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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Martin, Elliot PhD; Ju, Mengying |
| Abstract: | Transportation network companies (TNCs) play an increasingly prominent role providing on-demand mobility for consumers across California. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted and are implementing Senate Bill 1014 (Clean Miles Standard), which establishes an annual increase in the percent of zero-emission passenger miles traveled and greenhouse (GHG) emission reduction targets for TNCs. This regulation requires TNC drivers to acquire and operate an electric vehicle (EV). In collaboration with the Rideshare Drivers United, a grassroots driver advocacy group, we collected data to understand the total cost of EV ownership for TNC drivers. This included two TNC driver group discussions, ten expert interviews, an in-depth driver survey (n=436), and a dataset of 150 million TNC trips from the CPUC. The driver survey was distributed in December 2023 and April 2024, investigating driver perceptions and any changes to their driving due to operating an EV. The CPUC dataset reports trip-level TNC activities from September 2019 to October 2020, including data on trip location, time, driver pay, and other variables. We also evaluated vehicle price and fuel economy data to investigate the economic feasibility of purchasing, leasing, or renting EVs for ridehailing use. One of our key metrics is the net TNC driver earnings, or the total TNC income subtracted by service fees, fuel costs, monthly vehicle payments, etc. |
| Keywords: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt4rf2191v |
| By: | Mau, Karsten (RS: GSBE MORSE, RS: GSBE FSD, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Macro, International & Labour Economics); Xu, Mingzhi; Zheng, Yawen |
| Abstract: | We evaluate how access to international transport infrastructure promotes trade and economic development. Exploiting the gradual unfolding of transcontinental rail freight connections between China and Europe, our empirical findings indicate increasing exports from connected cities, with positive spillovers to other transport modes, neighboring cities, and indicators of economic activity. Not all products and cities are equally responsive to new rail export opportunities. We set up a multi-sector heterogeneous firms model with a rich specification of trade costs, in which firms optimize trade costs by choosing alternative transportation modes and routes. Leveraging a unique data set on trade flows between Chinese cities, we calibrate our model to discuss local welfare effects, relying on a sufficient statistic that quantifies changes in city-level trade costs. We also highlight significant spatial distributional effects of trade infrastructure development. |
| JEL: | F14 F15 R11 R41 |
| Date: | 2025–01–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2025001 |
| By: | Verduzco Torres, Jose Rafael; Raturi, Varun |
| Abstract: | Emerging forms of spatial data, such as mobile phone-based location data (MPD), have shown promise in enhancing or replacing traditional analytical methods. MPD provides detailed, timely information at lower costs, making it valuable for urban and transport planning. However, the high volume and heterogeneity of MPD pose significant challenges in data processing and analysis. This study investigates the potential of MPD to estimate traffic volumes at the street level, focusing on Glasgow city-region. We evaluate three MPD spatial extraction techniques—Simple Buffer (SB), Connected Street Buffer (CB), and Entire Street Buffer (ESB)—to filter relevant vehicular movement data. Additionally, we assess three processing approaches: raw counts (A1), simplified counts with commuter assumptions (A2), and detailed spatio-temporal analysis (A3). The results are compared to manual traffic counts from the Department for Transport (DfT). The findings reveal that raw MPD counts (A1) lead to important biases due to uneven data volume per user. Simplified counts (A2) improve accuracy but still capture non-vehicular activities. The spatio-temporal approach (A3) offers the most accurate estimates by incorporating movement inferences. However, buffer size and built environment factors significantly impact the methods' performance, highlighting the need for localised buffers and built environmental controls. This research demonstrates MPD's potential to supplement traditional traffic systems, providing cost-effective and detailed traffic insights. Future studies can extend MPD applications for active travel and extend the analysis to other cities. |
| Date: | 2024–12–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:vut58 |
| By: | Pittman, Russell |
| Abstract: | In its 2023 decision approving the acquisition of the Kansas City Southern Railway by the Canadian Pacific, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board conditioned its approval on the merged railway’s commitment “to keep gateways open on commercially reasonable terms” – that is, to allow shippers and non-merging railroads to continue to enjoy the option of using joint-line service, despite the merger’s creation of the alternative of single-line service on the merged railroad. A century has passed since the Board’s predecessor agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, first imposed a condition of the maintenance of open gateways as a condition for approving a rail merger. This paper asks three questions. First, exactly what, in practice, are open gateways? Second, how have the two regulatory agencies dealt with the inherent tension between maintaining open gateways and achieving merger efficiencies? Third, what is the current state of play? |
| Keywords: | freight railways, regulation, vertical mergers, nondiscrimination conditions |
| JEL: | K23 L51 L92 R48 |
| Date: | 2024–12–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:123063 |
| By: | Rouhani, Omid |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I review the value of statistical life (VOSL) definitions/concepts, mainly in the transportation context. After examining the concept, I provide a background, discussing how the estimates should be different for each case study. Next, I overview a variety of previous studies globally, focusing on their estimated values. Finally, I summarize a few interesting observations regarding this extremely important factor for public policy analyses. The adjusted 2024 VOSL in U.S. dollars ranges from 0.1 million in Russia to 32 million in Canada; 320 times difference! In fact, VOSL values differ substantially by income, age, and geographical region as well as the sector of concern. This conclusion significantly impacts the application of VOSL for social welfare evaluations of transportation projects. |
| Keywords: | Value of statistical life; Transportation; Health-related costs of travel; Social cost benefit analysis |
| JEL: | A1 E6 H23 H7 I31 O22 R1 R4 R48 |
| Date: | 2024–12–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:123119 |
| By: | Salas Arón Bernabé |
| Abstract: | Academic consensus on the positive impact of the expansion of the Argentine railway network on its agriculture led economy between 1890 and late 1910s is broad. After this network reached its peak in the 1950s, a transition in transportation infrastructure began, reducing the rail network and expanding paved roadways. This paper estimates the impact of this transition at a subdistrict level for specific but comprehensive variables of the Argentine agriculture between the early 60s and the late 80s. Since the treatments involved in the work are two, the empirical strategy relies on a modified fixed effects differences-in-differences model. Then, to achieve more solid conclusions, mean differences tests were run between groups with different characteristics, realizing closer comparisons to the traditional treatment-control contrast. The main findings reveals that, for the variables of interest, there is an enhancing effect in the presence of the two treatments (railways and paved roads) performing simultaneously in the subdistricts; likewise, eliminating a treatment from places that used to have both of them and contrasting these to districts that maintained both over time provides negative and robust results, veryfing the enhancing effect hypothesis. In another aspect, the results do not reveal the existance of significant effects in subdistrict agriculture from the treatment of deploying paved roads to places that previously did not have any means of transportation. |
| JEL: | O2 N5 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4762 |
| By: | A. Kerem Coşar; Sophie Osotimehin; Latchezar Popov |
| Abstract: | We quantify the aggregate, regional and sectoral impacts of transportation productivity growth on the US economy over the period 1947-2017. Using a multi-region, multi-sector model that explicitly captures produced transportation services as a key input to interregional trade, we find that the calibrated change in transportation productivity had a sizable impact on aggregate welfare, magnified by a factor of 2.3 compared to its sectoral share in GDP. The amplification mechanism results from the complementarity between transport services and tradable goods, interacting with sectoral and spatial linkages. The geographical implications are highly uneven, with the West and Southwest benefiting the most from market access improvements while the Northeast experiences a decline. Sectoral impacts are largest in transportation-intensive activities like agriculture, mining and heavy manufacturing. Our results demonstrate the outsized and heterogeneous impact of the transportation sector in shaping US economic activity through specialization and spatial transformation. |
| JEL: | E23 O18 R13 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33248 |
| By: | Eliasson, Jonas |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the accuracy of cost estimates for Swedish transport infrastructure projects 2004-2022, discusses causes of cost overruns, and suggests remedies. Cost estimates for all projects in the national investment plans 2010-2022 are tracked from early planning to completion. Final costs for all projects finished 2004-2022 are compared to decision-stage cost estimates. Results show that cost estimates increase considerably during the planning stages, on average, while cost estimates at the final decision stage are close to final costs, on average. Cost escalations during the planning stage are not uniform, however: the distribution of cost changes is highly skewed with a long right tail. The reason that final costs tend to exceed early cost estimates is that project decisions are effectively locked in before projects’ costs and benefits have been thoroughly assessed. Lock-in of premature decisions does not only cause cost overruns; even worse, it distorts project selection and design, reduces incentives to search for more cost-efficient designs, and increases opportunities and incentives for project beneficiaries to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits. Several ways to tackle these problems are suggested. |
| Keywords: | cost overruns; transport infrastructure; project management; decision processes; transport policy |
| JEL: | H54 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2024–12–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122862 |
| By: | Elsenberger, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This thesis examines, quantifies, and ranks the influence of various factors of activity, structure, and intensity on passenger transport energy consumption to assess the progression of energy efficiency. For this purpose, four logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition analyses are conducted employing continuous data from 2000 to 2016, one each for the land passenger transport sector and one for the LDV sector. In particular, the question of to what extent gross efficiency gains can be attributed to technical efficiency improvements versus behavioral factors is answered. The analyses on land passenger transport solely feature gross energy intensity, whereas the subsequent analyses on LDV energy consumption further decompose gross efficiency into fuel share, average occupancy, and technical energy intensity. Beyond that, population factors are introduced to obtain results normalized per capita. The results of the full decomposition analyses highlight that technical energy efficiency enhancements are always substantially offset by behavioral factors, such as passenger activity per capita or LDV average occupancy. What is more, modal split is of the least significance even though it holds an enormous energy savings potential. However, passenger transport energy consumption per capita decreases throughout all scenarios. Ultimately, a successful policy response must address behavioral and personal utility factors since measures exclusively focused on technical energy efficiency improvements are likely to induce rebound effects. |
| Keywords: | Energy Efficiency; Decomposition Analysis; LMDI; Energy Efficiency Indicators; Rebound Effect; Transport Policy; Fuel Switching; Energy Economics; Energy Policy; Germany; Netherlands; Factor Decomposition |
| JEL: | C82 R4 R49 |
| Date: | 2023–07–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122147 |