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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio (University of Zaragoza); Molina, José Alberto (University of Zaragoza); Velilla, Jorge (University of Zaragoza) |
| Abstract: | The private vehicle is, for most developed countries, the prevalent commuting mode of workers, and one of the main source of CO2 emissions. The choice of the mode of transport for commuting trips clearly depends on individual preferences, and it may be that pro-environmental attitudes and values are related to environmental awareness and minimization of harm to the environment. This paper explores how pro-environmental attitudes and values relate to commuting behaviors, using data from the American Time Use Survey for the period 2003-2019. We focus on the time spent commuting, and on commuting modes. The results show that, net of observable factors, regions in which social attitudes are more pro-environmental are related to longer commuting times, but also to a higher percentage of active commuters and public transit commuters. These results suggest that policies aimed at shifting pro-environmental social values may help in reducing the use of private vehicles and encourage green means of transport, in order to reduce the environmental costs of commuting. |
| Keywords: | pro-environmental attitudes, commuting time, transport mode, American Time Use Survey, American Values Survey, general social survey |
| JEL: | A13 Q52 R41 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16279&r=tre |
| By: | Rostislav Kirill (RANEPA); Ponomarev Yuriy (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | The transportation complex is a key branch of the Russian economy, its most important connecting element. The development of traffic infrastructure is one of the main factors of economic growth and an important tool for overcoming the economic crisis. New economic environment has highlighted the need to ensure the stable operation of transport and logistics. Priority areas for the transportation complex in 2022 are adaptation to changes in the economy and overcoming of the sanctions challenges, promotion of import substitution, technological independence and restorative growth of the transportation sector. The key objectives of the transportation sector are always to support the connectivity of the country’s territory and increase the population mobility. |
| Keywords: | Russian economy, transportation industry, freight tariffs, passenger traffic, railways |
| JEL: | L91 L92 L93 L99 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:ppaper:ppaper-2023-1292&r=tre |
| By: | Beestermöller, Matthias Gerhard; Jessen-Thiesen, Levke; Sandkamp, Alexander-Nikolai |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the largest rail strikes in German history on intercity buses - a then newly liberalised market. Using unique booking data of bus services, we exploit variation in rail service cancellations across routes to show that the disruption in rail transport increases bus ticket sales. Crucially, the effect persists beyond the strike, indicating that travellers do not return to their originally preferred mode of transport. It is particularly pronounced for passengers travelling on weekends. The findings suggest that customers were previously under-experimenting. Beyond transportation, our results highlight the importance of service reliability, as temporary disruptions can cause customers to permanently switch to competitors. |
| Keywords: | Experimentation, inter-modal substitution, learning, optimisation, strike, switching costs, transport |
| JEL: | C81 D83 L92 R41 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2251&r=tre |
| By: | Charlotte Emlinger; Amélie Guillin |
| Abstract: | We assess the impact of bilateral air services agreements (ASAs) on air transportation using an unique dataset providing direct observations of bilateral air transport cost and time for a standardized good, for 1, 190 country-pairs, between 2011 and 2015. Our results show that ASAs reduce transportation cost by 8% while they only impact transportation time for landlocked countries and RTA members. Our estimates also reveal that bilateral trade decreases cost of transport, which highlights the role of backhauling in air transportation. |
| Keywords: | Transport Cost;Transport Time;Air Services Agreements;Trade |
| JEL: | F14 F13 L91 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2023-17&r=tre |
| By: | Kenichi Hu, Alexander; Jain, Aakansha |
| Abstract: | This report presents the views expressed by UC Davis commuters related to various issues, challenges, and concerns that they have with the transportation facilities and services in the community in an open-ended question on the 2022-23 UC Davis Campus Travel Survey. The authors analyzed the contents of comments provided by survey respondents and identified common themes to group the comments. Based on this content analysis, they have grouped the views of students and employees across the themes of safety, parking facilities, transportation for people with disabilities, transit issues, biking, challenges with micro-mobility, and EV charging facilities. Only selected comments are included. They present the comments unedited and anonymously, indicating only whether the comment was provided by an Undergraduate Student (U), Graduate Student (G), Faculty (F), Post-Doc (P), or Staff (S). |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, College students, Mode choice, Travel behavior, Travel surveys, Universities and colleges |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0gm6m1sd&r=tre |
| By: | Ines Helm; Nicolas Koch; Alexander Rohlf |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of a large car scrappage scheme in Germany on new car purchases and local air quality by combining vehicle registration data with data on local air pollutant emissions. For identification we exploit cross-sectional variation across districts in the number of cars eligible for scrappage. The scheme had substantial effects on car purchases and did not simply reallocate demand across time in the short-term. Nevertheless, about half of all subsidized buyers benefited from windfall gains. The renewal of the car stock improved local air quality suggesting substantial mortality benefits that likely exceed the cost of the policy. While policy take-up is somewhat smaller in urban districts, improvements in air quality and health tend to be larger due to a higher car density. |
| Keywords: | cash for clunkers, local air quality, car scrappage schemes, emissions, car rebate |
| JEL: | H20 H23 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10530&r=tre |
| By: | Khan, Zahid |
| Abstract: | Analysis of factors that affect road traffic accidents in Bahir Dar city, North Western Ethiopia |
| Date: | 2023–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ndx5j&r=tre |
| By: | Mansur Arief; Yan Akhra; Iwan Vanany |
| Abstract: | The rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs) worldwide necessitates the development of robust and accessible charging infrastructure, particularly in developing countries where electricity disruptions pose a significant challenge. Earlier charging infrastructure optimization studies do not rigorously address such service disruption characteristics, resulting in suboptimal infrastructure designs. To address this issue, we propose an efficient simulation-based optimization model that estimates candidate stations' service reliability and incorporates it into the objective function and constraints. We employ the control variates (CV) variance reduction technique to enhance simulation efficiency. Our model provides a highly robust solution that buffers against uncertain electricity disruptions, even when candidate station service reliability is subject to underestimation or overestimation. Using a dataset from Surabaya, Indonesia, our numerical experiment demonstrates that the proposed model achieves a 13% higher average objective value compared to the non-robust solution. Furthermore, the CV technique successfully reduces the simulation sample size up to 10 times compared to Monte Carlo, allowing the model to solve efficiently using a standard MIP solver. Our study provides a robust and efficient solution for designing EV charging infrastructure that can thrive even in developing countries with uncertain electricity disruptions. |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2307.05470&r=tre |
| By: | Jain, Aakansha |
| Abstract: | The UC Davis Campus Travel Survey is an annual survey led by Transportation Services (TS)—formerly known as Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS)—and the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST), part of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at UC Davis. It collects a rich set of data about travel to the UC Davis campus, demographics, and attitudes toward travel. The 2022-23 survey collected data from 3, 228 people affiliated with UC Davis about their travel to campus during a single week in October 2022. It used a stratified random sampling method with the intent to gather a representative sample of the campus population. About 18 percent of those invited responded to this year’s survey. For the statistics presented throughout this report, we weight the responses by campus role (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, Master’s, PhD, faculty, and staff) and gender so that the proportion of respondents in each group reflects their proportion in the campus population. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, College students, Mode choice, Travel behavior, Travel surveys, Universities and colleges |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2bj725v9&r=tre |
| By: | Jain, Aakansha |
| Abstract: | Every year the UC Davis Campus Travel Survey includes questions related to travel to campus during different days in the reference week. Respondents from all role groups indicate how often they travel to the campus during the reference week for school or work. They also indicate the reasons for not coming to work in-person during the same time period. Travel to campus was highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-2021 school year as campus switched to remote instruction. In 2021-22, the campus returned to in-person working and instruction which led to increased physical travel. Travel to campus further increased in 2022-23 as more students and staff returned to campus for in-person learning and working. This report discusses some of the key results from the survey on questions related to physical travel to campus and reasons for no travel to campus before and after COVID-19 pandemic. It presents a comparative analysis of physical travel to campus during the reference week across three years, 2019-20, 2021-22, and 2022-23. The report also provides details on how telecommuting patterns changed before and after the pandemic among both students and employees. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, College students, Mode choice, Travel behavior, Travel surveys, Universities and colleges |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0dj621nd&r=tre |
| By: | Jain, Aakansha |
| Abstract: | This report presents some of the key results from the two new blocks of questions included in the 2022-23 Campus Travel Survey. The first block includes questions to assess the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, and other micro-mobility users. The second block ask respondents questions about incidents related to bike theft and vandalism on campus. To assess pedestrian safety on campus respondents were asked if they had been hit while walking on campus since the beginning of fall quarter 2022 and if so, to select the mode they were hit by. The set of questions related to fall and crash of bike and micro-mobility users was shown only to respondents who indicated that they were associated with UC Davis during the 2021-22 academic year. The report presents results of questions related to safety of bike and micro-mobility users, including questions on type of fall or crash related incidents, and reasons for their fall or crash while using a particular mode. Respondents were also asked to indicate the location of fall or crash on the campus. The block on bike theft asked respondents if they were the victims of bike theft or vandalism during the year 2021-22. The questions were designed to better understand the situations under which the bike was stolen, whether it was locked indoors or outdoors, type of object the bike was locked to, and the type of lock used. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, College students, Mode choice, Travel behavior, Travel surveys, Universities and colleges |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0kn740p4&r=tre |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This report explores how mobility services using automated vehicles might change the transport landscape. How can automated transport services help enable positive outcomes for societies? How will they ensure passenger safety? What rules should apply to such new services that overlap with other, heavily regulated services like taxis and public transport? The report assesses where regulation should adapt and outlines principles for forward-looking regulation. It offers pragmatic recommendations to bring in better transport for citizens. |
| Date: | 2023–06–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:115-en&r=tre |
| By: | Branco, Catarina; Dohse, Dirk C.; Pereira dos Santos, João; Tavares, José |
| Abstract: | We study the firm-level responses to a substantial increase in transportation costs in the wake of a quasi-experiment that introduced tolls in a subset of Portuguese highways. Exploiting a unique dataset encompassing the universe of Portuguese private firms, we find that the introduction of tolls caused a substantial decrease in turnover (−10.2%) and productivity (−4.3%) in treated firms vis-à-vis firms in the comparison group. In response to the tolls, firms substantially cut employment-related expenses and purchases of other inputs. Labor costs were reduced by both employment cuts and a decrease in average wages. While firms did not increase inventory, there is some evidence for increased firm exit, in particular by firms in tradables sectors. |
| Keywords: | Road tolls, Infrastructure, Firm performance, Firm behavior, Location, Portugal |
| JEL: | R48 L25 R12 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:273314&r=tre |
| By: | Pablo D. Fajgelbaum; Cecile Gaubert; Nicole Gorton; Eduardo Morales; Edouard Schaal |
| Abstract: | How do political preferences shape transportation policy? We study this question in the context of California's High-Speed Rail (CHSR). Combining geographic data on votes in a referendum on the CHSR with a model of its expected economic benefits, we estimate the weight of economic and non-economic considerations in voters' preferences. Then, comparing the proposed distribution of CHSR stations with alternative placements, we use a revealed-preference approach to estimate policymakers' preferences for redistribution and popular approval. While voters did respond to expected real-income benefits, non-economic factors were a more important driver of the spatial distribution of voters' preferences for the CHSR. While the voter-approved CHSR would have led to modest income gains, proposals with net income losses also would have been approved due to political preferences. For the planner, we identify strong preferences for popular approval. A politically-blind planner would have placed the stations closer to dense metro areas in California. |
| JEL: | D72 O18 R10 R42 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31438&r=tre |
| By: | Gertler, Paul J; Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco; Gracner, Tadeja; Rothenberg, Alexander |
| Keywords: | transport infrastructure, road maintenance, Economic Development |
| Date: | 2023–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt38m633q0&r=tre |
| By: | Kampanelis, Sotiris; Elizalde, Aldo; Ioannides, Yannis M. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-term economic impacts of the adoption of local knowledge during European colonisation. We use the case of Australia, where Aboriginal knowledge of the landscape was integral to colonial exploration and settlement. To quantify the effects of this knowledge, we construct a newly digitised and georeferenced dataset of trade routes created by Aboriginal people based on oral traditions, known as Songlines. Our results indicate that Aboriginal trade routes are strongly associated with current economic activity as measured by nighttime satellite imagery. We attribute this association to path dependence and agglomeration effects that emanate from the transport infrastructure built by Europeans roughly along these routes, which have agglomerated economic activity. Finally, by exploiting exogenous variation in optimal travel routes, we provide evidence that our results are not entirely determined by the inherent characteristics of Australian topography, but rather by Aboriginal knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Aboriginal trade routes, Songlines, colonialism, agglomeration, Australia |
| JEL: | N77 O10 R12 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202307&r=tre |
| By: | Saurabh Amin; Patrick Jaillet; Haripriya Pulyassary; Manxi Wu |
| Abstract: | We study a market mechanism that sets edge prices to incentivize strategic agents to organize trips that efficiently share limited network capacity. This market allows agents to form groups to share trips, make decisions on departure times and route choices, and make payments to cover edge prices and other costs. We develop a new approach to analyze the existence and computation of market equilibrium, building on theories of combinatorial auctions and dynamic network flows. Our approach tackles the challenges in market equilibrium characterization arising from: (a) integer and network constraints on the dynamic flow of trips in sharing limited edge capacity; (b) heterogeneous and private preferences of strategic agents. We provide sufficient conditions on the network topology and agents' preferences that ensure the existence and polynomial-time computation of market equilibrium. We identify a particular market equilibrium that achieves maximum utilities for all agents, and is equivalent to the outcome of the classical Vickery Clark Grove mechanism. Finally, we extend our results to general networks with multiple populations and apply them to compute dynamic tolls for efficient carpooling in San Francisco Bay Area. |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2307.03994&r=tre |
| By: | Jeanette Schmidt (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Christian Tilk (University of Vienna); Stefan Irnich (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | The vehicle routing problem with drones (VRP-D) is an extension of the capacitated vehicle routing problem, in which the fleet consists of trucks equipped with one drone each. A truck and its drone can either move together or separately. To operate alone, a truck can release its drone at the depot or at a customer location and likewise pick it up at a later location visited by the same truck. In this way, both trucks and drones deliver goods to customers working together as synchronized working units. A feasible route has to satisfy the capacity constraints of both the truck and the drone. The VRP-D consists of finding a minimum-cost set of feasible routes such that each customer is served exactly once by either a truck or a drone. We develop a branch-price-and-cut (BPC) algorithm to solve the VRP-D exactly for both standard objectives considered in the literature, i.e., the minimization of the total routing cost and the sum of the routes' durations. To solve the column-generation subproblems, we present a new forward and implicit bidirectional labeling algorithm defined over an artificial network. The new bidirectional labeling algorithm substantially accelerates the solution process compared its monodirectional counterpart. In several computational experiments, we analyze algorithmic components of the BPC algorithm, compare the cost and duration objectives, and highlight the impact of the drones' speed on the structure of VRP-D solutions. The final version of the BPC algorithm is able to solve VRP-D instances with up to 50 vertices to proven optimality within one hour of computation time. |
| Keywords: | routing, drone delivery, synchronization, branch-price-and-cut, bidirectional labeling |
| Date: | 2023–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2311&r=tre |
| By: | Phares, Jonathan (Iowa State University); Miller, Jason W. (Michigan State University); Burks, Stephen V. (University of Minnesota, Morris) |
| Abstract: | Some of the U.S. states saw sharper declines in truck transportation payrolls at the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown, and others displayed differing trajectories in the rebound of truck transportation payrolls during the economic recovery. Analyzing why provides theoretical and practical insights regarding labor dynamics in the trucking sector. In this vein we extend factor market rivalry theory regarding labor dynamics in the trucking sector: we suggest that trucking firms have compound relations with demand generating sectors in that they may compete for the same workers. Sectors differ in how output changes affect both their demand for trucking freight and the extent of their labor poaching; this creates differing net effects on trucking employment. We create a state-level archival data set of truck transportation establishment payrolls from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which we combine with other archival sources. We test our hypotheses via discontinuous growth curve models estimated using the mixed effects modeling framework. Effects vary by time period and industry, but manufacturing and natural resource extraction stand out in perhaps surprising ways, and changes in demand for local freight movements are especially important. Our results align with our theory and have important implications for managers and policy makers. |
| Keywords: | truck transportation, motor carrier, COVID-19, pandemic shutdown, pandemic recovery, trucking employment |
| JEL: | J21 L92 R41 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16265&r=tre |