|
on Transport Economics |
| By: | Gessner, Johannes; Habla, Wolfgang; Rübenacker, Benjamin; Wagner, Ulrich J. |
| Abstract: | Many European companies face the challenge of lowering CO2 emissions from their company car fleets. A promising lever is to increase the notoriously low electric usage of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). This paper examines whether home charging infrastructure can help achieve these goals. We leverage quasi-experimental variation in the delivery and installation of home chargers to quantify the impact of this technology on energy use and CO2 emissions of PHEV company cars held by 856 employees of a large German company. Since fuel and electricity expenditures for these cars are covered by the employer, home charging mainly changes the non-monetary costs to an employee. We find that access to home charging increases electricity consumption by 317.9 (±23.3) kWh per quarter and decreases fuel consumption by 97.97 (±36.5) liters, reducing CO2 emissions by 38%. Moreover, access to home charging increases the employee's propensity to choose a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) upon renewal of the lease by 28.4 (±25.6) percentage points. We use these estimates to compute the private levelized abatement costs of home chargers for a range of scenarios characterizing the diffusion of BEVs and the effect of the program on vehicle choice. With current tax-inclusive energy prices, home chargers break even for the company within eight to 16 years. |
| Keywords: | home charging, charging infrastructure, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles, company cars |
| JEL: | D12 L91 Q52 R42 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:315495 |
| By: | Dessouky, Maged; Mahtab, Zuhayer |
| Abstract: | In this report, the authors propose an online and large-scale rideshare system that can dynamically match passenger requests with drivers and provide efficient routes to the drivers. The authors developed a greedy insertion-based routing procedure to route thousands of requests in an hour. They incorporated flexible meeting point selection into the framework, which can reduce travel distances for both drivers and passengers. The authors implemented an online incentive and cost-sharing system that can incentivize drivers and passengers for their ride time limit violations and share the cost of a rideshare trip among the passengers fairly. The authors incorporated a request prediction and detour mechanism into the ridesharing framework. To get the most updated travel time and study the effects of ridesharing in a road network, theauthors also incorporate a simulation approach into the framework. Numerical experiments performed on the New York Taxicab dataset and a rural dataset based on Kern and Tulare Counties, California, show that the proposed framework is effective, matching thousands of requests per hour. Results also show that ridesharing can cost significantly less compared to ride-hailing services such as Uber or Lyft, and incorporating flexible meeting points can reduce travel distance by 4% on average. Simulation studies show that ridesharing can reduce total vehicle miles traveled by 13% in Manhattan on average. The proposed framework can help transportation officials design real-time and city-scale rideshare systems to alleviate traffic congestion problems in California. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Ridesharing, Online Systems, Large-Scale Optimization, Simulation |
| Date: | 2025–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt5zp5778b |
| By: | Pere Suau-Sanchez; Frédéric Dobruszkes; Giulio Mattioli |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the effectiveness of airport slot reductions as a strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, focusing on Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Following the Dutch Government’s decision to reduce slots from 500, 000 to 440, 000, we analyse various risk scenarios using the D’Hondt method for proportional slot allocation and the Fuel Estimation in Air Transportation (FEAT) model to estimate fuel consumption. Strategies include proportional slot cuts, prioritising short-haul flights, and shifting to rail alternatives. Results show that short-term emissions reductions are modest and do not scale with slot reductions unless long-haul flights are significantly curtailed. Moreover, aircraft up-gauging could lead to increased emissions if airline behaviour is not addressed. Our findings challenge the effectiveness of slot reductions as a climate strategy, highlighting the importance of targeting long-haul flights and adopting comprehensive policies to achieve substantial emissions reductions. The study offers critical insights for sustainable aviation policy development. |
| Keywords: | Airport slots; Airport capacity; Aviation sustainability; Demand management; Amsterdam Airport |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/389974 |
| By: | Volker, Jamey M.B.; Kim, Keuntae; Hernandez Rios, Kevin |
| Abstract: | A robust body of empirical research demonstrates that as roadway supply increases, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) generally does, too. The evidence is particularly strong with respect to major roadways, like interstate highways (class 1), other freeways and expressways (class 2), and principal arterials (class 3). However, previous literature reviews have found limited empirical evidence as to the relative magnitude of the induced travel effect of expanding minor arterials, collector streets, and local roads. Previous reviews have similarly not reported empirical research on the induced travel effects of other types of roadway facilities, such as auxiliary lanes, ramps, or other types of interchanges. In this project, the authorsconducted a systematic literature review on the induced travel effects of minor arterials, auxiliary lanes, and interchanges (including simple on/off ramps). The authors found that the empirical literature remains limited with respect to auxiliary lanes and interchanges. They found eight studies that include minor arterials in their empirical estimates of induced travel, which collectively indicate that the induced travel elasticity for class 4 minor arterials could be similar to that of class 1-3 facilities. However, none of the studies isolated the induced travel effect from minor arterials specifically. Going forward, the report suggests avenues for future research to help close these research gaps. For example, the authors recommend using case studies of individual roadway expansions to better understand the induced travel effects specific to ramps, interchanges, minor arterials, and auxiliary lanes within specific contexts, especially where larger studies (across multiple facilities, geographies, etc.) have not yet been done. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Induced travel, VMT, travel demand, road construction, traffic, arterials, auxiliary lanes, interchanges |
| Date: | 2025–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3xg2q30p |
| By: | Klein, Nicholas J. (Conrell University); Palm, Matthew; Connaughton, Stella |
| Abstract: | Rising transportation costs have sparked widespread concern, with media headlines questioning whether the era of inexpensive automobility is over. Yet existing analyses often rely on sticker prices and aggregated sales data, failing to account for the full range of ownership costs such as insurance, fuel, and debt payments. This study bridges that gap by examining transportation affordability and “forced car ownership”—low-income households incurring high automobile costs due to limited alternatives. Using data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey from 1984 to 2023, we analyze trends in transportation expenditures, debt, and affordability using descriptive statistics, ordinary least squares (OLS), and binary logistic regression. Our findings reveal that while transportation expenditures have increased in nominal terms, real expenditures have remained relatively stable, and transportation costs as a share of household expenditures have declined since the 1980s. However, significant disparities persist. Low-income households, Black households, and households with multiple vehicles face disproportionate transportation cost burdens, with debt playing a critical role. Households in the bottom income deciles devote significantly higher shares of income to transportation, often driven by auto loans. Regional and demographic variations highlight structural inequities, with rural households and Southerners incurring higher absolute debt levels. These results underscore the inadequacy of existing affordability thresholds and the need for more comprehensive metrics that account for debt. By identifying the determinants of forced car ownership and its uneven distribution, this study offers policy-relevant insights into where transportation affordability initiatives should be targeted, and for whom. |
| Date: | 2025–03–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:w4jr2_v1 |
| By: | Gagnepain, Philippe; Martimort, David |
| Abstract: | We explore empirically the impact of the market sharing collusive practices that were implemented in the French public transportation industry between 1994 and 1999. We build a structural model of bidding markets where innovating firms compete for the market and have the ability to spread the benefits of their innovation through all markets on which they are active. Each local competitive environment shapes the distribution of the prices (the bids) paid by public authorities to transport operators. We recover empirically the distribution of prices and innovation shocks and we show that collusive practices had overall a limited impact on prices. Firms were in reality more interested in avoiding significant financial risks inherent to the activity, as well as the high cost of preparing a tender proposal. As a by-product, we perform a counterfactual analysis that allows us to simulate how an increase in firms’ innovation reduces prices significantly. |
| Keywords: | Bidding Markets; Market Sharing; Collusion; Innovation; Public Transport |
| JEL: | D22 D44 K21 L9 |
| Date: | 2025–03–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:130478 |
| By: | Aparajita Dasgupta (Ashoka University); Devvrat Raghav (University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | How does access to infrastructure mediate the processes of structural transformation in the presence of climate shocks? By exploiting a large-scale rural road construction program in India, we ask whether rural road connectivity can preserve the gains from structural transformation in emerging markets. In comparison to the existing literature, we provide a newer framework to study the effects of road infrastructure access in mitigating the impact of climate shocks on structural transformation. The program roll out criteria allows us to employ a fuzzy difference-in-discontinuity design to provide the first line of causal evidence in this area. Overall, we find a mixed effect of rural road connectivity on agricultural participation. Interestingly, we find that while road connectivity enables exits from farm labour it also raises the share of households in cultivation. Importantly, while temperature shocks drive down local demand, this effect is somewhat counteracted by access to paved roads. Our results suggest the role of rural infrastructure policies in alleviating the burden of rising temperature, which has first order policy relevance in the context of designing policy instruments to tackle long-term climate change, not just within the country but for all rural regions across the developing world. |
| Keywords: | Climate Shocks; India; Infrastructure; Labour markets; Road access |
| Date: | 2024–08–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:122 |
| By: | Boeing, Geoff (Northeastern University) |
| Abstract: | Street intersection counts and densities are ubiquitous measures in transport geography and planning. However, typical street network data and typical street network analysis tools can substantially overcount them. This article explains the three main reasons why this happens and presents solutions to each. It contributes algorithms to automatically simplify spatial graphs of urban street networks---via edge simplification and node consolidation---resulting in faster parsimonious models and more accurate network measures like intersection counts and densities, street segment lengths, and node degrees. These algorithms' information compression improves downstream graph analytics' memory and runtime efficiency, boosting analytical tractability without loss of model fidelity. Finally, this article validates these algorithms and empirically assesses intersection count biases worldwide to demonstrate the problem's widespread prevalence. Without consolidation, traditional methods would overestimate the median urban area intersection count by 14%. However, this bias varies drastically across regions, underscoring these algorithms' importance for consistent comparative empirical analyses. |
| Date: | 2025–03–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:xf7wm_v1 |
| By: | Giorgio Musto; Marco Percoco |
| Abstract: | The share of the population living in urban centres has vastly increased in recent decades, and is predicted to further expand in the future. In this context, research on the environmental impact of different urban environments, in terms of both the form and built-up structure of cities, is particularly important to understand whether smart urban design can help mitigate the nefarious impacts of climate change. This study aims at investigating relevant associations between urban form (and specifically, urban compactness) and carbon dioxide emissions of the residential and on-road transport sectors on a global scale. The study also employs a recently established, internationally comparable definition of "urban centre", which follows population-based criteria to eliminate bias from socio-cultural or administrative factors potentially determining city boundaries. The results show that lower levels of emissions of the residential and transport sectors occur in urban environments taking on more compact shapes especially in Africa and Asia, whereas the impact of urban compactness is found to be limited in Europe and North America. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcu:greewp:greenwp25 |
| By: | Ramon Ramon-Muñoz (University of Barcelona); Guillermo Esteban-Oliver (University of Lleida); Josep-Maria Ramon-Muñoz (University of Murcia) |
| Abstract: | The living standard of a population is influenced by numerous factors, which, in addition, may change over time. Transport can be one of them as it acts as a mediator for other factors: it influences the price and supply of essential foods; it affects wages and income; it has an impact on the speed of contagious disease spread; it plays a role in the time to access health services. Using Catalonia as a case study, we explore the relationship between transport linkages and well-being in the late nineteenth century. To test this relationship, we rely on two rich and new datasets; one is on individual male heights, and the other consists of municipal market and port access. We conclude that the transport linkages-height nexus was positive, statistically significant and of a non-negligible magnitude, and, contrary to other studies, we do not find evidence that rural areas were negatively affected by market integration, although urban settings appear to have benefited the most. We suggest that the primary mechanisms underlying this positive association were improved food accessibility, along with urban economies and rural development. |
| Keywords: | Height, market access, living standards, railways, southern Europe |
| JEL: | I12 N33 O18 R41 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0277 |
| By: | Mattias Nasman; Grace Ballor |
| Abstract: | In the second half of the twentieth century, the car industry became a lightning rod for debates about human contributions to climate change. Widespread motorisation galvanised the green movements of the 1960s and 1970s, regulators increasingly demanded the use of pollution and climate mitigation technologies, and carmakers responded to this changing consumer and regulatory environment by gradually observing stricter emissions standards and innovating away from combustible engines at the turn of the millennium. This paper traces the arc of the relationship between car manufacturing and climate change through a business historical lens, from the development of internal combustion engines and their alternatives to the political economy of an energy transition and the decision to prioritise electric vehicles. Our analysis aims to lay a foundation for further research on industry and climate change. |
| Keywords: | environmental history, business history, automakers, regulation, climate governance |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcu:greewp:greenwp24 |