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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Hao, Peng; Wei, Zhensong; Bai, Zhengwei; Barth, Matthew |
| Abstract: | Connected and automated vehicle technology could bring about transformative reductions in traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and energy consumption. Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) can directly communicate with other vehicles and road infrastructure and use sensing technology and artificial intelligence to respond to traffic conditions and optimize fuel consumption. An eco-approach and departure application for connected and automated vehicles has been widely studied as a means of calculating the most energy-efficient speed profile and guiding a vehicle through signalized intersections without unnecessary stops and starts. Simulations using this application on roads with fixed-timing traffic signals have produced 12% reductions in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. But real-world traffic conditions are much more complex—uncertainties and the limited sensing range of automated vehicles create challenges for determining the most energy-efficient speed. To account for this uncertainty, researchers from the University of California, Riverside, propose a prediction-based, adaptive connected eco-driving strategy. The proposed strategy analyzes the possible upcoming traffic and signal scenarios based on historical data and live information collected from communication and sensing devices, and then chooses the most energy-efficient speed. This approach can be extended to accommodate different vehicle powertrains and types of roadway infrastructure. This research brief summarizes findings from the research and provides research implications. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Autonomous vehicles, Connected vehicles, Ecodriving, Energy consumption, Machine learning, Microsimulation, Signalized intersections, Vehicle mix |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0bd7g3cz&r=all |
| By: | Andreassen, Gøril Louise (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Rosendahl, Knut Einar (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | What factors determine whether it is optimal with one or more technologies in a decarbonized road transport sector, and what policies should governments choose? We investigate these questions theoretically and numerically through a static, partial equilibrium model for the road transport market. We find that two important factors that determine whether it will be and whether it should be one or more technologies are how close substitutes the two vehicle technologies are and the number of vehicles of the other technology. Our numerical results indicate that with two incompatible networks, two differentiated goods are optimal compared to only one if they are not too close substitutes. The first-best policy is a subsidy of the markup on charging and filling, where the markup is higher the higher the increased utility of more stations. In addition, to avoid an unwanted lock-in, a temporary stimulus may be needed to reach the stable equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Indirect network effects; Decarbonization; Climate policy; Electric vehicles; Hydrogen vehicles |
| JEL: | H23 L14 L91 Q58 |
| Date: | 2020–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2020_003&r=all |
| By: | Fleming, Kelly L.; Cohen D'Agostino, Mollie |
| Abstract: | Electrifying Transportation Network Company (TNC) vehicles is a high-impact strategy for reducing emissions. This issue paper synthesizes research related to electrification of TNC vehicles and considers policy pathways for addressing barriers to electric-vehicle (EV) use among TNC drivers. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2020–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt9zx112v2&r=all |
| By: | Wangsness, Paal Brevik (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Halse, Askill Harkjerr (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We observe a rapid rise in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in Norway, and there exists a literature that warns that EV charging will cause substantial future costs to the local grid, unless measures are put in place. If indeed the aggregate uncoordinated charging by EV owners does induce higher costs to local grid companies (hereafter DSOs – Distribution System Operators), then Norwegian data would be the first place to investigate. Detailed data of all Norwegian DSOs and all registered EVs during the last ten years gives a unique opportunity to investigate this relationship. To our knowledge, such an empirical analysis has not been done before on real data in a country-wide analysis. Findings may have implications for how to regulate DSOs, how to price household power usage and how to assess the net social cost of achieving emission reduction targets through promoting EVs. We use a fixed effects regression model and find that increases in EV stock are associated with positive and statistically significant increases in DSO costs when controlling for other DSO outputs and applying year dummies. The point estimates also imply that the effect is economically significant. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in these results, where the marginal cost estimates are a lot higher for small DSOs in rural areas, and a lot lower for larger DSOs in urban areas. |
| Keywords: | Electric vehicles; Distribution System Operators; local grid costs; local grid capacity; fixed effects regression; peak power tariffs |
| JEL: | Q41 Q48 Q52 R48 |
| Date: | 2020–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2020_001&r=all |
| By: | Pitteloud, Sabine |
| Abstract: | During the last decade, we have witnessed increased public concern about vehicle emissions and growing frustration with political inaction and businesses’ preference for the status quo. This paper offers a historical perspective on this debate by shedding light on the political struggle that occurred around the implementation of new regulations reducing air pollution caused by motor vehicles in Switzerland in the 1970s. Relying on archival material from the Swiss Federation of Commerce and Industry and the Federal Archives, the paper analyzes the processes of dilution and delay that characterized these regulations, and the complex interplay of various influences both in Switzerland and at the European level that contributed to this political outcome. |
| Keywords: | Environmental norms, Vehicle emissions, Lobbying, Business history, Switzerland |
| JEL: | N54 N84 F64 K32 D72 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gnv:wpaper:unige:141483&r=all |
| By: | Pyddoke, Roger (Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI)) |
| Abstract: | Recently several papers have analyzed optimal supply of public transport in the sense of optimal prices, frequencies, bus sizes, spacing of bus stops for a public transport authority facing a certain static demand for trips. This paper is motivated by the observation that demand for bus services varies between weekdays even for the same departure analyzes the magnitude of this variation and its implications for optimal supply. This analysis was enabled by the relatively recent adaption of technologies for counting passengers boarding and alighting and motivated by the relatively few published studies of such data. This paper therefore uses calculated rates between bus stops in the Swedish city Uppsala, and analyses the average variation in geography, between directions and between the same departure times and directions. The central results are that; there are parts of lines with systematically higher and lower occupancy rate than average without corresponding supply adaptions, there is substantial variance in the occupancy on buses leaving the same bus stop at the same time on week days, and welfare optimization indicates that providing capacity to cover maximum observed demand with seats in buses is not necessarily optimal. |
| Keywords: | Public transport; Bus; Occupancy; Load factor; Variation in time and space |
| JEL: | R41 R49 |
| Date: | 2020–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2020_008&r=all |
| By: | Fuller, Sam; Brown, Austin |
| Abstract: | California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program (CVRP) is the largest zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) incentive program in the United States. This policy brief summarizes how changes to the CVRP incentive structure may have affected California's ZEV market. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Law |
| Date: | 2020–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3kj611tv&r=all |
| By: | Achim I. Czerny; Alberto A. Gaggero; Jan K. Brueckner |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the airline schedule-buffer choice problem analyzed by Brueckner, Czerny and Gaggero (2020) using a simpler model where the random shocks influencing flight times are discrete rather than continuous. The analysis yields closed-form solutions for the flight and ground buffers as well as full comparative-static results, neither of which were available in the earlier paper. The paper also explores several extensions to the model that were not present in the previous paper |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8545&r=all |
| By: | Rico Krueger; Prateek Bansal; Michel Bierlaire; Thomas Gasos |
| Abstract: | Models that are robust to aberrant choice behaviour have received limited attention in discrete choice analysis. In this paper, we analyse two robust alternatives to the multinomial probit (MNP) model. Both alternative models belong to the family of robit models, whose kernel error distributions are heavy-tailed t-distributions. The first model is the multinomial robit (MNR) model in which a generic degrees of freedom parameter controls the heavy-tailedness of the kernel error distribution. The second alternative, the generalised multinomial robit (Gen-MNR) model, has not been studied in the literature before and is more flexible than MNR, as it allows for alternative-specific marginal heavy-tailedness of the kernel error distribution. For both models, we devise scalable and gradient-free Bayes estimators. We compare MNP, MNR and Gen-MNR in a simulation study and a case study on transport mode choice behaviour. We find that both MNR and Gen-MNR deliver significantly better in-sample fit and out-of-sample predictive accuracy than MNP. Gen-MNR outperforms MNR due to its more flexible kernel error distribution. Also, Gen-MNR gives more reasonable elasticity estimates than MNP and MNR, in particular regarding the demand for under-represented alternatives in a class-imbalanced dataset. |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2009.06383&r=all |
| By: | Richard Blundell (University College London); Ran Gu (University of Essex); Soren Leth-Petersen (University of Copenhagen); Hamish Low (University of Oxford); Costas Meghir (Cowles Foundation, Yale University, NBER, IZA, CEPR, and Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | We specify an equilibrium model of car ownership with private information where individuals sell and purchase new and second-hand cars over their life-cycle. This private information introduces a transaction cost, distorts the market and reduces the value of a car as a savings instrument. We estimate the model using Danish linked registry data on car ownership, income and wealth. The transaction cost, which we term the lemons penalty, is estimated to be 18% of the price in the first year of ownership, declining with the length of ownership. It leads to large reductions in the turnover of cars and in the probability of downgrading in the event of an adverse income shock. The size of the lemons penalty declines when uncertainty in the economy increases, as in recessions: large income shocks induce individuals to sell their cars, even if of good quality, and this reduces the lemons problem. |
| Keywords: | Lemons penalty, Car market, Income uncertainty, Estimated life-cycle equilibrium model |
| JEL: | D82 E21 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2197r&r=all |
| By: | Liang, Yuanning |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304312&r=all |