nep-tre New Economics Papers
on Transport Economics
Issue of 2022‒11‒28
eleven papers chosen by
Erik Teodoor Verhoef
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  1. The Ridesharing Routing Problem with Flexible Pickup and Drop-off Points By Dessouky, Maged; Mahtab, Zuhayer
  2. Monitoring Progress in Urban Road Safety: 2022 Update By ITF
  3. Moving transport to net zero: What it takes to decarbonise the global transport sector By Wang-Helmreich, Hanna; Obergassel, Wolfgang; Lah, Oliver
  4. Economic Sustainability of Sidewalk Networks and Funding Scenario Cost Distributions in Atlanta, GA By Bray, Vincent M; Brandel-Tanis, Freyja; Reichard, Will; O’Brien, Scott; Guensler, Randall
  5. A New Racial Disparity in Traffic Fatalities By Aaron Chalfin; Maxim N. Massenkoff
  6. Assessing Trends and Patterns of the Effect of COVID-19 on Public Transit Revenues in the City of Calgary By Wenshuang, Yu; Lindsay M., Tedds; Gillian, Petit
  7. Working Paper 06-22 - Évaluation ex ante de la réforme de la taxation des voitures de société en Belgique By Laurent Franckx
  8. Do Lenders Price the Brown Factor in Car Loans? Evidence from Diesel Cars By Winta Beyene; Matteo Falagiarda; Steven Ongena; Alessandro Scopelliti
  9. A proposal for a decarbonization tax discount to increase Australian lithium production to meet electric vehicles and net zero global targets By Smyth, Russell; Vespignani, Joaquin
  10. FROM THE TEMPORARY (RE)NEGOTIATION OF NORMS BETWEEN BETWEEN "CARPOOLERS" TO THE ADJUSTMENT OF THEIR BEHAVIOR By Shérazade Gatfaoui; Léa Aguesse; Maëlle Derboeuf; Apolline Jouvet; Naëlle Plaine
  11. Infrastructure and Girls’ Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India By Moritz Seebacher

  1. By: Dessouky, Maged; Mahtab, Zuhayer
    Abstract: In major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles County, ride-sharing systems can help reduce traffic congestion and increase the efficiency of the transportation system. This research project proposes three different solution approaches for solving the ride share routing problem with flexible pickup and drop-off points. The first is a dynamic programming-based route enumeration procedure that can be used to solve small-sized problems; the other two are branch and price-based heuristics for solving large problems. The researchers first provide a mixed integer nonlinear model for routing and pickup and drop-off points selection which they later decompose into a master and subproblem for solving. To validate the performance of their approaches and gather valuable insights about the ridesharing system, the researchers perform numerical experiments on a San Francisco Taxicab dataset. Results show that the approaches are efficient, solving instances with up to 300 nodes within 130 CPU seconds. For these datasets, incorporating flexible meeting points (i.e., pickup and drop-off points) can reduce the total travel time of the rideshare system by 18%. Sensitivity analysis shows that it can also decrease the time passengers wait time for rides by 43%. The methodologies in this study can help transportation planners design more efficient rideshare systems with less waiting, better passenger service, and less travel time. View the NCST Project Webpage
    Keywords: Engineering, rideshare, congestion, routing, branch and price, dynamic programming
    Date: 2022–11–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3107w642&r=tre
  2. By: ITF
    Abstract: This report tracks the progress in reducing the number of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in cities between 2010 and 2020. It presents traffic safety data collected in 32 cities participating in the ITF Safer City Streets network and compares trends in urban and national road safety. It provides indicators for the risk of traffic death for different road user groups that permits benchmarking of road safety outcomes.
    Date: 2022–11–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:108-en&r=tre
  3. By: Wang-Helmreich, Hanna; Obergassel, Wolfgang; Lah, Oliver
    Abstract: What is necessary to reach net zero emissions in the transport sector on a global level? To keep limiting global warming to 1.5ê C within reach, the world has to decarbonise by mid-century, with every sector contributing as much as possible as soon as possible. This paper identifies what has to be done in road transport, aviation, and shipping to achieve net zero emission in the transport sector. For this purpose, it first sets the scene by providing an overview of the origins and impacts of the concept of net zero emissions in international climate policy as well as of the current state and future prospects of global transport emissions using currently available scenarios for low-emission and net zero transport. While for staying below 1.5ê C, the basic approach to reducing transport emissions remains unchanged from what has been suggested in the past, the set, intensity and pace of actions as to shift fundamentally. Without first drastically reducing traffic volume and shifting transport demand to low-emission modes, reaching net zero transport will not be feasible: the amount of additional electricity required to fully electrify the sector with renewable energy is otherwise just too huge. After portraying key instruments for achieving net zero emissions in land transport, aviation, and shipping, this paper identifies key barriers for net zero transport. Based on this analysis, the authors recommend the following to be able to move transport to net zero: 1. Adapt Decarbonisation Strategies to Different Transport Sub-sectors 2. Prioritise and Significantly Increase Investment in Zero-/low-carbon Infrastructure 3. Massively Invest in the Development and Roll out of Zero-/low-emission Technologies 4. Focus on a Just Transition to Overcome Social and Political Barriers 5. Increase International Support and Cooperation.
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wuppap:199&r=tre
  4. By: Bray, Vincent M; Brandel-Tanis, Freyja; Reichard, Will; O’Brien, Scott; Guensler, Randall
    Abstract: Sidewalk infrastructure presence is a key indicator of pedestrian safety and walkability for neighborhoods in cities throughout the United States. The existence and condition of sidewalk infrastructure, however, is not prioritized as much as motor vehicle infrastructure. Many cities lack sustained maintenance and operations programs for sidewalk infrastructure and comprehensive datasets covering the locations and distributions of sidewalk infrastructure, limiting the ability to develop such programs. This work refines prior sidewalk infrastructure network generation techniques, contributing new methods to identify sidewalk infrastructure presence.QA/QC efforts were conducted for in Atlanta’s sidewalk network by correcting errors identified in input data. Error identification and correction times were comprehensively tracked and used to estimate future labor costs. A Custom application with online access to Bing Maps Streetside and aerial imagery was developed to allow technicians to verify sidewalk presence data, which were joined to the structural sidewalk network and associated with adjacent parcels. Cost of ownership of Atlanta’s sidewalk infrastructure over an 80-year management period is then broken down by asset type and allocated in part to property owners directly adjacent to the applicable infrastructure, while remaining costs are recovered through a proportional increase in property tax millage rates. Sidewalk network estimates developed in previous Atlanta research efforts decreased sidewalk network mileage by 12% (386 miles), post-QA/QC. Regression analysis of error correction activity and labor data indicates gaps between tax parcels and misplacement of intersection centroids significantly increased QA/QC labor costs. Overall, 46% of Atlanta’s potential sidewalk links were present(i.e., along property superblock boundaries), with significant clustering in the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Hence, sidewalk repair and maintenance costs accrue disproportionately to these areas. Sidewalk infrastructure costs across neighborhoods also differ considerably, depending on whether estimates account for existing sidewalk infrastructure. The annual cost burden on property owners to implement a program to fund sustainable sidewalks (lifecycle assessment) by increasing property tax millage rates varies significantly across household income and ethnicity. The research suggests that sustainable sidewalk infrastructure assessments should consider spatial and demographic disparities in cost allocation (i.e., equity) for any proposed pedestrian infrastructure asset management program. View the NCST Project Webpage
    Keywords: Engineering, Sidewalks, pedestrian infrastructure, lifecycle Infrastructure costs
    Date: 2022–11–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt95f5j003&r=tre
  5. By: Aaron Chalfin; Maxim N. Massenkoff
    Abstract: In 2015, for the first time in nearly forty years, the rate of motor vehicle fatalities for Black Americans exceeded that of white Americans. By 2020, the gap in death rates stood at 34%, accounting for approximately 4,000 excess deaths between 2014 and 2020. This disproportionate increase occurred in nearly all states, in rural as well as urban areas, and was shared by drivers of all ages and genders. We consider a variety of potential explanations for the emerging race gap including race-specific changes in time spent driving, the circumstances of driving, the quality of medical care for crash victims, decreases in other types of mortality, changes in policing, and risky driving behaviors such as speeding, driving without a seat belt and driving while intoxicated. We can rule out many of these factors as important contributors to the race gap, but find evidence for two of them. The first is opportunity: Relative to white Americans, Black Americans are spending more time in vehicles than they have in the past. Changes in time spent driving, while modest, likely explain an important share of the emergent race gap. The second is a relative increase in drug use, manifested by a quadrupling of the rate of overdose deaths among Black Americans after 2014. Increased drug use appears to have resulted in a concomitant increase in fatal crashes involving drivers under the influence of drugs. Finally, we consider whether the emerging race gap is explained by the so-called "Ferguson effect," the idea that police officers have pulled back from enforcement activity in recent years. On the one hand, traffic stops made by police officers do appear to have declined after 2014. However, the decline in traffic stops does not appear to be race-specific and there is little evidence of a broad increase in risky driving behaviors like speeding and driving without a seat belt.
    JEL: I0 K0 R49
    Date: 2022–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30636&r=tre
  6. By: Wenshuang, Yu; Lindsay M., Tedds; Gillian, Petit
    Abstract: Using monthly public transit revenue data from January 2015 to December 2021, we investigate the effect of COVID-19 on public transit revenues in the large urban municipality of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. We find that revenue from transit fares dropped immediately and significantly after the declaration of a state of emergency in March 2020 for all transit fare types. While revenues began to slowly recover, nearly two years following the state of emergency transit fare revenue continue to be significantly lower than then the pre-pandemic baseline in most cases. Only revenues from transit fares for school-aged children and low-income persons have recovered to the pre-pandemic baseline, suggesting these groups are relatively more dependent on public transit compared to non-low-income, adult users. With revenues from transit fares continuing to be 60% below the pre-pandemic baseline, replacing this lost revenue is essential to maintaining service standards for those dependent on public transit. However, there are no simple answers to this problem given the ongoing shock to adult ridership. Over the short term, transit will need increased support from other revenues sources such as local property taxes or transfers from higher orders of government. Over the longer-term, the City of Calgary will need to weigh the trade-offs from pursuing fare increases, lowering service standards, and/or expansion of services to serve more riders with objectives such as addressing climate change, labour mobility, and accessibility.
    Keywords: COVID-19, Public Transit, Municipal Revenue, Transit Ridership
    JEL: H42 H72 H76 R0 R4 R40 R42 R48
    Date: 2022–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115350&r=tre
  7. By: Laurent Franckx
    Abstract: In Belgium, the Law on Fiscal and Social Greening of Mobility of 25 November 2021 eliminates corporate tax deductibility for all company cars except those with zero CO2 emissions. The main effect of the tax reform is an accelerated electrification of the company car fleet and an accelerated decline in CO2 emissions. Compared to the no-reform scenario, the reform leads to an increase in net tax revenues of about 1 billion euro on an annual basis.
    Keywords: Company car taxation, Fiscal reform, Car demand, CO2, Car fleet greening, Discrete choice modelling
    JEL: C25 H2 H3 Q58 R48
    Date: 2022–10–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpb:wpaper:2206&r=tre
  8. By: Winta Beyene (University of Zurich - Department of Banking and Finance; Swiss Finance Institute); Matteo Falagiarda (European Central Bank (ECB)); Steven Ongena (University of Zurich - Department of Banking and Finance; Swiss Finance Institute; KU Leuven; NTNU Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Alessandro Scopelliti (KU Leuven, Department Accounting, Finance and Insurance; University of Zurich - Department of Banking and Finance)
    Abstract: The transition to a green economy strongly depends on the existence of appropriate economic incentives for agents. The loan market for car purchases is a paradigmatic example in this respect, as lenders may set credit conditions which may discourage or support the purchase of high emission vehicles. Using car loan-level data we study whether banks adjust their lending terms and conditions in response to different shocks to the perceived environmental quality of diesel vehicles. Focusing on the impact of the diesel emissions scandal in the automobile sector in 2015 and on local policy changes regarding circulation restrictions due to air pollution, we find that bank lending particularly by captive banks may further reinforce the market and regulatory failures that led to extensive levels of pollution by the automobile sector.
    Date: 2022–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2276&r=tre
  9. By: Smyth, Russell (Department of Economics, Monash University); Vespignani, Joaquin (Tasmanian School of Business & Economics, University of Tasmania)
    Abstract: Current commitments with net zero 2050 require that more than two billion electric vehicles (EVs) be produced globally by 2035. Australia produces more than 55% of the global lithium in the world. We argue that Australia's most significant contribution to realizing net zero 2050 could be to increase lithium production 10-20-fold by 2035. A similar case could equally be made for increasing other critical minerals. This would also contribute to securing Australia’s energy and national security. To realize these benefits current investment in lithium is much lower than the production of lithium batteries used in EVs requires, reflecting suboptimal tax rates. We conclude by proposing that a decarbonization tax discount for critical minerals is needed.
    Keywords: electric vehicles, lithium, net zero 2050, effective taxation rate
    JEL: E20 E60 Q20 Q28
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tas:wpaper:47521&r=tre
  10. By: Shérazade Gatfaoui (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 - Université Gustave Eiffel); Léa Aguesse; Maëlle Derboeuf; Apolline Jouvet; Naëlle Plaine
    Abstract: This research highlights the temporary (re)negotiation of formal, informal, individual or collective norms between drivers and passengers in the context of carpooling, as well as the resulting adjustment of their respective behaviors, which can take forms of deviance, during the provision of the service. It underlines the importance of taking into account the temporal dimension of the carpooling service to understand these phenomena, namely an upstream phase, a phase during and a phase after the service. This research also aims to lead a reflection on the managerial and societal levels.
    Keywords: Formal Norms,Informal Norms,Individual Norms,Collective Norms,Deviance,Carpooling,Normes Formelles,Normes Informelles,Normes Individuelles,Normes Collectives,Déviance,Covoiturage
    Date: 2022–11–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03795639&r=tre
  11. By: Moritz Seebacher
    Abstract: How can infrastructure help to reduce the gender education gap in developing countries? In this paper, I analyze the complementarity of all-weather roads and a bicycle program in Bihar, India, which aimed to increase girls’ secondary school enrollment rate. Using Indian household survey data combined with a quadrupledifference estimation strategy, I find that the program’s main beneficiaries are girls living at least 3km away from secondary schools whose villages are connected with all-weather roads. Their net secondary school enrollment rate increased by over 87 percent, reducing the respective gender education gap by around 45 percent. I find no effect for girls living in villages without an all-weather road, suggesting that allweather roads are not just complementary to the bicycle program but a precondition for its success. The findings highlight the importance of well-functioning infrastructure for the accessibility of secondary schools and the empowering of girls in India.
    Keywords: Roads, bicycles, infrastructure, girls’ education, gender education gap, India
    JEL: I21 I28 H42 J16
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ifowps:_382&r=tre

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