts of connectivity and robustness, while taking into account the regional strategies of service.
    Abstract: La gestion du réseau ferré français depuis la réforme de 1997 n'est guère différente de celle qui prévalait antérieurement : préservation des intérêts de la seule SNCF sur la partie la plus porteuse de son activité (grande vitesse), absence de stratégie concernant le réseau classique en dehors des prolongements des axes à grande vitesse. Parallèlement, l'endettement du système ferroviaire n'a cessé de croître et pèse sur l'équilibre financier du gestionnaire d'infrastructure. La dégradation du réseau est apparue en pleine lumière avec l'imposition de ralentissements que l'on croyait initialement réservés aux lignes les moins fréquentées. Malgré plusieurs audits, engagements solennels du gouvernement et autres contrats de performance, l'âge moyen du réseau continue d'augmenter et les dégradations se généralisent. L'évolution de la consistance du réseau est désormais tributaire de l'état de ses composantes, et les investissements sont explicitement réservés aux axes les plus fréquentés. Pour dépasser cette spirale d'un déclin davantage subi que programmé, cet article se propose d'explorer les voies d'une approche réellement stratégique du réseau ferré. Cette approche repose sur deux échelles de gestion : celle du réseau dans son intégralité et celle des Régions dans leurs nouveaux contours. Elle entend réhabiliter les concepts de connectivité et de robustesse, tout en prenant en compte les politiques de desserte régionales.
    Keywords: rail network,management,strategy,robustness,connectivity,réseau ferroviaire,gestion,stratégie,robustesse,connectivité
    Date: 2020–02–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02481895&r=all

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