nep-tre New Economics Papers
on Transport Economics
Issue of 2021‒10‒18
nine papers chosen by
Erik Teodoor Verhoef
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  1. Practitioner Guide: An Inventory of Vehicle Design Strategies Aimed at Reducing COVID-19 Transmission in Public and Private Pooled and Shared Transportation By Sanquinetti, Angela PhD; DePew, Ashley; Hirschfelt, Kate; Ross, Cindy; Khoe, Ethan; Ferguson, Beth PhD
  2. Data-driven Transport Infrastructure Maintenance By ITF
  3. Pooled and Shared Travel in the Wake of the Pandemic: An Inventory and User and Expert Assessments of Vehicle Design Strategies to Mitigate Risk of Disease Transmission By Sanguinetti, Angela PhD; DePew, Ashley; Hirschfelt, Kate; Ross, Cindy; Khoe, Ethan; Ferguson, Beth PhD
  4. Pigovian Transport Pricing in Practice By Hintermann, Beat; Schoeman, Beaumont; Molloy, Joseph; Götschli, Thomas; Castro, Alberto; Tchervenkov, Christopher; Tomic, Uros; Axhausen, Kay W.
  5. Activity and Transportation Decisions within Households By André de Palma; Nathalie Picard; Robin Lindsey
  6. Pavement Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Local Governments By Lea, Jon; Harvey, John PhD
  7. Impact of Transportation Cost Variations on the Relative Market Shares for Different Transportation Modes: A Network Model By Jourquin, Bart; Demilie, Laurent; Beuthe, Michel
  8. Transportation and Quality of Life: Evidence from Denmark By Hybel, Jesper; Mulalic, Ismir
  9. Impact of Transportation Cost Variations on the Relative Market Shares for Different Transportation Modes: A Network Model By Jourquin, Bart; Demilie, Laurent; Beuthe, Michel

  1. By: Sanquinetti, Angela PhD; DePew, Ashley; Hirschfelt, Kate; Ross, Cindy; Khoe, Ethan; Ferguson, Beth PhD
    Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic impacts on transportation globally, reducing travel and deterring travelers from using shared and pooled modes such as public transit, carpooling, car-sharing, pooled ride-hailing, and micromobility. These modes are critical components of a decarbonized and equitable mobility future, but already comprised a small fraction of pre-pandemic travel in the U.S., and will likely remain further suppressed in the wake of the pandemic if people continue new mode choice habits. Those who do continue to rely on public transportation are disproportionately at risk due the degree that these modes leave them susceptible to disease transmission. For pooled and shared travel to return to and ideally surpass pre-pandemic levels, it is important to implement solutions to reduce the real and perceived risks of infectious disease transmission. This white paper presents an inventory and typology of vehicle design strategies that have been proposed or implemented with the aim of mitigating the risk of COVID-19 transmission in pooled and shared travel modes. Researchers organized these strategies into a COVID-19 Risk-mitigating Vehicle Design Typology and identified the mechanisms by which they may help diminish the risk of COVID-19 transmission. It is intended as a resource for policy-makers, transportation service operators, vehicle manufacturers, and scientists who are tasked with evaluating strategies to mitigate disease transmission risk in shared and pooled transportation services
    Keywords: Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic impacts on transportation globally, reducing travel and deterring travelers from using shared and pooled modes such as public transit, carpooling, car-sharing, pooled ride-hailing, and micromobility. These modes are critical components of a decarbonized and equitable mobility future, but already comprised a small fraction of pre-pandemic travel in the U.S., and will likely remain further suppressed in the wake of the pandemic if people continue new mode choice habits. Those who do continue to rely on public transportation are disproportionately at risk due the degree that these modes leave them susceptible to disease transmission. For pooled and shared travel to return to and ideally surpass pre-pandemic levels, it is important to implement solutions to reduce the real and perceived risks of infectious disease transmission. This white paper presents an inventory and typology of vehicle design strategies that have been proposed or implemented with the aim of mitigating the risk of COVID-19 transmission in pooled and shared travel modes. Researchers organized these strategies into a COVID-19 Risk-mitigating Vehicle Design Typology and identified the mechanisms by which they may help diminish the risk of COVID-19 transmission. It is intended as a resource for policy-makers, transportation service operators, vehicle manufacturers, and scientists who are tasked with evaluating strategies to mitigate disease transmission risk in shared and pooled transportation services
    Date: 2021–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0w34725q&r=
  2. By: ITF
    Abstract: This report examines the potential of data-driven approaches to improving transport infrastructure maintenance. It assesses trends in maintenance strategies, explores how the targeted use of data could make them more effective for different types of transport infrastructure, and looks into implications for policy.
    Date: 2021–09–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:95-en&r=
  3. By: Sanguinetti, Angela PhD; DePew, Ashley; Hirschfelt, Kate; Ross, Cindy; Khoe, Ethan; Ferguson, Beth PhD
    Abstract: This project involved the development of a COVID-19 Risk-mitigating Vehicle Design (CRVD) typology to summarize and analyze the wide variety of vehicle design strategies that have been implemented or suggested to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among workers and passengers in shared and pooled vehicles. Public transit and shared mobility service operators can use the CRVD typology as a reference and guide to aid decision-making in their continued response to the pandemic as well as for future planning. The typology also serves as a launching point for further innovation and research to evaluate the effectiveness of CRVD strategies and their relationship to user preferences and travel behavior, again both within and beyond the current context. This research also explored layperson and expert perceptions of the identified CRVD strategies. By combining these perspectives, a holistic frame can be created to start to develop optimal vehicle design solutions that would be both objectively effective in preventing COVID-19 spread and making travelers feel safe. Ultimately, the hope is that this research can help support a safe return to shared and pooled travel in the wake of the pandemic and contribute to a better—more equitable, sustainable, and enjoyable—mobility future.
    Keywords: Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, Vehicle design, communicable diseases, COVID-19, shared mobility, public transit, vehicle safety, public health
    Date: 2021–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1484f46j&r=
  4. By: Hintermann, Beat (University of Basel); Schoeman, Beaumont (University of Basel); Molloy, Joseph; Götschli, Thomas; Castro, Alberto; Tchervenkov, Christopher; Tomic, Uros; Axhausen, Kay W.
    Abstract: Pigovian transport pricing was implemented in a large-scale field experiment in urban areas of Switzerland. The pricing varied across time, space and mode of transport. One third of the participants were given a financial incentive to reduce their external costs of transport, whereas others were provided information only or served as a control group. The pricing treatment caused a significant reduction in the external costs of transport. This reduction is a consequence of mode substitution and a shift of departure times. The effect of providing information in the absence of pricing was statistically significant only for subgroups of the sample.
    Keywords: Transport pricing; pigovian taxation; mobility; external costs; congestion; tracking.
    JEL: H23 H31 I18 Q52 Q54 R41 R48
    Date: 2021–09–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2021/11&r=
  5. By: André de Palma; Nathalie Picard; Robin Lindsey (CY Cergy Paris Université, THEMA)
    Abstract: Households are often responsible for labour supply, time allocation, transportation and many other decisions. Yet, research in both economics and transportation was traditionally dominated by so-called unitary models that treat households as single decision-making units with a representative individual. This began to change with the development, in the field of Economics of the Family, of non-unitary models that recognize differences in household members preferences, and attempt to describe the joint decision making processes within households. Application of non-unitary models took off in the transportation literature with the special issues on modelling intra-household interactions edited by Bhat and Pendyala, 2005 [24] and Timmermans and Zhang, 2009 [113]. This chapter reviews the development of integrated models of household activity and transportation from the perspective of the Economics of the Family. These models have been applied to long-run decisions such as residential and workplace location and vehicle ownership, as well as short-run decisions including activity schedules, transport mode, and departure time. Non-unitary models go well beyond conventional discrete choice models by accounting for individual family members preferences, and within-family decision- making processes. The models feature new concepts specific to within-family interactions, including repeated interaction, bargaining, altruism, and Pareto optimality.
    Keywords: Economics of the family, mobility, residential location, bargaining power, decisions, households, policy analysis
    JEL: H31 P25 R41
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2021-18&r=
  6. By: Lea, Jon; Harvey, John PhD
    Abstract: The processes in the pavement life cycle can be defined as: material extraction and production; construction; transport of materials and demolition; the use stage, where the pavement interacts with other systems; the materials, construction, and transport associated with maintenance and rehabilitation; and end-of-life. Local governments are increasingly being asked to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and identify changes to reduce emissions. There are many possible strategies that local governments can choose to reduce their emissions, however, prioritization and selection of which to implement can be difficult if emissions cannot be quantified. Pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used by local governments to achieve the same goals as state government. The web-based software environmental Life Cycle Assessment for Pavements, also known as eLCAP has been developed a project-level LCA tool. The goal of eLCAP is to permit local governments to perform project-level pavement LCA using California specific data, including consideration of their own designs, materials, and traffic. eLCAP allows modeling of materials, transport, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation, and end-of-life recycling for all impacts; and in the use stage it considers the effects of combustion of fuel in vehicles as well as the additional fuel consumed due to pavement-vehicle interaction (global warming potential only). This report documents eLCAP and a project that created an interface for eLCAP that is usable by local governments.
    Keywords: Engineering, Pavements, life cycle analysis, paving, pavement maintenance, greenhouse gases, models, web applications, local governments
    Date: 2021–10–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1nm5c9gp&r=
  7. By: Jourquin, Bart; Demilie, Laurent; Beuthe, Michel
    Keywords: Industrial Organization
    Date: 2021–10–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ctrf31:314680&r=
  8. By: Hybel, Jesper (Aalborg University, Department of the Built Environment); Mulalic, Ismir (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School)
    Abstract: This paper investigates the importance of transportation for quality of life in Denmark. We first calibrate a simple general equilibrium model to analyse how local wage levels, housing costs, and commuting costs vary across urban areas as well as to construct a quality of life index that measures a representative household's willingness to pay for local amenities. We find that the quality of life is high in large cities. Wages and rents are also substantially higher in the urban areas that are dense. We then regress the quality of life index on observed amenities to infer how much quality of life is associated with transportation. Our empirical results suggest that the quality of the public transport system is particularly important for the quality of life.
    Keywords: Quality of life; Rent gradients; Wage gradients; Commuting costs; Amenities; Transportation
    JEL: H40 J30 O52 R10 R40
    Date: 2021–09–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2021_014&r=
  9. By: Jourquin, Bart; Demilie, Laurent; Beuthe, Michel
    Keywords: Industrial Organization
    Date: 2021–10–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:cantrf:314680&r=

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