|
on Transport Economics |
| By: | Chai, Huajun; Rodier, Caroline; Song, Jeffery; Zhang, Michael |
| Abstract: | Parking has long been an urban planning challenge. Providing parking in city centers is land-intensive and expensive. Moreover, drivers searching for scarce parking can increase congestion, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Use of automated vehicles to drop off and pick up travelers could reduce the demand for parking, which could reduce VMT and associated emissions and allow urban spaces currently used for parking to be converted to more beneficial uses. However, automated vehicles could also have negative consequences. They could generate empty vehicle travel and more cross-traffic movements due to drop-offs and pick-ups which could increase congestion, VMT, and GHG emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Davis modeled the travel effects of changes in drop-off and pick-up activity and parking supply that might be triggered by widespread automated vehicle use in San Francisco’s city center. A primary goal of this research was to determine an optimal level of automated vehicle adoption that minimizes negative consequences. The researchers also modeled methods to control these negative consequences, including expanding drop-off and pick-up zones and imposing auto pricing policies to curb demand. This policy brief summarizes the findings from that research and provides policy implications. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Autonomous vehicles, Central business districts, City planning, Curb side parking, Exhaust gases, Parking demand, Traffic models, Travel behavior, Vehicle miles of travel |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt03c3c2d4&r=all |
| By: | Wong, Stephen; Shaheen, Susan PhD |
| Abstract: | This synthesis provides a summary and comparative analysis of actions states across the United States are taking inresponse to automated vehicles (AVs). The research focuses on state-level stakeholder forums (e.g., task forces,committees) and state-level strategic actions (e.g., studies, initiatives, programs) initiated by a state legislature, agovernor, or a state agency. The analysis found that AV stakeholder forums and strategic actions address a diverse set offocus areas, but they pay minimal attention to the implications of AVs on the environment, public health, social equity,land use, public transit, goods movement, and emergency response. Also, forums and strategic actions commonly includemembers from state transportation departments, the legislature, and academia; however, representatives from industryand non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are included less often. Academia and researchers participate in themajority of AV forums and actions, either in an advisory capacity (i.e., sharing expertise and experience) and/or throughconducting research. Based on this analysis, the synthesis concludes with a recommendation for California to form astate-level working group representing leaders from the public sector, industry, NGOs, and academia to advise theGovernor and the Legislature on AV policy across a range of focus areas. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Automated and autonomous vehicles, policy making, stakeholders, meetings, workshops, state government agencies, partnerships |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt6mf030xb&r=all |
| By: | Neil Murray; Heike Link |
| Abstract: | We estimate the marginal costs of road renewals as part of a social marginal cost scheme for road user charging. Within an analytical approach that mirrors the relationship between road deterioration, traffic load and road renewal, we use an accelerated failure time model for road pavement with the purpose to derive the effect from traffic increase on the length of road renewal cycles. Based on a comprehensive dataset for German motorways we fit a Weibull duration model with covariates such as traffic load from heavy vehicles as well as various control variables and derive the road deterioration elasticity with respect to heavy traffic. Similar to available studies for Sweden we find a deterioration elasticity below one, implying that Newbery’s (1985) fundamental theorem does not hold for the German motorway network. The shape parameter of the Weibull function indicates that there is an ageing or weathering effect, and higher traffic loads are not the sole factor impacting on shorter pavement lifetimes. Our estimations yield a marginal renewal cost, which makes up approximately 40% of the average renewal cost. It implies that road user charges based on marginal costs will not yield a sufficient revenue to cover total costs. |
| Keywords: | Duration model, accelerated failure time model, fundamental theorem, marginal cost, road transport |
| JEL: | R42 R48 C41 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1898&r=all |
| By: | Cervero, Robert |
| Abstract: | Under the right conditions -- serious traffic congestion, a permissive regulatory environment, and frequent and reliable transit services -- rail transit investments can powerfully shape cities and regions. Rail transit’s city‐shaping powers are due to market forces and policy interventions. By enhancing accessibility (the ability of those living, working, or shopping rail near stops to quickly reach desired destinations) rail services increase the value and desirability of properties in and around stations. Market pressures by themselves rarely produce transit oriented development. To leverage private investments in and around stations, pro‐activism and a certain amount of risk‐taking on the part of local governments are often needed. This report includes case studies from several cities, along with a policy lessons summary. Land value impacts and value capture opportunities are described. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2020–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt71v7m90b&r=all |
| By: | Dupont-Kieffer, Ariane; Rivot, Sylvie; Madre, Jean-Loup; Assistant, JHET |
| Abstract: | The golden age of road demand modeling began in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in the face of major road construction needs. These macro-models as well as the econometrics and the data to be processed, were mainly provided by engineers. A division of tasks can be observed between the engineers in charge of estimating the flows within the network, and the transport economists in charge of managing these flows once they are on the road network. Yet the inability to explain their decision-making processes and individual drives gave some room to economists to introduce economic analysis, so as to better understand individual or collective decisions between transport alternatives. Economists, in particular McFadden, began to offer methods to improve the measure of utility linked to transport, and to inform the engineering approach. This paper explores the challenges to the boundaries between economics and engineering in road demand analysis. |
| Date: | 2020–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:kucbt&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan; Cohen, Adam; Broader, Jacquelyn; Davis, Richard; Brown, Les; Neelakantan, Radha; Gopalakrishna, Deepak |
| Abstract: | This report provides Mobility on Demand (MOD) planning and implementation practices and tools to support communities. The report discusses different stakeholders in the MOD ecosystem and the role of partnerships in filling spatial, temporal, and other service gaps. Additionally, the report discusses how MOD can be integrated into transportation planning and modeling. The report also discusses shared mobility implementation considerations, such as rights-of-way management, multimodal integration, data sharing, equity, labor impacts, and the role of pilot evaluations. Finally, the report discusses technology developments with implications for the MOD ecosystem, such as shared automated vehicles (SAVs), urban air mobility (UAM), and last-mile delivery innovations. This report is a practical resource with: 1) current practices for planning and implementing MOD; 2) case studies and lessons learned; 3) considerations to help public agencies advance MOD in their communities; and 4) resources and recommended reading. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2020–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt3hc6m2vj&r=all |
| By: | Jagu, E.; Massol, O. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the deployment of a shared CO2 transportation infrastructure needed to support the combined emergence of Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and Fossil energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). We develop a cooperative game-theoretic approach to: (i) examine the conditions needed for its construction to be decided, and (ii) determine the break-even CO2 value needed to build such a shared infrastructure. In particular, we highlight that, as biogenic emissions are overlooked in currently-implemented carbon accounting frameworks, BECCS and CCS emitters face asymmetric conditions for joining a shared infrastructure. We thus further examine the influence of these carbon accounting considerations by assessing and comparing the break-even CO2 values obtained under alternative accounting rules. We apply this modeling framework to a large contemporary BECCS/CCS case-study in Sweden. Our results indicate that sustainable and incentive-compatible cooperation schemes can be implemented if the value of CO2 is high enough and show how that value varies depending on the carbon accounting framework retained for negative emissions and the nature of the infrastructure operators. In the most advantageous scenario, the CO2 value needs to reach 112€/tCO2, while the current Swedish carbon tax amounts to 110€/tCO2. Overall, these findings position pragmatic policy recommendations for local BECCS deployment. |
| Keywords: | Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage; Negative emissions; CO2 transportation; infrastructure; cooperative game theory; carbon accounting |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cty:dpaper:20/15&r=all |
| By: | Francisco Benita; Vittorio Bil\`o; Barnab\'e Monnot; Georgios Piliouras; Cosimo Vinci |
| Abstract: | We investigate traffic routing both from the perspective of real world data as well as theory. First, we reveal through data analytics a natural but previously uncaptured regularity of real world routing behavior. Agents only consider, in their strategy sets, paths whose free-flow costs (informally their lengths) are within a small multiplicative $(1+\theta)$ constant of the optimal free-flow cost path connecting their source and destination where $\theta\geq0$. In the case of Singapore, $\theta=1$ is a good estimate of agents' route (pre)selection mechanism. In contrast, in Pigou networks the ratio of the free-flow costs of the routes and thus $\theta$ is infinite, so although such worst case networks are mathematically simple they correspond to artificial routing scenarios with little resemblance to real world conditions, opening the possibility of proving much stronger Price of Anarchy guarantees by explicitly studying their dependency on $\theta$. We provide an exhaustive analysis of this question by providing provably tight bounds on PoA($\theta$) for arbitrary classes of cost functions both in the case of general congestion/routing games as well as in the special case of path-disjoint networks. For example, in the case of the standard Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) cost model, $c_e(x)= a_e x^4+b_e$ and more generally quartic cost functions, the standard PoA bound for $\theta=\infty$ is $2.1505$ (Roughgarden, 2003) and it is tight both for general networks as well as path-disjoint and even parallel-edge networks. In comparison, in the case of $\theta=1$, the PoA in the case of general networks is only $1.6994$, whereas for path-disjoint/parallel-edge networks is even smaller ($1.3652$), showing that both the route geometries as captured by the parameter $\theta$ as well as the network topology have significant effects on PoA (Figure 1). |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2009.12871&r=all |
| By: | Wei-Shiuen Ng (International Transport Forum); Ashley Acker (International Transport Forum) |
| Abstract: | Women remain underrepresented in most transport-related industries, with only 17% female employees on average across a sample of 46 countries. Both attracting and retaining them remains a challenge for governments and the private sector. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the correlation between female participation in the transport workforce and variables such as GDP per capita, education and labour laws. It also provides recommendations on how to develop policies and measures that will enable gender equality in the transport workforce. |
| Date: | 2020–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaab:2020/11-en&r=all |
| By: | Waetjen, David PhD; Shilling, Fraser PhD |
| Abstract: | There are two official sources of data on traffic incidents in California: 1) the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), intended to include incidents leading to injury or death; and 2) the California Highway Patrol (CHP) data on Caltrans’ Performance Measurement System, PeMS. Traffic safety researchers rely heavily on the post-processed SWITRS database, which provides only some crucial information about crashes. In 2015, the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis developed a third method to collect all incident data that appear on the CHP real-time incident-reporting web-site (https://cad.chp.ca.gov/). These data are assembled into a database called CHIPS, for California Highway Incident Processing System. Analyses indicate that the number of incidents recorded in a given period are similar in CHIPS and SWITRS but lower in PeMS. Also, many SWITRS records (e.g., 36% in 2018), but no CHIPS records, lack or have inaccurate location information on incidents. Through case studies, the research group examined three ways that CHIPS can be used to support data and policy analysis. This report proposes future pathways for creating a more integrated system for collecting and analyzing crashes. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, There are two official sources of data on traffic incidents in California: 1) the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), intended to include incidents leading to injury or death, and 2) the California Highway Patrol (CHP) data on Caltrans’ Performance Measurement System, PeMS. Traffic safety researchers rely heavily on the post-processed SWITRS database, which provides only some crucial information about crashes. In 2015, the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis developed a third method to collect all incident data that appear on the CHP real-time incident-reporting web-site (https://cad.chp.ca.gov/). These data are assembled into a database called CHIPS, for California Highway Incident Processing System. Analyses indicate that the number of incidents recorded in a given period are similar in CHIPS and SWITRS but lower in PeMS. Also, many SWITRS records (e.g., 36% in 2018), but no CHIPS records, lack or have inaccurate location information on incidents. Through case studies, the research group examined three ways that CHIPS can be used to support data and policy analysis. This report proposes future pathways for creating a more integrated system for collecting and analyzing crashes. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt07t6b5xj&r=all |
| By: | Doug Gollin; Paul Blanchard; Martina Kirchberger |
| Abstract: | Frictions affecting human mobility have been identified as important potential sources of the spatial gaps in wages and living standards that characterize many low-income countries. However, little direct data has been available to characterize mobility. Many surveys and censuses provide only limited information and focus on longer-term migration decisions. In this paper, we use a novel data source that provides highly detailed location data on more than one million devices across three large African countries for an entire year. This allows us to examine high-frequency mobility patterns for a subset of high-quality observations for whom we can determine home locations confidently. We link our users with spatial data on population density and nationally representative micro-survey data to characterize this non-random sample. This allows us to document how representative the home locations of our users are and how smartphone users differ from other individuals. We then propose a number of metrics to measure high-frequency mobility. Our rich data allow us to characterize mobility at various spatial and temporal scales. We find that users are remarkably mobile in terms of the fraction of days seen at least 10km away from their home location, and the average distance for non-home location pings. Individuals residing in low-density locations are well linked to high-density locations. A significant fraction of visitors to the largest cities comes from non-urban areas. Finally, we examine how sensitive travel is to distance. We find that across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales our estimates are in line with previous gravity estimates in the literature. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2020-18&r=all |
| By: | Harvey, John T.; Butt, Ali A.; Saboori, Arash; Lozano, Mark T.; Kim, Changmo; Kendall, Alissa |
| Abstract: | California state government has established a series of mandated targets for reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that contribute to climate change. With a multiplicity of emissions sources and economic sectors, it is clear that no single change the state can make will enable it to achieve the ambitious goals set by executive orders and legislation. Instead, many actors within the state’s economy—including state agencies such as the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)—must make multiple changes to their own internal operations. The focus of this study and technical memorandum is to examine several strategic options that Caltrans could adopt to lower its GHG emissions in operating the California (CA) state highway network and other transportation assets so it can help meet the state’s GHG reduction goals. Although many GHG reduction strategies appear to be attractive, simple, and effective, most also have limitations, trade-offs, and unintended consequences that cannot be identified without a preliminary identification and examination of the full system they operate in and their full life cycle. To achieve the most rapid and cost-effective changes possible, the costs, times to implement, and difficulty of implementation should also be considered when the alternative strategies are being prioritized. This project first developed an emissions reduction “supply curve” framework by using life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate full-system life cycle environmental impacts and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) to prioritize the alternative GHG-reduction strategies based on benefit and cost. This framework was then applied to an example set of strategies and cases for Caltrans operations. This technical memorandum presents the results of the supply curve framework’s development and its application to six strategies for changing several Caltrans operations identified by the research team. The six strategies were: (1) pavement roughness and maintenance prioritization, (2) energy harvesting using piezoelectric technology, (3) automation of bridge tolling systems, (4) increased use of reclaimed asphalt pavement, (5) alternative fuel technologies for the Caltrans vehicle fleet, and (6) solar and wind energy production on state right-of-ways. A summary of the methodology and the resulting supply curve that includes all the strategies considered and ranked is published in a separate white paper. This technical memorandum provides the details, assumptions, calculation methods, and results of the development of the GHG reduction supply curve for each strategy. Although this current study’s scope is limited to development of a supply curve for GHG emissions only, there are plans to expand the study’s scope to include other environmental impacts and to develop supply curves for them as well. |
| Keywords: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Supply curve, life cycle assessment, life cycle cost analysis, decision support, California state level strategies, carbon reduction, greenhouse gas emissions |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0mx245rd&r=all |