Do maritime passengers’ subsidies in Europe affect prices?

Some European governments subsidize their residents when they travel at sea. This paper seeks to analyze the impact on prices of maritime passengers’ subsidies in Europe. Following a review of the scarce academic literature on this topic and the subsidy scheme in Europe, a sample of firms’ prices and other characteristics of 40 European routes for 2016 are analyzed. Both an estimation of a price equation and a matching approach are applied and reach the same conclusion: prices per kilometer are around 40 per cent higher on those subsidized routes due to subsidies. This outcome reduces the potential subsidy gain to consumers.     

An analysis of the Spanish high capacity road network criticality

The analysis of complex networks has been carried out in different fields using an ample variety of method and concepts. Recently, in the general literature of regional economics, the concepts of resilience, connectivity, vulnerability and criticality have been gaining their momentum. The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical framework, using well-known accessibility indicators, in order to calculate the critical links or road sections of the Spanish high-capacity road network. Our analysis will be based on approximately four hundred sections that will be classified in five different groups according to their criticality degree in the whole network. Our analysis will be complemented with the comparison of the results obtained in five different scenarios, namely the average criticality using the effects on the whole country, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Pontevedra. Furthermore, the paper will also analyze what kind of intrinsic characteristics of the sections favor or not the links’ criticality using a method based on a classification and regression tree. This analysis is crucial to understand other important concepts that are recently being studied in network and spatial economics, like, for example, resilience and vulnerability. It is concluded that the number of relations or routes, being a trunk or not, the road density and the time to Madrid capital play an important role in the criticality of the roads section in the high capacity road network.     

A behavioral choice model of the use of car-sharing and ride-sourcing services

There are a number of disruptive mobility services that are increasingly finding their way into the marketplace. Two key examples of such services are car-sharing services and ride-sourcing services. In an effort to better understand the influence of various exogenous socio-economic and demographic variables on the frequency of use of ride-sourcing and car-sharing services, this paper presents a bivariate ordered probit model estimated on a survey data set derived from the 2014–2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study. Model estimation results show that users of these services tend to be young, well-educated, higher-income, working individuals residing in higher-density areas. There are significant interaction effects reflecting the influence of children and the built environment on disruptive mobility service usage. The model developed in this paper provides key insights into factors affecting market penetration of these services, and can be integrated in larger travel forecasting model systems to better predict the adoption and use of mobility-on-demand services.     

Intermodal exchange stations in the city of Madrid

The City of Madrid is putting into operation Intermodal Exchange Stations (IESs) to make connections between urban and suburban transportation modes easier for users of public transportation. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the actual effects that the implementation of IESs in the City of Madrid has on the affected stakeholders: users, public transportation operators, infrastructure managers, the government, the abutters and other citizens. We develop a methodology intended to help assess the welfare gains and losses for each stakeholder. Then we apply this methodology to the case study of the Avenida de América IES in the city of Madrid. We found that it is indeed possible to arrive at win?Cwin solutions for the funding of urban transportation infrastructure, as long as the cost-benefit ratio of the project is high enough. Commuters save travel time. Bus companies diminish their costs of operation. The abutters gain in quality of life. The private operator of the infrastructure makes a fair profit. And the government is able to promote these infrastructure facilities without spending more of its scarce budgetary resources.     

Optimal distribution of financial incentives to foster off-hour deliveries in urban areas

The main objective of this paper is to develop mathematical formulations to gain insight into the best way to distribute financial incentives to receivers of urban deliveries to maximize participation in off-hour deliveries. The paper considers two different types of incentive budgets: exogenous, and endogenous. The exogenous case represents the condition in which an external decision maker determines the incentive budget that is to be distributed among potential participants in off-hour deliveries. In the case of an endogenous incentive budget, the entity distributing the incentives must raise the necessary funds using revenue generation mechanisms such as tolls and fines. The optimal incentives are obtained from the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions of a mathematical program that maximizes the number of truck trips shifted to the off-hours as a function of the incentives. The mathematical models developed in this paper provide guidelines about how to optimally distribute financial incentives to foster off-hour deliveries.     

A Computational Procedure for Non-Linear Dynamic Analysis of Vehicles

In the research and design of vehicles, the accurate simulation of their dynamic behaviour is often of interest. Therefore, on the one hand, the non-linear properties of suspensions and tyres may not be neglected. On the other hand, the application of large mechanical models is necessary in order to get correct information about the local dynamic behaviour of critical parts or elements of vehicles. With regard to these requirements, in this paper, a special computational procedure is presented for the non-linear dynamic analysis of vehicles using large finite element models. Correctness, in comparison to COSMOS/M commercial finite element program, and applicability of the presented procedure is shown by the use of a bus finite element model containing 2214 degrees of freedom.     

ces for the Cenozoic evoluti

day. Base on the new field works in Shuanghu and Tuotuohe regions of central Tibet by us and the datum have been obtained by other researches on the grabens. We proposed that, the graben structures are distributed in the most part of plateau; including Himalayan, Gangdese and Qian     

An optical tire contact pressure test bench

An optical tire contact pressure test bench developed by the IMMa group is described. The measurement system is based on the frustration of total internal reflection (FTIR) of light. The test bench allows performing normal pressure distribution and patch contact shape measurements on passenger car tires. The system is based on the use of a laterally illuminated glass on which the tire leans. Between them a plastic interphase is located that will cause the FTIR of light. A video camera catches the formed shining image through the glass. The brightness level in each pixel of the image can be related to the existing normal pressure. The study of the contact patch provided by the bench makes it possible to characterize tire behaviour under different loading states, inflation pressure, tire defects and toe and camber angles. The bench incorporates a computerized load and control system of the tire operation parameters, an image acquisition module and a data acquisition system that allow monitoring and acting on the experimental variables of interest in the tests such as load on the tire and environmental conditions. A supporting mechanical system incorporated to the bench allows providing the tire with variable toe and camber angles. From the images obtained with this system, the maximum normal pressure points, total force, size and shape of the patch can be determined, which are related to the tire-use conditions. As an application example, results that show the patch size and shape under different load and tire inflation pressures are presented. A further application, which is the use of the system for the detection and study of defective tires is also presented.     

Understanding suburban travel demand: Flexible modelling with revealed and stated choice data

We analyse the choice of mode in suburban corridors using nested logit specifications with revealed and stated preference data. The latter were obtained from a choice experiment between car and bus, which allowed for interactions among the main policy variables: travel cost, travel time and frequency. The experiment also included parking cost and comfort attributes. The attribute levels in the experiment were adapted to travellers’ experience using their revealed preference information. Different model specifications were tested accounting for the presence of income effect, systematic taste variation, and incorporating the effect of latent variables. We also derived willingness-to-pay measures, such as the subjective value of time, that vary among individuals as well as elasticity values. Finally, we analysed the demand response to various policy scenarios that favour public transport use by considering improvements in level-of-service, fare reductions and/or increases in parking costs. In general, demand was shown to be more sensitive to policies that penalise the private car than those improving public transport.