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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Lazarus, Jessica; Bauer, Gordon PhD; Greenblatt, Jeffery PhD; Shaheen, Susan PhD |
| Abstract: | This research investigates strategies to improve the mobility of low-income travelers by incentivizing the use of electric SAVs (SAEVs) and public transit. We employ two agent-based simulation engines, an activity-based travel demand model of the San Francisco Bay Area, and vehicle movement data from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin to model emergent travel behavior of commute trips in response to subsidies for TNCs and public transit. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the impacts of different subsidy scenarios on mode choices, TNC pooling and match rates, vehicle occupancies, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and TNC revenues. The scenarios varied in the determination of which travel modes and income levels were eligible to receive a subsidy of $1.25, $2.50, or $5.00 per ride. Four different mode-specific subsidies were investigated, including subsidies for 1) all TNC rides, 2) pooled TNC rides only, 3) all public transit rides, and 4) TNC rides to/from public transit only. Each of the four modespecific subsidies were applied in scenarios which subsidized travelers of all income levels, as well as scenarios that only subsidized low-income travelers (earning less than $50,000 annual household income). Simulations estimating wait times for TNC trips in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles regions also revealed that wait times are distributed approximately equally across low- and high-income trip requests. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2021–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt5f1359rd&r=all |
| By: | Qida Su |
| Abstract: | Managing morning commute traffic through parking provision management has been well studied in the literature. However, most previous studies made the assumption that all road users require parking spaces at CBD area. However, in recent years, due to technological advancements and low market entry barrier, more and more e-dispatch FHVs (eFHVs) are provided in service. The rapidly growing eFHVs, on one hand, supply substantial trip services and complete the trips requiring no parking demand; on the other hand, imposes congestion effects to all road users. In this study, we investigate the multi-modal morning commute problem with bottleneck congestion and parking space constraints in the presence of ride-sourcing and transit service. Meanwhile, we derive the optimal number of parking spaces to best manage the commute traffic. One interesting finding is that, in the presence of ride-sourcing, excessive supply of parking spaces could incur higher system commute costs in the multi-modal case. |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2104.01761&r=all |
| By: | Kenneth Gillingham; Marten Ovaere; Stephanie M. Weber |
| Abstract: | Will a carbon tax improve the welfare consequences of policies to promote electric vehicles? This paper examines when a complementarity could exist between carbon pricing and high electric vehicle adoption. We analyze electricity generation in recent years to show that in several regions, carbon pricing interacts with electric vehicle adoption. Under moderate carbon prices like those in effect today, additional electric vehicles will be more likely to be charged with coal-fired generation than without carbon pricing. We confirm this finding using a detailed dynamic model that includes the transportation and power sectors. At much higher carbon prices, the effect reverses. |
| JEL: | H23 Q48 Q53 Q54 Q58 R48 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28620&r=all |
| By: | Anupriya; Daniel J. Graham; Daniel H\"orcher; Prateek Bansal |
| Abstract: | The fundamental relationship of traffic flow is empirically estimated by fitting a regression curve to a cloud of observations of traffic variables. Such estimates, however, may suffer from the confounding/endogeneity bias due to omitted variables such as driving behaviour and weather. To this end, this paper adopts a causal approach to obtain an unbiased estimate of the fundamental flow-density relationship using traffic detector data. In particular, we apply a Bayesian non-parametric spline-based regression approach with instrumental variables to adjust for the aforementioned confounding bias. The proposed approach is benchmarked against standard curve-fitting methods in estimating the flow-density relationship for three highway bottlenecks in the United States. Our empirical results suggest that the saturated (or hypercongested) regime of the estimated flow-density relationship using correlational curve fitting methods may be severely biased, which in turn leads to biased estimates of important traffic control inputs such as capacity and capacity-drop. We emphasise that our causal approach is based on the physical laws of vehicle movement in a traffic stream as opposed to a demand-supply framework adopted in the economics literature. By doing so, we also aim to conciliate the engineering and economics approaches to this empirical problem. Our results, thus, have important implications both for traffic engineers and transport economists. |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2104.02399&r=all |
| By: | Gaurab Aryal; Charles Murry; Jonathan W. Williams |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of inter-temporal and intra-temporal price discrimination by monopoly airlines to study the ability of different discriminatory pricing mechanisms to increase efficiency and the associated distributional implications. To estimate the model, we use unique data from international airline markets with flight-level variation in prices across time, cabins, and markets, as well as information on passengers' reasons for travel and time of purchase. We find that the ability to screen passengers across cabins every period increases total surplus by 35% relative to choosing only one price per period, with both the airline and passengers benefiting. However, further discrimination based on passenger's reason to traveling improve airline surplus at the expense of total efficiency. We also find that the current pricing practice yields approximately 89% of the first-best welfare. The source of this inefficiency arises mostly from dynamic uncertainty about demand, not private information about passenger valuations. |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2102.05751&r=all |
| By: | Pan, Alexandra; Shaheen, Susan PhD |
| Abstract: | Shared mobility is gaining traction in the transportation community as a potentially more environmentally friendly alternative to automobile travel and complement to public transit. However, adoption and use of shared mobility by low-income individuals lags behind other demographic groups. Additional research is needed to better understand the transportation needs of low-income travelers and how public agencies, community-based organizations, and shared mobility operators can work together to best serve those needs. This research fills gaps in understanding the potential policy strategies that could be effective at increasing the access, awareness, and use of shared mobility by low-income individuals. We employ Oakland, California as our primary study site (see Figure 1 and Table 1 for more detail). In this report, we present our findings on barriers to shared mobility from a review of existing shared mobility social equity initiatives, expert interviews (n=13) and focus groups with rent burdened residents of East Oakland (n=24). We further investigate barriers and implications for transportation use in an online survey (n=177), as well as longitudinal panel of phone and video interviews (n=31) with rent burdened Oakland residents. Rent burden refers to the percentage of income spent on rent and can more widely capture the population of Oakland residents who are struggling to keep up with rising housing costs. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2021–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt327773q9&r=all |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Velilla, Jorge (University of La Rioja) |
| Abstract: | Daily commuting of workers is a complex phenomenon that has attracted research attention for many years and, despite the significant literature acknowledging differences between morning and evening commuting, commuting to and from work are considered symmetric trips in much of the prior research. We explore the asymmetries in time spent commuting to and from work, in seven countries, using detailed time use records from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS). We focus on the duration, mode of transport, and timing of commuting trips, and we provide evidence on what socio-demographic characteristics are related to such asymmetries. We find that commutes to work (usually in the morning) last longer than commutes from work (usually in the afternoon or evening), although there are quantitative differences among countries. The timing of commuting also differs across countries, although commutes to work are more concentrated at certain hours in the morning than commutes from work. Our results may serve for a better design of public policies that take this heterogeneity into account in the commuting behavior of different population groups. |
| Keywords: | two-way commuting, commuting symmetries, time use survey, Multinational Time Use Study |
| JEL: | R40 O57 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14235&r=all |
| By: | Gaurab Aryal; Federico Ciliberto; Benjamin T. Leyden |
| Abstract: | We investigate the allegation that legacy U.S. airlines communicated via earnings calls to coordinate with other legacy airlines in offering fewer seats on competitive routes. To this end, we first use text analytics to build a novel dataset on communication among airlines about their capacity choices. Estimates from our preferred specification show that the number of offered seats is 2% lower when all legacy airlines in a market discuss the concept of "capacity discipline." We verify that this reduction materializes only when legacy airlines communicate concurrently, and that it cannot be explained by other possibilities, including that airlines are simply announcing to investors their unilateral plans to reduce capacity, and then following through on those announcements. |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2102.05739&r=all |
| By: | David S. Jacks; Martin Stuermer |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence on the dynamic effects of fuel price shocks, shipping demand shocks, and shipping supply shocks on real dry bulk freight rates in the long run. We first analyze a new dataset on dry bulk freight rates for the period from 1850 to 2020, finding that they followed a downward but undulating path with a cumulative decline of 79%. Next, we turn to understanding the drivers of booms and busts in the dry bulk shipping industry, finding that shipping demand shocks strongly dominate all others as drivers of real dry bulk freight rates in the long run. Furthermore, while shipping demand shocks have increased in importance over time, shipping supply shocks in particular have become less relevant. |
| JEL: | E30 N70 R40 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28627&r=all |
| By: | Qida Su; David Z. W. Wang |
| Abstract: | Travellers in autonomous vehicles (AVs) need not to walk to the destination any more after parking like those in conventional human-driven vehicles (HVs). Instead, they can drop off directly at the destination and AVs can cruise for parking autonomously. It is a revolutionary change that such parking autonomy of AVs may increase the potential parking span substantially and affect the spatial parking equilibrium. Given this, from urban planners' perspective, it is of great necessity to reconsider the planning of parking supply along the city. To this end, this paper is the first to examine the spatial parking equilibrium considering the mix of AVs and HVs with parking cruising effect. It is found that the equilibrium solution of travellers' parking location choices can be biased due to the ignorance of cruising effects. On top of that, the optimal parking span of AVs at given parking supply should be no less than that at equilibrium. Besides, the optimal parking planning to minimize the total parking cost is also explored in a bi-level parking planning design problem (PPDP). While the optimal differentiated pricing allows the system to achieve optimal parking distribution, this study suggests that it is beneficial to encourage AVs to cruise further to park by reserving less than enough parking areas for AVs. |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2104.01773&r=all |
| By: | Devi Brands (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Erik Verhoef (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Jasper Knockaert (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | With congestion being one of the most important externalities in transportation, it remains important to investigate effective and politically feasible solutions for it. We have conducted an 8-week experiment with tradable mobility permits, specifically applied to the use of parking facilities at a Dutch employer. We combine actual mobility behaviour with trading behaviour and survey responses of participants and non-participating employees of the same company. We have analysed the choice to participate in a voluntary experiment, and the behavioural response to tradable permits. Our results provide suggestive evidence that active participants do adjust their behaviour as intended. Furthermore, participation takes less time than people anticipate, and permits are viewed as a fairer and better functioning alternative to paid parking. |
| JEL: | C93 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2021–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20210029&r=all |
| By: | Ray, Korok; Skorup, Brent (Mercury Publication) |
| Abstract: | Abstract not available. |
| Date: | 2019–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajw:wpaper:09496&r=all |
| By: | Qida Su; David Z. W. Wang |
| Abstract: | Flextime is one of the efficient approaches in travel demand management to reduce peak hour congestion and encourage social distancing in epidemic prevention. Previous literature has developed bi-level models of the work starting time choice considering both labor output and urban mobility. Yet, most analytical studies assume the single trip purpose in peak hours (to work) only and do not consider the household travels (daycare drop-off/pick-up). In fact, as one of the main reasons to adopt flextime, household travel plays an influential role in travelers' decision making on work schedule selection. On this account, we incorporate household travels into the work starting time choice model in this study. Both short-run travel behaviours and long-run work start time selection of heterogenous commuters are examined under agglomeration economies. If flextime is not flexible enough, commuters tend to agglomerate in work schedule choice at long-run equilibrium. Further, we analyze optimal schedule choices with two system performance indicators. For total commuting cost, it is found that the rigid school schedule for households may impede the benefits of flextime in commuting cost saving. In terms of total net benefit, while work schedule agglomeration of all commuters leads to the maximum in some cases, the polarized agglomeration of the two heterogenous groups can never achieve the optimum. |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2104.00938&r=all |