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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Bahman Madadi; Ary P. Silvano; Kevin McPherson; John McCarthy; Risto \"O\"orni; Gon\c{c}alo Homem de Almeida Correiaa |
| Abstract: | Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) can have a profound influence on transport systems. However, most levels of automation and connectivity require support from the road infrastructure. Additional support such as Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) services can facilitate safe and efficient traffic, and alleviate the environmental impacts of road surface vehicles. However, due to the rapidly evolving technology, C-ITS service deployment requirements are not always clear. Furthermore, the costs and benefits of infrastructure investments are subject to tremendous uncertainty. This study articulates the requirements using a structured approach to propose a CAV-Readiness Framework (CRF). The main purpose of the CRF is allowing road authorities to assess their physical and digital infrastructure readiness, define requirements for C-ITS services, and identify future development paths to reach higher levels of readiness to support CAVs by enabling C-ITS services. The CRF is intended to guide and support road authorities' investment decisions on infrastructure. |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2311.01268&r=tre |
| By: | Songhua Hu (Jack); Kailai Wang (Jack); Lingyao Li (Jack); Yingrui Zhao (Jack); Zhenbing He (Jack); Yunpeng (Jack); Zhang |
| Abstract: | Climate changes lead to more frequent and intense weather events, posing escalating risks to road traffic. Crowdsourced data offer new opportunities to monitor and investigate changes in road traffic flow during extreme weather. This study utilizes diverse crowdsourced data from mobile devices and the community-driven navigation app, Waze, to examine the impact of three weather events (i.e., floods, winter storms, and fog) on road traffic. Three metrics, speed change, event duration, and area under the curve (AUC), are employed to assess link-level traffic change and recovery. In addition, a user's perceived severity is computed to evaluate link-level weather impact based on crowdsourced reports. This study evaluates a range of new data sources, and provides insights into the resilience of road traffic to extreme weather, which are crucial for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in road transportation systems. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2310.14380&r=tre |
| By: | Tanhua Jin; Kailai Wang; Yanan Xin; Jian Shi; Ye Hong; Frank Witlox |
| Abstract: | Enhanced efforts in the transportation sector should be implemented to mitigate the adverse effects of CO2 emissions resulting from zoning-based planning paradigms. The innovative concept of the 15-minute city, with a focus on proximity-based planning, holds promise in minimizing unnecessary travel and advancing the progress toward achieving carbon neutrality. However, an important research question that remains insufficiently explored is: to what extent is a 15-minute city concept within reach for US cities? This paper establishes a comprehensive framework to evaluate the 15-minute city concept using SafeGraph Point of Interest (POI) check-in data in the 12 most populous US cities. The results reveal that residents are more likely to rely on cars due to the fact that most of their essential activities are located beyond convenient walking, cycling, and public transit distances. However, there is significant potential for the implementation of the 15-minute city concept, as most residents' current activities can be accommodated within a 15-minute radius by the aforementioned low-emission modes of transportation. Our findings can offer policymakers insight into how far US cities are away from the 15-minute city and the potential CO2 emission reduction they can expect if the concept is successfully implemented. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2310.14383&r=tre |
| By: | Robert Huang; Matthew E. Kahn |
| Abstract: | Household carbon dioxide emissions have been an increasing function of income and distance from the city. Richer suburbanites drive more and consume more electricity and natural gas at home. In recent years, richer people in California have been more likely to buy electric vehicles and to install solar panels in their homes. The electricity grid has become less carbon intensive over time. Using several California datasets, we document that these ongoing shifts in consumer behavior have flattened household transportation carbon dioxide Engel curves over the years 2018 to 2022. While household electricity emissions as a function of income have flattened, the natural gas Engel curves have not. We explore the political economy implications of the ongoing decarbonization of the private vehicle fleet. Based on voting data from California, we document that communities tend to support higher fuel taxes when their vehicle fleet is more fuel efficient. |
| JEL: | H23 Q54 R40 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31792&r=tre |
| By: | Jaume Benseny; Jarno Lahteenmaki; Juuso Toyli; Heikki Hammainen |
| Abstract: | The emergence of new wireless technologies, such as the Internet of Things, allows digitalizing new and diverse urban activities. Thus, wireless traffic grows in volume and complexity, making prediction, investment planning, and regulation increasingly difficult. This article characterizes urban wireless traffic evolution, supporting operators to drive mobile network evolution and policymakers to increase national and local competitiveness. We propose a holistic method that widens previous research scope, including new devices and the effect of policy from multiple government levels. We provide an analytical formulation that combines existing complementary methods on traffic evolution research and diverse data sources. Results for a centric area of Helsinki during 2020-2030 indicate that daily volumes increase, albeit a surprisingly large part of the traffic continues to be generated by smartphones. Machine traffic gains importance, driven by surveillance video cameras and connected cars. While camera traffic is sensitive to law enforcement policies and data regulation, car traffic is less affected by transport electrification policy. High-priority traffic remains small, even under encouraging autonomous vehicle policies. We suggest that 5G small cells might be needed around 2025, albeit the utilization of novel radio technology and additional mid-band spectrum could delay this need until 2029. We argue that mobile network operators inevitably need to cooperate in constructing a single, shared small cell network to mitigate the high deployment costs of massively deploying small cells. We also provide guidance to local and national policymakers for IoT-enabled competitive gains via the mitigation of five bottlenecks. For example, local monopolies for mmWave connectivity should be facilitated on space-limited urban furniture or risk an eventual capacity crunch, slowing down digitalization. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2310.14406&r=tre |
| By: | Fitch-Polse, Dillon; Mohiuddin, Hossain; Jaller, Miguel |
| Abstract: | This white paper presents the synthesis of the literature on the use of cargo bikes for urban goods movement with a particular focus on four barrier and opportunity domains: physical and spatial; economic; political and legal; and social and cultural. It also includes research particularly relevant to California cities, although many of the studies reported were conducted outside California because we found a lack of evidence within California. The barriers to shifting from trucks and vans to cargo bikes for a variety of good movements remain tall in California. They include, among many, a need for a significant shift in the delivery landscape that requires collaboration across different organizations, and support from the local and state level that includes the development of urban consolidation hubs, investment in bike infrastructure, and strict restrictions on larger delivery vehicles. In addition, it may also require initial incentives to freight operators to offset the costs of shifting to cargo bike logistics. Although the barriers are large, the need is paramount, given the rise in e-commerce and local goods movement. Motivated by this need, and with targeted efforts to overcome these barriers, synergistic benefits are possible including a safer and more bike-friendly road network supportive of both personal active transportation and cargo-bike goods movement. These outcomes will help achieve wide-ranging goals in transportation planning, including GHG reduction, improvements to public health through physical activity, and emission reductions, among others. |
| Keywords: | Law, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Cargo bikes, last-mile delivery, urban goods movement |
| Date: | 2023–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6zq3384v&r=tre |
| By: | José Pulido |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted the sea transportation industry, leading container freight rates to reach record highs from late 2020 and into 2021. This study examines the welfare effects of this disruption on a specific country, Colombia. For this, I use a quantitative model of international trade with out-of-steady-state transitional dynamics and a rich structure for the organization of production, plus an instrumental variable approach to estimate a trade elasticity to freight. I quantify both the direct effects of freight increases on goods transported to and from Colombia, as well as the indirect impact of heightened rates on routes across the rest of the world. The resulting welfare loss of 1.4% is solely attributable to the direct effects, as the indirect impact simultaneously improves Colombia's relative trade openness, thereby compensating for the effects of the increased shipping costs worldwide. |
| Keywords: | container freight, transportation costs, international trade, Covid-19 |
| JEL: | F16 F62 F17 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:1132&r=tre |
| By: | Moez Kilani; André de Palma |
| Abstract: | We analyze spatial competition on a circle between firms that have multiple outlets and face quadratic transport costs. The equilibrium is a two-stage Nash game: first, firms decide on their locations and then set their prices. We are able to solve analytically simple multi-outlet cases, but for the general case, we require an algorithm to enumerate all non-isomorphic configurations. While price equilibria are explicit and unique, solving the full two-stage game requires numerical methods. In the location game, we consider two scenarios: either firms cannot jump one outlet over a competitors’ outlet, or firms have the flexibility to locate outlets anywhere on the circle. The solution involves a balance between cannibalization, market protection, and spatial monopoly power. We compare prices, profits, and transport costs for all possible configurations. With flexible locations, the firms’ market areas are contiguous. In this case, surprisingly, each firm acts as a spatial monopoly. If regulations enforce that each firm must set the same price for its outlets, head-to-head competition prevails, leading to decreased profits for the firms but to a better-off situation for consumers. |
| Keywords: | Spatial competition, circle, multi-product oligopoly, price-location equilibria, coin change problem. |
| JEL: | L13 R32 R53 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2023-33&r=tre |
| By: | Luis Alvarez; Ciro Biderman |
| Abstract: | Can temporary subsidies to bundles induce long-run changes in demand due to learning about the relative quality of one of its constituent goods? This paper provides theoretical and experimental evidence on the role of this mechanism. Theoretically, we introduce a model where an agent learns about the quality of an innovation on an essential good through consumption. Our results show that the contemporaneous effect of a one-off subsidy to a bundle that contains the innovation may be decomposed into a direct price effect, and an indirect learning motive, whereby an agent leverages the discount to increase the informational bequest left to her future selves. We then assess the predictions of our theory in a randomised experiment in a ridesharing platform. The experiment provided two-week discounts for car trips integrating with a train or metro station (a bundle). Given the heavy-tailed nature of our data, we follow \cite{Athey2023} and, motivated by our theory, propose a semiparametric model for treatment effects that enables the construction of more efficient estimators. We introduce a statistically efficient estimator for our model by relying on L-moments, a robust alternative to standard moments. Our estimator immediately yields a specification test for the semiparametric model; moreover, in our adopted parametrisation, it can be easily computed through generalized least squares. Our empirical results indicate that a two-week 50\% discount on car trips integrating with train/metro leads to a contemporaneous increase in the demand for integrated rides, and, consistent with our learning model, persistent changes in the mean and dispersion of nonintegrated rides. These effects persist for over four months after the discount. A simple calibration of our model shows that around 40\% to 50\% of the estimated contemporaneous increase in integrated rides may be attributed to a learning motive. |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2311.01217&r=tre |
| By: | Fitch-Polse, Dillon; Jaller, Miguel |
| Abstract: | The use of cargo bikes for last-mile deliveries has seen renewed interest, as more sustainable modes are needed to meet the carbon reduction strategies. Furthermore, cargo-bikes contain possibly the greatest co-benefits of any emission reduction strategies for the freight sector. With the goal of informing state, regional, and local government efforts for transforming local goods movement, researchers at the University of California, Davis synthesized the literature on cargo bikes for goods movement with a specific focus on the challenges facing California. Key findings from the research are summarized in this brief. |
| Keywords: | Law, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Cargo bikes, last-mile delivery, urban goods movement |
| Date: | 2023–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt68v0g76r&r=tre |