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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Jing Gao; Sen Li |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the equity impacts of for-hire autonomous vehicles (AVs) and investigates regulatory policies that promote the spatial and social equity in future autonomous mobility ecosystems. To this end, we consider a multimodal transportation network, where a ride-hailing platform operates a fleet of AVs to offer mobility-on-demand services in competition with a public transit agency that offers transit services on a transportation network. A game-theoretic model is developed to characterize the intimate interactions between the ride-hailing platform, the transit agency, and multiclass passengers with distinct income levels. An algorithm is proposed to compute the Nash equilibrium of the game and conduct an ex-post evaluation of the performance of the obtained solution. Based on the proposed framework, we evaluate the spatial and social equity in transport accessibility using Theil index, and find that although the proliferation of for-hire AVs in the ride-hailing network improves overall accessibility, the benefits are not fairly distributed among distinct locations or population groups, implying that the deployment of AVs will enlarge the existing spatial and social inequity gaps in the transportation network if no regulatory intervention is in place. To address this concern, we investigate two regulatory policies that can improve transport equity: (a) a minimum service-level requirement on ride-hailing service, which improves the spatial equity in the transport network; (b) a subsidy on ride-hailing trips that serve as first/last-mile connection to public transit, which promotes the use of public transit and improves the social equity of the transport network. We show that the minimum service-level requirement entails a trade-off: as a higher minimum service level is imposed, the spatial inequity reduces, but the social inequity will be exacerbated. In contrast... |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2301.05798&r=tre |
| By: | Volker, Jamey; Handy, Susan |
| Abstract: | Building additional roadway capacity—via constructing entirely new roadways or extending or adding lanes to existing roadways—is often proposed as a solution to traffic congestion and even as a way to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The logic for the latter is that increasing roadway capacity increases average vehicle speeds, which improves vehicle fuel efficiency and reduces per-mile emissions of GHGs and local air pollutants. But that logic relies on the flawed assumption that the amount that people drive does not change when the time it takes to drive places changes. In fact, the amount that people drive does respond to changes in driving times. Empirical research demonstrates that as roadway supply increases, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) generally does, too. This is the “induced travel” effect—a net increase in VMT across the roadway network due to an increase in roadway capacity, which ultimately erodes any initial increases in travel speeds and causes increased GHG emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Davis reviewed the empirical research on induced travel to understand the likely effects of adding roadway capacity in a variety of contexts. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Calculators, Traffic forecasting, Travel demand, Vehicle miles of travel |
| Date: | 2023–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3q21f88p&r=tre |
| By: | Shoman, Wasim; Yeh, Sonia; Sprei, Frances; Plötz, Patrick; Speth, Daniel |
| Abstract: | Heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) account for less than 2-5% of the vehicles on the road in Europe but contribute to 15-22% of CO2 emissions from road transport. Battery electric trucks (BETs) could be deployed on a large scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but they require charging infrastructure that supports long-haul operations. Therefore, assessing the required charging locations, energy, and power requirements is critical. We use a trip-chain-based model to derive charging requirements for BETs in long-haul operation (defined as travel times over 4.5 hours or distances over 360 km) for Europe in 2030. We convert an origin-destination (OD) matrix into trip chains combined with European truck driving regulations to derive break and rest stops. We show that an average charging area (defined as a 25 25 km square, where each square can include multiple charging stations and parking lots with multiple charging points) needs to have four to five times more overnight than megawatt (MW) charging points: We estimate that about 40, 000 overnight charging points (50-100 kW, combined charging system, CCS) and about 9, 000 megawatt charging system (MCS, 0.7- 1.2 MW) points are required to support a BET share of long-haul operations at 15%. On average, 8 and 2 CCS and MCS chargers are required per charging area, and each CCS and MCS serves, on average, 2 and 11 BETs daily, respectively. The daily electricity demand for public charging of BET in each charging area would be around 110 GWh. The model can be applied to any region with similar data. Future work can consider improving the queuing model, assumptions regarding regional differences of BET penetration and heterogeneity of truck sizes and utilization. |
| Keywords: | Electrification, Heavy duty truck, Charging Station, Battery Electric Truck |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s012023&r=tre |
| By: | Gabriel Kreindler |
| Abstract: | Developing country megacities suffer from severe road traffic congestion, yet the level of congestion is not a direct measure of equilibrium inefficiency. I study the peak-hour traffic congestion equilibrium in Bangalore. To measure travel preferences, I use a model of departure time choice to design a field experiment with congestion pricing policies and implement it using precise GPS data. Commuter responses in the experiment reveal moderate schedule inflexibility and a high value of time. I then show that in Bangalore, traffic density has a moderate and linear impact on travel delay. My policy simulations with endogenous congestion indicate that optimal congestion charges would lead to a small reduction in travel times, and small commuter welfare gains. This result is driven primarily by the shape of the congestion externality. Overall, these results suggest limited commuter welfare benefits from peak-spreading traffic policies in cities like Bangalore. |
| JEL: | C93 D62 H23 O1 R40 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30903&r=tre |
| By: | Volker, Jamey; Handy, Susan |
| Abstract: | Expanding roadway capacity often leads to commensurate increases vehicle miles traveled (VMT). This is the “induced travel” effect—a net increase in VMT across the roadway network due to an increase in roadway capacity. This increase in VMT erodes any initial reduction in congestion and causes increased greenhouse gas and local air pollutant emissions. Yet highway expansion projects continue to be proposed across the US, often using congestion relief—and sometimes greenhouse gas reductions— as a justification for adding lanes. The existence of these rosy projections about highway expansion projects indicates that the induced travel effect is often not fully accounted for in travel demand models or in the environmental review process for the projects, as prior research has shown.1 With these problems in mind, researchers at the University of California, Davis developed and launched an online tool in 2019—the NCST Induced Travel Calculator—to help agencies estimate the VMT induced annually by adding lanes to major roadways in California’s urbanized counties. With Calculator use increasing, the UC Davis researchers initiated a project to update the Calculator and improve its functionality based on recent data and empirical research. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Calculators, Traffic forecasting, Travel demand, Vehicle miles of travel |
| Date: | 2023–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt8xk456vf&r=tre |
| By: | Doi, Naoshi; Kono, Tatsuhito; Suzaki, Izumo |
| Abstract: | Airport operation costs are financed by charge revenues from airport users and funds transferred from general government funds. This study quantitatively optimizes the rates of three types of airport-related charges: per-passenger charges (e.g., passenger service facility charges), per-flight charges (e.g., landing fees), and aviation fuel tax, explicitly considering the marginal cost of public funds of the general funds. This study uses a route-level empirical structural model in which airlines with market power set both airfares and service quality (i.e., flight frequency). Our results show that it is optimal to increase the transfer from the general funds from the current amount and that the optimization increases social welfare by 19 percent. Even if the amount of the transfer is fixed at the current level, the social welfare can be increased by 10 percent only by adjusting the current rates of the airport-related charges. In particular, we show that charges should be adjusted so as to increase flight frequency on routes where small aircraft are used. |
| Keywords: | Optimal taxation, Airport-related charge, Marginal cost of public funds, Discrete choice model, Endogenous quality |
| JEL: | H21 H41 L13 R48 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:116176&r=tre |
| By: | Schulke, Arne; Mai Vi Nguyen |
| Abstract: | Road transportation accounts for most of the freight transportation in the EU, with trucks responsible for 71.3 percent of all inland EU freight movements. The trucking industry in the EU is facing several challenges and Selfdriving Trucks (SDTs) seem to be a promising solution to its problems. This study explores the current state of selfdriving technologies and the benefits and drawbacks associated with SDTs. Furthermore, the study tries to examine how the European public perceives the use of SDTs. This study utilized a mixed method, integrating qualitative and quantitative: Qualitative data were collected by means of a thorough literature review. The public's perception was assessed through a survey, from which quantitative data were extracted. There were 256 participants who answered the survey. Key findings are that the EU public is aware of Self-driving Vehicles (SDVs) but less aware of SDTs. Most people perceive self-driving technology positively and believe that the implementation of SDTs will have profound effects on both the logistics as well as the trucking industry in particular. Even though most participants perceived SDVs to drive better than humans, thus increasing road safety, 67.2 percent did not want to share the road with them. This raises severe challenges for policy makers towards public acceptance of their wide-scale introduction. |
| Keywords: | automation, automated driving, self-driving truck, public perception, freight transport |
| JEL: | M10 M19 R41 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iubhtl:1januar2023&r=tre |
| By: | D. Mark Anderson; Yang Liang; Joseph J. Sabia |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the period 1983-1997, Cohen and Einav (Review of Economics and Statistics 2003; 85(4): 828–843) found that mandatory seatbelt laws were associated with a 4 to 6 percent reduction in traffic fatalities among motor vehicle occupants. After successfully replicating their two-way fixed effects estimates, we (1) add 22 years of data (1998-2019) to capture additional seatbelt policy variation and observe a longer post-treatment period, (2) employ the interaction-weighted estimator proposed by Sun and Abraham (2021) to address potential bias due to heterogeneous and dynamic treatment effects, and (3) estimate event-study models to investigate pre-treatment trends and explore lagged post-treatment effects. Consistent with Cohen and Einav (2003), our updated estimates show that primary seatbelt laws are associated with a 5 to 9 percent reduction in fatalities among motor vehicle occupants. Estimated effects of secondary seatbelt laws are smaller in magnitude and sensitive to model choice. |
| JEL: | I12 K32 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30851&r=tre |
| By: | Lucas J. Conwell; Fabian Eckert; Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak |
| Abstract: | We propose a theory-inspired measure of the accessibility of a city's center: the size of the surrounding area from which it can be reached within a specific time. Using publicly available optimal-routing software, we compute these "accessibility zones" for the 109 largest US and European cities, separately for cars and public transit commutes. Compared with European cities, US cities are half as accessible via public transit and twice as accessible via cars. Car accessibility zones are always larger than public transit zones, making US cities more accessible overall. However, US cities' car orientation comes at the cost of less green space, more congestion, and worse health and pollution externalities. |
| JEL: | Q5 R0 R4 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30877&r=tre |
| By: | Gaurab Aryal; Dennis J. Campbell; Federico Ciliberto; Ekaterina A. Khmelnitskaya |
| Abstract: | In the US airline industry, independent regional carriers fly passengers on behalf of different national airlines, giving rise to $\textit{common subcontracting}$. On the one hand, we find that subcontracting is associated with lower prices, confirming the accepted notion that regional airlines can fly passengers at lower costs. On the other hand, we find that $\textit{common}$ subcontracting is associated with higher prices. These two countervailing effects suggest that the growth of regional carriers can have anticompetitive implications for the airline industry. In line with the literature, we continue to find that multimarket contact among national airlines is associated with higher prices. |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2301.05999&r=tre |
| By: | Hristina Gaydarska (Center for iPS Cell Research and Applicaton, Kyoto University, JAPAN); Miwa Matsuo (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates transitions in gender differences and parenthood penalties in the chance of business travel, focusing on variations by occupation and technology usage. Although literature documents that women and parents of small children are substantially less likely to travel for business, particularly long ones, little research has explored changes in the gap. Moreover, not much attention has been given to whether they vary by business travel distance, occupation, or technology adaptations. This study analyzes domestic intra-regional business travel likelihood by different distance thresholds, using three U.S. National Household Travel Surveys from 2001 to 2017. By employing the Probit model, our analysis finds narrowing gender gaps and parenthood penalties in business mobility, thanks to the shrinking travel needs. Internet-savvy workers, in particular, experienced narrower gender gaps, especially among those without small children. The conditional prediction suggests a disappearing gender gap and parenthood gap for the sales and service workers, even for trips over 50 miles per day. Contrary, the gender gap in business mobility among the professional and managerial workers persistently remained in 2017 for long-distance trips. The declining trend in the gender gap and parenthood penalty for the business travel likelihood is a vital sign for reducing inequalities and work-life balances. |
| Keywords: | Business travel; Gender gap; Internet (non) savvy; ICT development |
| JEL: | R4 J16 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2023-02&r=tre |