|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Boarnet, Marlon G.; Bostic, Raphael W.; Burinskiy, Evgeniy; Rodnyansky, Seva; Prohofsky, Allen |
| Abstract: | Rail transit and neighborhood compositional changes are becoming clearly linked in the public mind. Examples where rail transit has been associated, at least anecdotally, with neighborhood gentrification abound. In Washington, D.C., the Green and Yellow lines are associated with neighborhood transition north and east of downtown. In Los Angeles, the Gold, Expo, and Red/Purple lines have been associated with gentrification concerns (Zuk & Chapple, 2015a), and similar concerns have been raised regarding the soon-to-open Crenshaw Line. On balance, these same concerns are present in most large metropolitan areas that are building or expanding rail transit. Gentrification is a process of neighborhood change characterized by increasing housing prices and changing demographic and socioeconomic composition of the neighborhood. These components of gentrification are often mutually reinforcing: changing composition can further increase housing prices and vice versa. Prior studies have raised the concern that rail transit expansion catalyzes or exacerbates gentrification (Zuk et al., 2017; Rayle, 2015). This report seeks to shed light on this latter concern. It begins with a brief summary of the evidence from prior studies on both rail-related housing price increases and changing composition. It then introduces a newly available data source, which the authors use to examine the relationship between new rail transit station opening and neighborhood income composition. This report aims to determine whether a rail station opening in Los Angeles County is associated with the share and income composition of residents who move in and out of neighborhoods near that rail station. Specifically, the researchers address the following questions regarding gentrification and its tie to rail transit stations: (1) Who moves into rail-station neighborhoods and when? (2) Are higher income households growing as a share of station area population relative to lower-income households? (3) Do rail stations cause this phenomenon or is this happening regardless of the transit investment? View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Demographics, Households, Land use, Land values, Persons by socioeconomic levels, Rail transit, Rail transit stations, Real estate development, Socioeconomic development |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt4p4584w8&r=all |
| By: | Ioannou, Petros |
| Abstract: | The Los Angeles/Long Beach area is important for freight as it involves the twin ports and warehouses and freight hubs. The way freight is consolidated and distributed affects what is going on within the terminals and roadway and rail networks. The complexity and dynamics of the multimodal transportation networks in Los Angeles/Long Beach region that are also shared by passengers, together with the unpredictability of the effect of incidents, disruptions and demand, in temporal and special coordinates makes the local impact analysis of freight transportation a very challenging task despite recent advances in information technologies. Under this project, the researchers developed a set of traffic simulation models for the Los Angeles/Long Beach region that allowed them to evaluate the impact of new traffic flow control systems, vehicle routing, policy interventions such as land use changes and other ITS technologies on the efficiency of the transportation system and on the environment. The developed simulation models include: macroscopic simulation model for studying and evaluating large traffic networks, and microscopic simulation model for smaller networks. The macroscopic model focusses on flows and covers a much larger area as it is computationally much more efficient than the microscopic one. The microscopic model models the motion of each truck and vehicle, traffic lights, stop signs, speed limits, traffic rules etc. and resembles the real situation as close as possible. The developed simulation models have been used to evaluate different systems and application scenarios, including freight priority traffic signal control, multimodal freight routing and the impact analysis of the spatial pattern changes of warehousing and distribution. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Freight traffic, Freight transportation, Macroscopic traffic flow, Microscopic traffic flow, Multimodal transportation, Routing, Traffic models, Traffic simulation |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt7959p38n&r=all |
| By: | Aviral Kumar Tiwari (Montpellier Business School, 2300, Avenue des Moulins, 34185, Montpellier Cedex 4 0002, France); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa); Mark E. Wohar (College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6708 Pine Street, Omaha, NE 68182, USA, and School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the directional predictability of a daily dataset of aggregate and regional (10 major metropolitan cities) housing markets of the United States using the quantilogram – a model-free procedure. We overwhelmingly reject the weak-form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), which has been derived thus far by the extant literature based on unit root tests and long-memory models. |
| Keywords: | Correlogram, dependence, quantiles, efficiency, housing markets, US |
| JEL: | C22 R31 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201934&r=all |
| By: | Boarnet, Marlon G; Burinskiy, Eygeny; Deadrick, Lauren; Gullen, Danielle; Ryu, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes evidence on the economic benefits of placemaking efforts that prioritize pedestrian and non-motorized access and that, at times, reduce vehicle miles traveled. The previous literature on the economic impacts of transportation has focused on theorizing and gathering evidence on ways that transportation infrastructure generates economic benefits at large geographic scales–often states or nations. That literature overlooks many of today’s transportation projects which are at the scale of a neighborhood and which typically include non-motorized transportation. The authors summarize evidence on how those more locally oriented placemaking efforts are associated with benefits that accrue to residents and firms. There is a high degree of evidence that there are economic benefits, on commercial property values, residential property values, business sentiment, and productivity, from density that are summarized as they relate to neighborhood oriented placemaking transportation policies. The authors conclude by suggesting a systems view of metropolitan transportation that has a hierarchy of networks, from high-throughput metropolitan arteries to local, multi-modal, neighborhood planning with connections between the different levels of the system. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2017–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt5gx55278&r=all |
| By: | Mikael Khan; Taylor Webley |
| Abstract: | We use a recently developed model and loan-level micro data to decompose movements in housing resales since 2015. We find that fundamental factors, namely housing affordability and full-time employment, have had offsetting effects on resales over our study period. Recent mortgage rule changes have likely contributed to slower resale activity in Canada, but their impact is estimated to be relatively small. Thus, much of the variation in resales since 2015 reflects deviations from long-run fundamentals, most notably in British Columbia and Ontario. We show that the deviations from fundamentals in these provinces are strongly correlated with house price expectations, which rose rapidly in 2016 but then retreated following provincial housing policy changes. |
| Keywords: | Econometric and statistical methods; Financial stability; Financial system regulation and policies; Housing; Recent economic and financial developments |
| JEL: | C22 E2 R21 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocsan:19-12&r=all |
| By: | Scholl, Lynn; Oviedo, Daniel; Innao, Marco; Pedraza, Lauramaría |
| Abstract: | Investments in public transit infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean often aim to reduce spatial and social inequalities by improving accessibility to jobs and other opportunities. The Metropolitano, Lima’s BRT project at inception, had, as one of its central goals, to connect low income populations living in the peripheries to jobs in the city center. We examine the contribution of Lima’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to accessibility to employment in the city, particularly for low-income public transit users. We build on secondary datasets of employment, household socio-demographics and Origin-Destination surveys before and after the BRT began operations to assess its effects on potential accessibility to employment. Findings suggest that the BRT line reduced travel times to reach jobs, in comparison with traditional public transport in the city, amongst populations living within walking distance of the system. However, we also find that the coverage of the BRT is minimal in areas with high concentrations of poor and extreme poor populations, limiting the equitability of the accessibility improvements. We present a reflection on the distributional effects of BRT infrastructure and services, discussing policy avenues that can improve the prospects for BRT system investments to include the poor in their mobility benefits. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:9451&r=all |
| By: | Brendan Houng (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Chris Ryan (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | Selective high schools are a polarizing topic in education policy, despite only having a small presence in some Australian states. These schools perform exceptionally well when their students’ educational and career outcomes are considered, but this is perhaps unsurprising because admission is based on academic performance. This paper asks whether academically selective schools improve their students’ university entrance results beyond what they would have achieved otherwise. Following a cohort of students through high school from an anonymized Australian state, we estimate the selective school effect via two methods: propensity score matching, which compares students of similar background and prior achievement, and regression discontinuity (RD), which compares marginal selective and non-selective students on the basis of the entrance exam. Our results point to small effects in terms of university entrance ranks, which is consistent with findings from similar studies in the UK, the USA, and other Australian research. Overall, the small selective school effect appears to reflect the high levels of educational aspiration of both selective students as well as applicants who attended other schools. Both groups of students appear to be among the most driven and motivated, being disproportionately from immigrant and socio-economically advantaged backgrounds, and having implicitly signaled an aspirational intent by applying to the schools. |
| Keywords: | Education, Selective Schools, Academic Selection, Academic Achievement |
| JEL: | I2 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2018n08&r=all |
| By: | Luo, Ji; Wu, Guoyuan |
| Abstract: | In urban areas, many socio-economic concerns have been raised regarding fatal collisions, traffic congestion, and deteriorated air quality due to increased travel and logistic demands as well as the existing on-road transportation systems. As one of the promising remedies, active transportation has been advocated, which may not only mitigate congestion on local streets, but also promote physical fitness, foster community livability, and boost local economy. To promote the active transportation mode, extensive work has been focused on planning and developing a number of pedestrian and bicyclist related programs which require the infrastructure, e.g., sidewalks, as a premise. A significant amount of these efforts have to go for the setup, maintenance and evaluation of the sidewalk inventory on a relatively large geographic scale (e.g., citywide, statewide), which lays a solid foundation for a variety of active-mobility-focused applications and related research. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6ht5185q&r=all |
| By: | Pike, Susan; Krantz, Kelila |
| Abstract: | The motivations for this study stem from an uncertainty about whether on-demand ridehailing services such as Uber, Lyft and others, will exacerbate existing transportation issues, or help alleviate them. To that end, the goals of the project were to learn about the perspectives of stakeholders from a variety of sectors, on their reactions to policies and other actions that might enable on-demand services to help alleviate existing transportation issues including congestion, emissions and inequality of access and mobility. This study aims to address the following three questions: How well do stakeholders in different sectors and regions, agree about the potential outcomes related to on-demand ridehailing and sustainable transportation goals? What are stakeholder perspectives on the policies and strategies that might facilitate emerging on-demand transportation services to most effectively enhance sustainability and mobility outcomes? What decision making venues and approaches are supported by different stakeholders in the process, and how can these approaches be pursued in order to realize policy goals related to sustainability of on-demand ridehailing? I.e., what venues, and at what level can most effective policies be introduced to facilitate sustainability improvements in transportation by embracing on-demand ridehailing services. To answer these questions, a series of interviews were completed with stakeholders from California Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs), from state agencies, the ridehailing industry, and local planning agencies or transportation divisions of cities. The results of this study indicate that policy makers must consider the varied systems and contexts throughout the state; and likely throughout the US. Further, there is an existing dialogue on these topics among transportation professionals, public interest groups, academics and policy makers. In this study, the researchers took a systematic approach to documenting this dialogue and identifying meaningful messages and policy guidance that is not possible without a rigorous scientific approach. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Demand responsive transportation, Exhaust gases, Interviewing, Metropolitan planning organizations, Mobility, Policy analysis, Stakeholders, Sustainable transportation, Traffic congestion, Travel demand, Vehicle miles of travel |
| Date: | 2018–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6599q98n&r=all |
| By: | Rodier, Caroline; Jaller, Miguel; Pourrahmani, Elham; Bischoff, Joschka; Freedman, Joel; Pahwa, Anmol |
| Abstract: | In much in the same way that the automobile disrupted horse and cart transportation in the 20th century, automated vehicles hold the potential to disrupt our current system of transportation in the 21st century. Experts predict that vehicles could be fully automated by as early as 2025 or as late as 2035. Methods are needed to help the public and private sector understand automated vehicle technologies and their system-level effects. First, we explore the effects of automated vehicles using the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s activity-based travel demand model (MTC-ABM). The simulation is unique in that it articulates the size and direction of change on travel for a wide range of automated vehicles scenarios. Second, we simulate the effects of the introduction of an automated taxi service on conventional personal vehicle and transit travel in the San Francisco Bay Area region and use new research on the costs of automated vehicles to represent plausible per mile automated taxi fares. We use an integrated model for the San Francisco Bay Area that includes the MTC-ABM combined with the agent-based MATSim model customized for the region. This model set uses baseline travel demand data from the region’s official activity-based travel model and dynamically assigns vehicles on road and transit networks by the time of day. Third, we use the MTC-ABM and the MATSim dynamic assignment model to simulate different “first†mile transit access services, including ride-hailing (Uber and Lyft) and ridesharing (Uber Pool/Lyft Line and Via) with and without automated vehicles. The results provide insight into the relative benefits of each service and automated vehicle technology and the potential market for these services. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Business, Automated Vehicles, Travel Demand Modeling, Agent-Based Models, Transit Access |
| Date: | 2018–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt4dk3n531&r=all |
| By: | González-Val, Rafael |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses whether the size distribution of nearby cities is lognormally distributed by using a distance-based approach. We use data from three different definitions of US cities in 2010, considering all possible combinations of cities within a 300-mile radius. The results indicate that support for the lognormal distribution decreases with distance, although the lognormal distribution cannot be rejected in most of the cases for distances below 100 miles. |
| Keywords: | space, city size distribution, distance-based approach, lognormal distribution |
| JEL: | C12 C14 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:93445&r=all |
| By: | Atila Abdulkadiroglu (Duke University); Joshua Angrist (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Yusuke Narita (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Parag Pathak (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Centralized school assignment algorithms must distinguish between applicants with the same preferences and priorities. This is done with randomly assigned lottery numbers, non-lottery tie-breakers like test scores, or both. The New York City public high school match illustrates the latter, using test scores, grades, and interviews to rank applicants to screened schools, combined with lottery tie-breaking at unscreened schools. We show how to identify causal effects of school attendance in such settings. Our approach generalizes regression discontinuity designs to allow for multiple treatments and multiple running variables, some of which are randomly assigned. Lotteries generate assignment risk at screened as well as unscreened schools. Centralized assignment also identifies screened school effects away from screened school cutoffs. These features of centralized assignment are used to assess the predictive value of New York City’s school report cards. Grade A schools improve SAT math scores and increase the likelihood of graduating, though by less than OLS estimates suggest. Selection bias in OLS estimates is egregious for Grade A screened schools. |
| Keywords: | causal inference, natural experiment, local propensity score, instrumental variables, unified enrollment, school report card, school value added |
| JEL: | I21 C78 C13 C18 C21 C26 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-024&r=all |
| By: | Ni, Wei; Cassidy, Michael J |
| Abstract: | Optimal cordon-metering rates are obtained using Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams in combination with flow conservation laws. A model-predictive control algorithm is also used so that time-varying metering rates are generated based on their forecasted impacts. Our scalable algorithm can do this for an arbitrary number of cordoned neighborhoods within a city. Unlike its predecessors, the proposed model accounts for the constraining effects that cordon queues impose on a neighborhood's circulating traffic. It does so at every time step by approximating a neighborhood's street space occupied by cordon queues, and re-scaling the MFD downward to describe the state of circulating traffic that results. The model is also unique in that it differentiates between saturated and under-saturated cordon-metering operations. Computer simulations show that these enhancements can substantially improve the predictions of both, the trip completion rates in a neighborhood and the rates that vehicles cross metered cordons. Optimal metering policies generated as a result are similarly shown to do a better job in reducing the Vehicle Hours Traveled in a city. The VHT reductions stemming from the proposed model and from its predecessors differed by as much as 18%. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Traffic control, Traffic models, Algorithms, Urban transportation |
| Date: | 2018–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt85g9p36h&r=all |
| By: | Bosch, Martí; Chenal, Jérôme; Joost, Stéphane |
| Abstract: | Urban sprawl is nowadays a pervasive topic that is subject of a contentious debate among planners and researchers, who still fail to reach consensual solutions. This paper reviews controversies of the sprawl debate and argues that they owe to a failure of the employed methods to appraise its complexity, especially the notion that urban form emerges from multiple overlapping interactions between households, firms and governmental bodies. To address such issues, this review focuses on recent approaches to study urban spatial dynamics. Firstly, spatial metrics from landscape ecology provide means of quantifying urban sprawl in terms of increasing fragmentation and diversity of land use patches. Secondly, cellular automata and agent-based models suggest that the prevalence of urban sprawl and fragmentation at the urban fringe emerge from negative spatial interaction between residential agents, which seem accentuated as the agent’s preferences become more heterogeneous. Then, the review turns to practical applications that employ such models to spatially inform urban planning and assess future scenarios. A concluding discussion summarizes potential contributions to the debate on urban sprawl as well as some epistemological implications. |
| Keywords: | urban sprawl; complexity; land use change; landscape metrics; spatial pattern; fractals; cellular automata; agent-based models; urban planning |
| JEL: | C63 O18 R11 R14 R20 R30 R40 R52 |
| Date: | 2019–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:93489&r=all |
| By: | Lee, Amy; Fang, Kevin; Handy, Susan |
| Abstract: | The State of California has enacted ambitious policies that aim to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some of these policies focus on reducing the amount of driving throughout the state, measured in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), given that transportation, primarily automobile use, is the largest single source of California’s GHG emissions. To encourage local plans and projects that reduce VMT, California has established several grant programs to which local jurisdictions may apply. These grant programs have generated a need for methods to estimate the potential VMT – and thus GHG – impacts of proposed planning efforts, land development projects, and transportation projects. A range of VMT estimation methods are available for use by funding applicants. Regional travel demand models, for example, are used to estimate the VMT and GHG implications of alternative scenarios in the development of federally-required regional transportation plans and state-required sustainable communities strategies. These models are resource intensive, however, requiring modeling expertise and sometimes many days to complete a single analysis. To fill the need for less resource-intensive methods more appropriate for localized plans and individual projects, upwards of a dozen “sketch†tools have been developed. These sketch tools vary in their approach and appropriateness for the breadth of development projects and project locations in the state. Practitioners are often unsure as to which method to use for a particular project and have little information to guide their choice. In this report we compare and evaluate VMT estimation tools across a sample of land use projects. We compare the results from different tools for each project, consider the applicability of methods in particular contexts and for different types of projects, and assess data needs, relative ease of use, and other practical considerations. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt08k3q8m5&r=all |
| By: | Handy, Susan; Heckathorn, Drew |
| Abstract: | Cities throughout the world have implemented bike-share systems as a strategy for expanding mobility options and improving the sustainability of the urban transportation system. These systems have attracted substantial ridership, even in the U.S., but the impact on overall levels of bicycling and other modes of travel have not been well documented. The purpose of this project is to document the impacts of a bike-share system to be launched by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) in 2018. The project uses a before-and-after methodology to directly measure the impact of the bike-share system on levels of bicycling, transit use, and vehicle-miles of travel as well as attitudes towards bicycling in the area served by the system. This report summarizes the method and results for the first phase of the study, the “before†survey implemented in April 2016. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt8p3398jz&r=all |
| By: | Boarnet, Marlon G; Bostic, Raphael W; Rodnyansky, Seva; Santiago-Bartolomei, Raúl; Williams, Danielle; Prohofsky, Allen |
| Abstract: | Rail transit’s association with gentrification has been a presence in the public discourse for some time and Los Angeles is no different. There is a prevailing public perception that Los Angeles' recent boom in rail transit development causes an influx of high income residents and an outflow of low income residents near rail stations. The authors' research asks whether the presence of rail transit increases the outflow lower-income neighborhood residents. The authors use a unique dataset of tax filers in Los Angeles County to address this question. This database tracks the income and location of households across 21 years at a fine spatial scale. This analysis aggregates household data to provide station-area population out mobility rates for 35 rail station neighborhoods and 35 paired control neighborhoods along two Los Angeles Metro transit lines. Their sample consists of 15 stations along the Red/Purple subway line and 20 station along the Gold light rail line that opened between 1993 and 2013. The authors measure effects on four income brackets: below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI) ( $40,000 in 2013). |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2017–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2fb4m7bs&r=all |
| By: | Rodier, Caroline |
| Abstract: | Towards the close of the first decade of the 21st Century, ride-hailing services began to enter the transportation market through smart phone applications that allowed consumers to hail and pay for a ride from drivers using their own vehicle. The information and communication technologies used by these platforms allow for more reliable service, to more locations, with shorter wait times, and at a lower cost than traditional taxi services and, perhaps, public transit. Today, an estimated 15% of adults across the U.S. and 21% in major cities have personally used these services. The successful entrance of ride-hailing services into the transportation market has raised questions about their effect on the overall transportation system, including congestion, total vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Reliable answers are limited, in large part, because of their rapid expansion and the lack of publicly available data from these private ride-sharing companies. However, there is now a small body of research, most conducted in 2016 and 2017, that provides some initial evidence on the impacts of these services. This research includes population representative survey data, targeted ride-hailing user survey data, and measured ride-hailing driver and passenger activity data. In addition, the recent interest in automated vehicles has produced modeling studies that also provide insight into the potential effects of ride-hailing services. The following framework was developed to identify the range of possible travel effects, both positive and negative, on users of ride-hailing services. This includes the effects of ride-hailing on auto ownership, trip generation, destination choice, mode choice, network vehicle travel, and land use. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2rv570tt&r=all |
| By: | Sciara, Gian-Claudia; Strand, Sarah |
| Abstract: | An unprecedented effort to improve regional coordination and land use governance has been underway in California since 2008, when the state passed the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (Senate Bill 375). The law complements earlier state policy (Assembly Bill 32) to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions across an array of sectors. SB 375 specifically encourages regional land use planning that, when coupled with supportive transportation investments, would help to reduce automobile dependent patterns of land use and sprawl. Implementation of these new regional land use visions and the GHG reductions they promise depend largely on local government land use and development actions. This report explores the responses of California cities and counties to this experiment in order to understand what may make local governments more or less likely to collaborate with regionally oriented policies. It reports on a survey of California local governments administered in early 2017 and explores two main questions: (1) to what extent are California local governments adopting local land use policy and development decisions that reflect the MPO’s regional land use vision, and (2) what factors make some local governments more likely to cooperate with regional land use visions, and what factors make others less likely to do so? |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2017–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt0qr4350c&r=all |
| By: | Bøg, Martin (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Dietrichson, Jens (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Aldenius Isaksson, Anna (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Although reading is a fundamental skill, many students leave school without being proficient readers. We examine a literacy program targeting students most at-risk of reading difficulties in kindergarten and first grade. The program includes multi-sensory learning methods, which focus on phonological awareness and phonics and are delivered in a one-to-one or one-to-two tutoring setting. Using a randomized field experiment with 161 students in 12 Swedish schools, we find large positive effects on our two primary outcomes measures: a standardized test of decoding and a standardized test of letter knowledge. We also find positive effects on measures of phonological awareness and self-efficacy and small and statistically insignificant effects on measures of enjoyment and motivation. The program compares favorably to similar programs in terms of cost-effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | phonological awareness; phonics; tutoring; multi-sensory; kindergarten; first grade; Sweden |
| JEL: | I00 I20 I24 J24 Z18 |
| Date: | 2019–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2019_007&r=all |
| By: | Shilling, Fraser |
| Abstract: | Roads and highways act as barriers to wildlife. They disrupt movement of wildlife populations and connectivity between communities of interacting species. Transportation organizations and many wildlife agencies see highway crossing structures for wildlife as critical to mitigating highway barrier effects. These structures are optimistically assumed to be effective for most species, most of the time, but are seldom critically investigated. Wildlife use of highway crossing structures can be highly variable and dependent on structural attributes, human use, and traffic conditions. Studies of animal behavior suggest that wildlife aversion to roadways—and possibly to crossing structures—could be related to traffic noise and light. If transportation organizations and wildlife agencies can confirm this effect they may be able to design more effective wildlife crossing structures and manage existing structures to increase their use by wildlife. This policy brief discusses findings from research that measured traffic noise levels and used camera traps placed at 20 bridges and culverts in California that were known from previous work to pass at least one species. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Bridges, Cameras, Culverts, Data collection, Habitat (Ecology), Highways, Street lighting, Traffic noise, Wildlife, Wildlife crossings |
| Date: | 2018–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1w33s9p5&r=all |
| By: | Hardman, Scott |
| Abstract: | The market introduction of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) is being partially driven by policy interventions. One type of intervention is reoccurring and non-financial incentives, these differ from financial purchase incentives which are a one-time financial incentive associated with the purchase of a PEV. Reoccurring and non-financial incentives include special lane access for PEVs (e.g. HOV/carpool lanes, bus lanes), parking incentives, charging infrastructure development, road toll fee waivers, and licensing incentives. They also include disincentives such as gasoline tax or annual vehicle taxes. The impact of these incentives differs between regions partially due to differences in traffic conditions, travel patterns, consumer preferences, and other local variations. Due to these differences, it is challenging to rank the importance of these incentives, however existing research shows that they all can have a positive impact on PEV adoption. Policymakers wishing to promote the introduction of PEVs will need to consider local travel patterns, the regulatory environment, and consumer preferences to determine the most viable policy interventions for their region. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt7v13w987&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Cohen, Adam |
| Abstract: | In recent years, economic, environmental, and social forces have quickly given rise to the “sharing economy,†a collective of entrepreneurs and consumers leveraging technology to share resources, save money, and generate capital. Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other low-speed travel mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a transportation mode on an as-needed basis. Business-to-consumer services, such as Zipcar and car2go, and peer-to-peer carsharing and shared ride services, such as Getaround, Turo, Lyft, and Uber, have become part of a sociodemographic trend that has pushed shared mobility from the fringe to the mainstream. Local, regional, and state laws, ordinances, codes, zoning, and environmental policies can have unintended impacts on the success and viability of shared mobility in California. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Shared Mobility |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt83b2n13t&r=all |
| By: | Blanco, Hilda; Wikstrom, Alexander |
| Abstract: | This paper explores opportunities for the redevelopment of failing regional shopping malls as Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) to improve transit ridership, focusing on Southern California. In effect, the study suggests an alternative to the typical sequence of first providing transit infrastructure and then changing land uses and densities to develop a TOD around new transit stations. Instead, the study suggests that failing shopping malls can provide the footprint for their redevelopment as TODs that could then be linked to transit lines. The study focuses on several major topics and reviews recent literature on the following steps in the argument for this policy: 1. The rationale for redeveloping declining malls as TODs, the supporting federal and California policies for TODs, and evidence for how different characteristics of TODs and their combination can reduce vehicle miles traveled, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions; 2. The issues that hinder the development of TODs around transit stations, e.g., difficulties in up-zoning, land assembly; loss of existing affordable housing; 3. Changes in retail, focusing on factors affecting the closing of shopping malls, e.g., the effect of Internet shopping on shopping malls, and the increasing failure of shopping malls; and 4. The potential and rationale for the redevelopment of failing regional malls into TODs. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Feasibility analysis, Policy analysis, Public private partnerships, Public transit, Redevelopment, Shopping centers, Transit oriented development, Zoning |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3h62q04h&r=all |
| By: | Jan Wessel (Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster) |
| Abstract: | Both qualitative and quantitative improvements for five different transport infrastructure types are evaluated with respect to their transport-mode-specific trade effects. Strong trade increases are found for survey-based quality indicators of airport and railroad infrastructure. For road trade, the road density is more important than the quality of road infrastructure. Additionally, the infrastructure quality of transit countries is an important trade flow driver of the land transport modes road and railroad. For the analysis of these effects, I use a gravity equation model with European trade flows that are disaggregated over five different transport modes. In combination with the quality and quantity indicators for each corresponding type of transport infrastructure, it is possible to directly estimate the unique trade effects for each infrastructure type. Moreover, a novel cross-mode analysis is conducted to estimate interdependencies and cross-effects that exist between different transport infrastructure types and different transport modes. |
| Keywords: | Transport Infrastructure, Bilateral Trade, Gravity Equations. |
| JEL: | F14 F17 R40 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mut:wpaper:27&r=all |
| By: | Andri Chassamboulli; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the economic effects of different immigration policies in a model capturing economic and institutional features crucial to understand the migrant flows into the US. We explicitly differentiate among the most relevant channels of immigration to the US: family-based, employment-based and undocumented. Moreover we explicitly account for earning incentives to migrate and for the role of immigrant networks in generating job-related and family-related immigration opportunities. Hence, we can analyze the effect of policy changes through those channels. We find that all types of immigrants generate larger surplus to US firms than natives do. Restricting their entry has a depressing effect on job creation and, in turn, on native labor markets. We also show that substituting family-based entry with employment-based entry, and maintaining the total inflow of immigrants unchanged, produces a stimulus to job creation and native earnings. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Networks, Job creation, Unemployment, Wages |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:06-2019&r=all |
| By: | Andri Chassamboulli; Pedro Gomes |
| Abstract: | We set up a search and matching model with a private and a public sector to understand the effects of employment and wage policies in the public sector on unemployment and education decisions. The effects of wages and employment of skilled and unskilled public-sector workers on the educational composition of the labor force depend crucially on the structure of the labor market. An increase of skilled public-sector wages has a small positive impact on educational composition and larger negative impact on the private employment of skilled workers, if the two sectors are segmented. If search across the two sectors is random, it has a large positive impact on education and a large positive impact on skilled private employment. We highlight the usefulness of the model for policymakers by calculating the value of public-sector job security for skilled and unskilled workers. |
| Keywords: | Public-sector employment; public-sector wages; unemployment; skilled workers; human capital accumulation, education decision, public-sector job security premium |
| JEL: | E24 J31 J45 J64 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:07-2019&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Cohen, Adam |
| Abstract: | Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other travel mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a transportation mode on an as-needed basis (1). Shared mobility includes various service models and transportation modes that meet diverse traveler needs. Shared mobility can include roundtrip services (vehicle, bicycle, or other travel mode is returned to its origin); one-way station-based services (vehicle, bicycle, or other mode is returned to a different designated station location); and one-way free-floating services (vehicle, bicycle, or low-speed mode can be returned anywhere within a geographic area). |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Shared Mobility |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt8w77044h&r=all |
| By: | Milene Simone Tessarin; Paulo Cesar Morceiro, Joaquim Jose Martins Guilhoto |
| Abstract: | This study proposes analyze the proximity in productive and technological terms between manufacturing sectors offering a new measure of cognitive proximity. There are three innovative contributions: an unprecedented production matrix created with information on multiproduct plants; a new index that captures productive and technological skills related to worker’s occupation; and methods of spatial econometrics were used in an innovative way to evaluate the proximity between productive sectors. Was used unpublished information from a special tabulation of PIA Empresa/IBGE, and RAIS. Statistical analyzes confirmed the existence of proximity between manufacturing sectors verified through the productive and technological skills of worker’s occupations. The neighborhood network was more dense among sectors that have occupations with the same skills and also between sectors of the same technological level. Sectoral spillovers were found on the neighborhood in the form of positive marginal effects on productivity and investment. |
| Keywords: | Sectoral proximity; productive and technological base; worker’s skills |
| JEL: | C21 L23 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2019wpecon15&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Martin, Elliot PhD; Hoffman-Stapleton, Mikaela; Slowik, Peter |
| Abstract: | This white paper presents a generalized evaluation framework that can be used for assessing project impacts within the context of transportation-related city projects. In support of this framework, we discuss a selection of metrics and data sources that are needed to evaluate the performance of smart city innovations. We first present a collection of projects and applications from near-term smart city concepts or actual pilot projects underway (i.e., Smart City Challenge, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox, and other pilot projects operating in the regions of Los Angeles, Portland, and San Francisco). These projects are identified and explained in Section 2 of this report. Using these projects as the basis for hypothetical case studies, we present selected metrics that would be necessary to evaluate and monitor the performance of such innovations over time. We then identify the data needs to compute those metrics and further highlight the gaps in known data resources that should be covered to enable their computation. The objective of this effort is to help guide future city planners, policy makers, and practitioners in understanding the design of key metrics 3 and data needs at the outset of a project to better facilitate the establishment of rigorous and thoughtful data collection requirements. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Mobility, data, intelligent transportation systems, mobility on demand |
| Date: | 2018–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt7303t6sw&r=all |
| By: | Paul Gortner (Bundesbank); Joël van der Weele (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of introducing information about peer portfolios in an experimental Arrow-Debreu economy. Confirming the prediction of a general equilibrium model with inequality averse preferences, we find that peer information leads to reduced variation in payoffs within peer groups. Information also improves risk sharing, as the data suggests that experiencing earnings deviations from peers induces a shift to more balanced portfolios. In a treatment where we highlight the highest earner, we observe a reduction in risk sharing, while highlighting the lowest earner has no effects compared to providing neutral information. Our results indicate that the presence of social information and its framing is an important determinant of equilibrium in financial markets. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, laboratory experiments, risk taking, asset markets |
| JEL: | C92 D53 G11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190027&r=all |
| By: | Wu, Xiaolong |
| Abstract: | California has been a leader in adopting policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, for too long, businesses have been warning of key routes that are stretched to the breaking point. In many places across California, it takes only a single incident to cause chaos – for instance, a car accident across the intersection of I-5, I-10, and I-101. Fast-paced California businesses demand a transport network that can better cope with accidents, severe weather, not to mention ubiquitous earthquake threats. Therefore, the state is required to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and any challenges to normal operations. Sacramento should be tasked to immediately identify all of the places where the road and rail networks need urgent attention in their state-wide long-range transportation plans. In this study, a network model is developed to calculate reliability by considering the critical paths of a transportation network using the UCINET simulation tool. The implementation of this network model used two path failure strategies (selective and random) using the Betweenness Centrality as a metric. Their preliminary results show that the UCINET tool can be used to successfully estimate the reliability and to further identify the critical paths of a highway transportation network in California. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2hf1d9r7&r=all |
| By: | Lazarus, Jessica; Shaheen, Susan PhD; Young, Stanley; Fagnant, Daniel; Voege, Tom; Baumgardner, Will; Fishelson, James; Lott, Sam |
| Abstract: | Automated vehicle technology offers many opportunities to improve the quality of public transport. This chapter reviews key understanding and takeaways from an international workshop that took place in July 2016 at the Automated Vehicle Symposium in San Francisco, California, which focused on the ongoing development of shared automated mobility services and public transit. During the two-day workshop, speakers from the public and private sectors, academia, and nongovernmental organizations presented key findings from their work. Discussion centered around the implications of the convergence of shared mobility and vehicle automation on the future development of public transport, funding, pilots, and policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Shared mobility, automated vehicles, public transit |
| Date: | 2017–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt6589k2h1&r=all |
| By: | Scholl, Lynn; Martínez, Daniel; Mitnik, Oscar A.; Oviedo, Daniel; Yáñez-Pagans, Patricia |
| Abstract: | Despite the growing interest in and proliferation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems around the world, their causal impacts on labor market outcomes remain unexplored. Reduced travel times for those who live near BRT stations or near feeder lines, may increase access to a wider array of job opportunities, potentially leading to increased rates of employment, access to higher quality (or formal) jobs, and increased labor hours and earnings. This paper assesses the effects of the Metropolitano, a BRT system in Lima (Peru), on individual-level job market outcomes. We rely on a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, based on comparing individuals who live close to the BRT system with a comparison group that lives farther from the system, before and after the system started to operate. We find large impacts on employment, hours worked and labor earnings for those individuals close to the BRT stations, but not for those who live close to the feeder lines. Despite the potential to connect poor populations, we find no evidence of impacts for populations living in lower income areas. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:9452&r=all |
| By: | Daniel Cooper; María José Luengo-Prado; Jonathan A. Parker |
| Abstract: | Using variation in minimum wages across cities and controlling for differences in business-cycle factors and long-run local economic trends, we find that following minimum wage increases, both prices and nominal spending rise modestly. These gains are larger for certain sub-categories of goods such as food away from home and in locations where low-wage workers are a larger share of employment. Further, minimum wage increases are associated with reduced total debt among households with low credit scores, higher auto debt, and increased access to credit. |
| JEL: | D14 E20 E31 J20 J38 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25761&r=all |
| By: | Elton Davis (The Center for State and Local Finance, Georgia State University, USA); Isabel Ruthotto (The Center for State and Local Finance, Georgia State University, USA) |
| Abstract: | Georgia’s state and local governments each commit substantial financial resources toward public K-12 education, which served 1.7 million students in FY 2015. State and local government educational expenditures are greater than any other functional category within their budgets. This report begins with a review of Georgia’s traditional K-12 public school system structure, including the legal framework, local system organization, and a brief overview of the funding sources. Then, state, local, and federal sources used to finance K-12 education are explained. This includes how the various sources of revenue are utilized by school systems and the methods used by various government entities to determine their funding allocations. In reviewing the allocation methodology for school systems, the report has a stronger focus on state revenue sources due to the size and complexity of state financial support as compared to local and federal funding. The next section discusses the governance and funding sources for charter schools, and the final section concludes the report. |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:cslfwp:cslf1910&r=all |
| By: | Aultman-Hall, Lisa; Dowds, Jonathan; Ullman, Hannah |
| Abstract: | The relative share of passenger miles of travel undertaken during non-routine out-of-town longer-distance trips is large (potentially 30% or higher) and growing. Research on long-distance travel, whether by surface or air modes, has been limited in the United States by lack of data, in part because household travel survey data focuses on daily routine travel. Planners will need to take long-distance travel and its associated impacts into consideration if they hope to address policy questions related to transportation system sustainability. These impacts include environmental degradation from greenhouse gasses and other emissions, and raise challenging questions about who “owns†or is associated with these emissions. Equity impacts include the relationship between travel and quality of life. Intercity travel provides access to employment, education, and experiential opportunities. It also provides access to increasingly large and geographically dispersed social networks and the important face-to-face interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. This policy brief summarizes findings from the project, which had two main research questions. First, what is the best way to measure individuals’ long-distance travel in order to inform planning and policy? Second, what factors are associated with long-distance travel and do they suggest inequitable access to intercity and more distant destinations? This project relied on several innovative existing datasets, original interviews, and a unique survey of travel and social network geography. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, Data analysis, Data fusion, Intercity travel, Longitudinal studies, Travel behavior, Travel demand, Travel surveys |
| Date: | 2018–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt5t5263b7&r=all |
| By: | Batabyal, Amitrajeet; Nijkamp, Peter |
| Abstract: | We analyze aspects of long run economic growth in stylized lagging and leading regions. Both regions use physical capital, research and development (R&D), and knowledgeable workers to produce a final consumption good. The lagging region faces two key economic disadvantages. Specifically, the constant fractions of the output of the final consumption good that are saved to enhance the stocks of physical capital and R&D are assumed to be twice as large in the leading region as they are in the lagging region. In this scenario, we perform three tasks. First, we determine the ratio of the balanced growth path (BGP) value of output per knowledgeable worker in the leading region to its value in the lagging region. Second, we ascertain the ratio of the BGP value of R&D per knowledgeable worker in the leading region to its value in the lagging region. Finally, we show the extent to which the lagging region’s initial economic disadvantages are magnified on the BGP and then discuss some policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth, Lagging Region, Leading Region, Magnification Effect |
| JEL: | O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:93486&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Martin, Elliot Phd; Bansal, Apaar |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt7s8207tb&r=all |
| By: | Wong, Stephen; Shaheen, Susan PhD; Walker, Joan PhD |
| Abstract: | In September 2017, Hurricane Irma prompted one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history of over six million people. This mass movement of people, particularly in Florida, required considerable amounts of public resources and infrastructure to ensure the safety of all evacuees in both transportation and sheltering. Given the extent of the disaster and the evacuation, Hurricane Irma is an opportunity to add to the growing knowledge of evacuee behavior and the factors that influence a number of complex choices that individuals make before, during, and after a disaster. At the same time, emergency management agencies in Florida stand to gain considerable insight into their response strategies through a consolidation of effective practices and lessons learned. To explore these opportunities, we distributed an online survey (n = 645) across Florida with the help of local agencies through social media platforms, websites, and alert services. Areas impacted by Hurricane Irma were targeted for survey distribution. The survey also makes notable contributions by including questions related to reentry, a highly under-studied aspect of evacuations. To determine both evacuee and non-evacuee behavior, we analyze the survey data using descriptive statistics and discrete choice models. We conduct this analysis across a variety of critical evacuation choices including decisions related to evacuating or staying, departure timing, destination, evacuation shelter, transportation mode, route, and reentry timing. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Law |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt9370z127&r=all |
| By: | Moussa P. Blimpo (World Bank); Pedro Carneiro (University College London); Pamela Jervis (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Todd Pugatch (Oregon State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies two experiments of early childhood development programs in The Gambia: one increasing access to services, and another improving service quality. In the first experiment, new community-based early childhood development (ECD) centers were introduced to randomly chosen villages that had no pre-existing structured ECD services. In the second experiment, a randomly assigned subset of existing ECD centers received intensive provider training. We find no evidence that either intervention improved average levels of child development. Exploratory analysis suggests that, in fact, the first experiment, which increased access to relatively low quality ECD services, led to declines in child development among children from less disadvantaged households. Evidence supports that these households may have been steered away from better quality early childhood settings in their homes. |
| Keywords: | early childhood development, cognitive stimulation, teacher training, The Gambia, randomized control trials, Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool |
| JEL: | I25 I38 O15 O22 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-023&r=all |
| By: | Ioannou, Petros; Zhang, Yihang |
| Abstract: | The aim of this project is to use intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies that take into account the presence of trucks in the traffic flow, in order to improve impact on the environment by reducing fuel consumption and pollution levels in areas where the truck volume is relatively high. The work is divided into two parts. In the first part, we propose an integrated variable speed limit (VSL), ramp metering (RM) and lane change (LC) controller using feedback linearization. The proposed integrated controller keeps the bottleneck flow at the maximum level and homogenizes the density and speed of the traffic flow along the highway sections. This improvement of the traffic flow characteristics lead to improved fuel economy and reduction in tailpipe emissions of both trucks and passenger vehicles. In order to evaluate the performance of the integrated traffic controller, a microscopic traffic simulation network of the I-710 highway, which is connected to the Ports of Long Beach/Los Angeles and has high truck volume, is developed. We use Monte-Carlo traffic flow simulations to demonstrate that the integrated traffic controller can generate consistent improvements with respect to travel time, safety, fuel economy and emissions under different traffic conditions. In the second part, we compared the proposed feedback linearization controller with the widely-used model predictive traffic controller in terms of performance and robustness with respect to perturbations on traffic demand, model parameters and measurement noise. Results show that both controllers are able to improve the total time spent, which leads to improvements in fuel economy and emissions, under different levels of perturbation and noise. The feedback linearization controller however, guarantees good performance and robustness properties than the model predictive controller with much less computational effort. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Feedback control, Fuel consumption, Lane changing, Monte Carlo method, Pollutants, Ramp metering, Traffic flow, Trucks, Variable speed limits |
| Date: | 2018–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt2rr3b8mz&r=all |
| By: | Shaheen, Susan PhD; Cohen, Adam; Farrar, Emily |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt7p69d2bg&r=all |
| By: | Koling, Adam; Zhang, Wei-Bin; Zhou, Kun; Meng, Huadong |
| Abstract: | This report studied person throughput as an impact metric for proposed BRT routes under Caltrans jurisdiction, given the agency’s specific interest in preserving or improving the performance of particular state-owned corridors. It also introduces a simple spreadsheet tool to estimate a BRT project’s traffic impact and show how improved bus service can boost corridor performance. Representatives of Caltrans D4, D7, and D11 were interviewed after tentative development of the tool, expressed support of a transition towards person throughput, and offered feedback on how the tool might best suit most district employees’ needs. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Level of service, Bus rapid transit, Arterials |
| Date: | 2018–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt03s7k8ff&r=all |
| By: | Jesse Kalinowski (Quinnipiac University); Matthew B. Ross (New York University); Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Veil of Darkness tests identify discrimination by exploiting seasonal variation in the timing of sunset to compare the rate that minorities are stopped by police at the same hour of the day in daylight versus darkness. Such tests operate under the presumption that race is more easily observed by police prior to traffic stops during daylight relative to darkness. This paper addresses concerns that seasonal variation in traffic patterns could bias Veil of Darkness tests. The conventional approach to addressing seasonality is to restrict the sample to a window around Daylight Savings Time (DST) changes when the time of sunset is abruptly changed by one hour twice a year. However, this restriction reduces the variation in the timing of sunset potentially exacerbating measurement error in daylight and may still fail to address seasonality. The latter point is due to the fact that a substantial fraction of the seasonal change in daylight hours occur in the fall and spring (near DST) because of the elliptical nature of earth’s orbit. Therefore, we consider an alternative to simply restricting the sample to fall and spring where we instead apply an instrumental variables and fuzzy regression discontinuity approach. Our approach allows us to isolate the treatment effect associated with one hour of additional daylight on the share of police stops that are of African-American motorists. We find larger racial differences in Texas highway patrol stops using the regression discontinuity approach as compared to the annual sample, even though traditional approaches using the DST sample yield smaller estimates than the annual sample. The larger estimates are robust to the fall DST change sample, addressing concerns that motorists are tired and more accident prone immediately after the spring DST change. |
| Keywords: | Police, Traffic Stops, Seasonality, Measurement Error, Veil of Darkness, Racial Profiling, Racial Discrimination, Regression Discontinuity, Instrumental Variables |
| JEL: | K14 K42 J15 H11 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2019-07&r=all |
| By: | Hardman, Scott; Berliner, Rosaria M.; Tal, Gil |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to research investigating the impact of automated and partially automated vehicles on travel behavior. This contribution comes from taking a first look at the impact of partially/semi-automated (SAE Level 2) vehicles on travel behavior and potential correlations with vehicle miles travelled (VMT). The results of this study are taken from a questionnaire survey of 3,001 plug-in electric (PEV) owners in the USA, of which 347 own a partially-automated vehicle (e.g Tesla Model S with Autopilot). This study looks at the VMT of different vehicle types in the survey including plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and semi-automated BEVs. This comparison reveals that semi-automated BEVs have significantly higher VMT compared to other vehicle types. Least squares regression is used to understand VMT in semi-automated BEVs further. This reveals a significant relationship between commute distance, age, household income, house type, and the frequency of autopilot use, and annual VMT. It is possible that the results are showing a self-selection causality as owners of these vehicles already drove more prior to them selecting a semi-automated BEV. Nevertheless, this model indicates that as the frequency of autopilot use increases, so does annual VMT. Due to the potential for two ways causality this study cannot determine whether there is a causal relationship between the use of semi-automated vehicle technology and additional VMT. It is hoped that this first look at the impact of partially-automated BEVs will encourage more research and debate in this area with the aim of improving policy responses to partially and fully automated vehicles. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2018–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt6kt1j7gj&r=all |
| By: | Angela Cools; Raquel Fernández; Eleonora Patacchini |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of exposure to female and male “high-achievers” in high school on the long-run educational outcomes of their peers. Using data from a recent cohort of students in the United States, we identify a causal effect by exploiting quasi-random variation in the exposure of students to peers with highly educated parents across cohorts within a school. We find that greater exposure to “high-achieving” boys, as proxied by their parents' education, decreases the likelihood that girls go on to complete a bachelor's degree, substituting the latter with junior college degrees. It also affects negatively their math and science grades and, in the long term, decreases labor force participation and increases fertility. We explore possible mechanisms and find that greater exposure leads to lower self-confidence and aspirations and to more risky behavior (including having a child before age 18). The girls most strongly affected are those in the bottom half of the ability distribution (as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), those with at least one college-educated parent, and those attending a school in the upper half of the socioeconomic distribution. The effects are quantitatively important: an increase of one standard deviation in the percent of “high-achieving” boys decreases the probability of obtaining a bachelor's degree from 2.2-4.5 percentage points, depending on the group. Greater exposure to “high-achieving” girls, on the other hand, increases bachelor's degree attainment for girls in the lower half of the ability distribution, those without a college-educated parent, and those attending a school in the upper half of the socio-economic distribution. The effect of “high-achievers” on male outcomes is markedly different: boys are unaffected by “high-achievers” of either gender. |
| JEL: | I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25763&r=all |
| By: | Hao, Peng; Wang, Chao |
| Abstract: | Traffic congestion at arterial intersections and freeway bottlenecks degrades the air quality and threatens the public health. Conventionally, air pollutants are monitored by sparsely distributed Quality Assurance Air Monitoring Sites. Sparse mobile crowd-sourced data, such as cellular network and Global Positioning System (GPS) data, contain large amount of traffic information, but have low sampling rate and penetration rate due to the cost limit on data transmission and archiving. The sparse mobile data provide a supplement or alternative approach to evaluate the environmental impact of traffic congestion. This research establishes a framework for traffic-related air pollution evaluation using sparse mobile data and traffic volume data from California Performance Measurement System (PeMS) and Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). The proposed framework integrates traffic state model, emission model and dispersion model. An effective tool is developed to evaluate the environmental impact of traffic congestion for both arterials and freeways in an accurate, timely and economic way. The proposed methods have good performance in estimating monthly peak hour fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) concentration, with error of 2 ug/m3 from the measurement from monitor sites. The estimated spatial distribution of annual PM 2.5 concentration also matches well with the concentration map from California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen), but with higher resolution. The proposed system will help transportation operators and public health officials alleviate the risk of air pollution, and can serve as a platform for the development of other potential applications. |
| Keywords: | Engineering |
| Date: | 2018–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt7q6760rz&r=all |
| By: | Seeherman, Joshua; Anderson, Paul |
| Abstract: | Freeway traffic is subject to the effects of recurring and non-recurring events. Changes in the traffic stream as a result of recurring special events, specifically sports, is an area that is not well researched. This study examined freeway detectors adjacent to two baseball stadiums in California to analyze the contribution of a baseball game to freeway flow and occupancy for weekday evening games.  In addition, hourly volumes on local rail transit were analyzed in the San Francisco case. Findings include a statistically significant effect of baseball increasing the flow by approximately 1,000 vehicles over the afternoon commute in both locations. San Francisco volumes were influenced by day-of-week, type of opponent, as well as starting pitcher. Games on a Friday against their noted rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers produced the highest volumes with 4,000 vehicles more than the average weekday evening baseball game.  Anaheim volumes were only affected by month-of-year. As cities explore transportation options to their sporting venues, it is important to take an inventory of the impact of events on the existing network. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Special events, baseball, freeways, traffic, California |
| Date: | 2017–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt40k7x1xc&r=all |