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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Bento, Antonio; Jacobsen, Mark; Knittel, Christopher; Van Benthem, Arthur |
| Abstract: | Fuel-economy standards for new vehicles are a primary policy instrument in many countries to reduce the carbon footprint of the transportation sector. These standards have many channels of costs and benefit, impacting sales, composition, vehicle attributes, miles traveled and externalities in the new-car fleet, as well as the composition and size of the used fleet. We develop a tractable analytical framework to examine the welfare effects of fuel-economy standards, and apply it to the recent government proposal to roll back fuel-economy standards. We find that our combined, multi-market vehicle choice model implies that the proposal would increase the size of the vehicle fleet over time, and also generates smaller welfare gains than models with a less rich structure of the vehicle market, such as the one used in the analysis associated with the 2018 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announcement. The disparities across the two models appear to result from the absence of feedback effects in the NPRM analysis. We stress the importance of instead using a multi-market vehicle choice model to provide the most accurate predictions of costs and benefits. We also derive bounds that can serve as a check on the theoretical consistency of such analyses, and that other insights into the magnitudes of potential errors resulting from imperfect multi-market integration. |
| Keywords: | benefit-cost analysis; fuel-economy standard; Vehicles |
| JEL: | H23 L51 Q38 Q48 Q58 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14189&r=all |
| By: | Kiani, Behdad; Ogden, Joan; Sheldon, F. Alex; Cordano, Lauren |
| Abstract: | California has goals to rapidly expand electric vehicle adoption, with executive orders calling for 1.5 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2025 and 5 million by 2030. Significant charging infrastructure will be needed to support these new vehicles. While many urban areas in California have prioritized construction of charging stations, most rural areas lack charging infrastructure. This deficit hinders electric vehicle adoption in rural areas and makes long distance electric vehicle travel difficult. To address this issue, Caltrans has begun investing in charging infrastructure in rural and underserved areas around the state, particularly at highway rest areas. However, an understanding of potential future intercity charging demand will be needed to inform continued investments in support of a growing electric vehicle fleet. This policy brief summarizes findings from researchers at the University of California, Davis, who collected state travel data and electricity demand data to run a model that identified optimal highway rest areas for electric vehicle charger installation and calculated how an increase in charging demand would affect the California electricity grid at selected highway locations. The project aimed to maximize the use and generation of solar and wind energy, while also increasing electric vehicle adoption and mobility in the state. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Electric vehicle charging, Electric vehicles, Intercity travel, Range (Vehicles), Renewable energy sources, Roadside rest areas, Solar power generation, Travel behavior, Travel demand |
| Date: | 2020–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1q77r26x&r=all |
| By: | Mauch, Michael PhD; Skabardonis, Alex PhD |
| Abstract: | The objective of this research study was to support the Traffic Census and Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) Programs in identifying locations for motorized traffic data collection on public roads in California. The study analyzed the traffic census count locations for each District to determine at which Census count locations the automated and continuously collected Caltrans Performance Measurement System (PeMS) data could be used in lieu of manual traffic counts. Next, this research identified and evaluated count locations for motorized traffic data collection on non-State Highway System Routes to help meet Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requirements for the Caltrans Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) program. Lastly, this research reviewed and summarized the emerging traffic data collection technologies and data sources appropriate for Caltrans HPMS and/or Census reporting purposes. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, traffic surveillance, data collection, automatic data collection systems, traffic data, performance measurement |
| Date: | 2020–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt64g416gb&r=all |
| By: | Osório, António (António Miguel); Pinto, Alberto Adrego |
| Abstract: | In an avoidable harmful situation, autonomous vehicles systems are expected to choose the course of action that causes the less damage to everybody. However, this behavioral protocol implies some predictability. In this context, we show that if the autonomous vehicle decision process is perfectly known then malicious, opportunistic, terrorist, criminal and non-civic individuals may have incentives to manipulate it. Consequently, some levels of uncertainty are necessary for the system to be manipulation proof. Uncertainty removes the misbehavior incentives because it increases the risk and likelihood of unsuccessful manipulation. However, uncertainty may also decrease the quality of the decision process with negative impact in terms of efficiency and welfare for the society. We also discuss other possible solutions to this problem. Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Autonomous vehicles; Manipulation; Malicious Behavior; Uncertainty. JEL classification: D81, L62, O32. |
| Keywords: | Vehicles autònoms, 625 - Enginyeria del transport terrestre, |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/376028&r=all |
| By: | Schlosser, Nina |
| Abstract: | Nowadays, electric automobility is considered to be the magic bullet in combating the heating climate. The necessary raw materials for the transformation of automobility in the global North, however, originate mainly from the global South to where the socialecological costs are externalised. While the global North's externalisation society with its imperial mode of living drives the electric vehicle forward in the fast lane, it is the internalisation society of the global South that cushions the hidden costs from which nature as a whole and a particular part of the population increasingly suffer. Nonetheless, the propertied class with its immense power resources, and hopeful wage earners with their desire for a peripheric imperial mode of living defend this construct successfully from outside attacks to this day as the Chilean case proves. This contribution intends to reveal the social-ecological costs resulting from the lithium extraction in Chile as result of the electrification of passenger cars in the EU, on the one hand, and to explain the muddle of power structures, especially in the global South, on the other, while giving the responsible actors a face and the parties concerned a voice. |
| Keywords: | electric automobility,Imperial Mode of Living,externalisation,Peripheric Mode of Living,internalisation,lithium,Chile |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1442020&r=all |
| By: | Daniel Gurara; Kangni R Kpodar; Andrea F Presbitero; Dawit Tessema |
| Abstract: | While expanding public investment can help filling infrastructure bottlenecks, scaling up too much and too fast often leads to inefficient outcomes. This paper rationalizes this outcome looking at the association between cost inflation and public investment in a large sample of road construction projects in developing countries. Consistent with the presence of absorptive capacity constraints, our results show a non-linear U-shaped relationship between public investment and project costs. Unit costs increase once public investment is close to 10% of GDP. This threshold is lower (about 7% of GDP) in countries with low investment efficiency and, in general, the effect of investment scaling up on costs is especially strong during investment booms. |
| Keywords: | National income;Public investments;Absorptive capacity;Economic growth;Public investment programs;Public investment,Unit costs,Investment efficiency,infrastructure,WP,unit cost,quantiles,capacity constraint,public investment program |
| Date: | 2020–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2020/048&r=all |
| By: | M Said; A Biehl; A Stathopoulos |
| Abstract: | Active mobility, traditionally referring to modes requiring physical activity to operate, offers an array of physical, emotional, and social well-being benefits. However, with the proliferation of the sharing economy, new nonmotorized means of transport are entering the fold, complementing some existing mobility options while competing with others. The purpose of this research is to investigate the adoption of three active travel modes, namely walking, cycling and bike-sharing, in a joint modeling framework. The analysis is based on an adaptation of the stages of change framework, which originates from the health behavior sciences. The development of a multivariate ordered probit model drawing on U.S. survey data provides well-needed insights into individuals preparedness to adopt multiple active modes as a function of personal, neighborhood and psychosocial factors. The joint model structures reveal different levels of interdependence among active mobility choices. The strongest positive association is found for walking and cycling adoption, whereas other joint model effects are less evident. Identifying strongly with active mobility, experiences with multimodal travel, possessing better navigational skills, along with supportive local community norms are the factors that appear to drive the joint adoption decisions. This study contributes to the understanding of how decisions within the same functional domain are related. |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2006.16920&r=all |
| By: | María Gabriela Palacio Ludeña (Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University); Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón (African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR), Southern African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU), University of Cape Town & Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University) |
| Abstract: | Mobility is a multifaceted concept with social, economic and political implications. Spatial mobility, inequality and precarity intertwine. This article reflects on the role of mobility and precarity and the emergence of protests in both Ecuador and Chile in 2019. We argue that the announced increases in transport and fuel costs in Chile and Ecuador unveiled the obstacles to mobility and the degree of existing inequalities. Whereas protests emerged as a response to the announcement of a reduction in fuel subsidies and the possible increases in the costs of transport, they reflec something deeper related to the vulnerability of the livelihoods of segments of the population; this in spite that both Chile and Ecuador observe improvements in poverty and inequality indicators. Undertaking a more dissagragated analysis of the effects of reduction in fuel subsidies or increases in metro tickets we find that mobility correlates with a pattern of structural marginalisation that perpetuates inequality, which is not necessarily visible to aggregate economic indicators. |
| Keywords: | mobility, protests, Ecuador, Chile, Latin America, inequality, poverty |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:260&r=all |