Investigation of carriers’ ability to transfer toll increases: an empirical analysis of freight agents’ relative market power

Transportation - Design of effective freight policies requires a comprehensive understanding of freight agents’ interactions. A critical component of the interaction is the freight...     

Uncertain demand,modal competition and optimal price-capacity adjustments in air transportation

A new microeconomic model for the operation of an airline facing modal competition with uncertain total demand is developed to analyze optimal price capacity combinations. The novelty is the treatment of the capacity restriction, which is not viewed as affecting negatively individual preferences (e.g. probability of a full flight), but does influence aggregate utility. A mode choice model is used to represent unrestricted individual preferences assuming full availability (phone call demand); air capacity is treated as a variable that acts on the actual choice set. Restricted choices and total demand stochasticity are integrated in welfare calculations (users' benefits and profits). Numerical examples are given and results are analyzed in terms of load factors fare levels, and sensitivity to the stochasticity of requests.This research was partially funded by FONDECYT, Chile, Direction Génerale de l'Aviation Civile, France, the Andes Foundation and the Fulbright Commission.     

Specification,transferability and the effect of data outliers in modeling the choice of mode in urban travel

Three problems of great importance to urban travel demand modeling using multinominal logit models are examined in this paper. They are (1) the effect of data outliers on model coefficients; (2) the effect of model specification on coefficients and model explanatory power; and (3) the transferability of model coefficients within the region, between regions, and in time.Four data sets are used in the study. They are: Washington, D.C., Minneapolis-St. Paul, and two data sets from the San Francisco Bay Area, Pre-BART and Post-BART. The data are standard home-interview survey data appended with network supplied modal travel cost and time information.The findings of the research are occasionally contradictory; the majority of the evidence supports the following conclusions. The outliers do not have a statistically significant effect (at 0.05 level) on the coefficients; however, the outliers can have a substantial effect on the point estimates of some of the coefficients. Model specification has an impact on model coefficients and model explanatory power. In particular, the definition of out-of-vehicle travel time appears to be important and, if available, the use of separate walk and wait times is preferred over their sum, the out-of-vehicle time. Finally, the model coefficients do not appear transferable within region, between regions, or in time.Research was supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, through grant 74-12-8 to the Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley and by the National Science Foundation, through grant APR 74-20392, Research Applied to National Needs Program, to the University of California, Berkeley.     

Walking to the bus: perceived versus actual walking distance to bus stops for older adults

The walking trip from an origin or destination to a bus stop or transit station can be a barrier to riding transit for older adults (over age 60) who may walk more slowly than others or experience declining physical mobility. This article examines the relationship between transit ridership and proximity to fixed-route transit stations using survey data for older adults in Buffalo and Erie County, New York. Demographic and socio-economic characteristics—including age, sex, race, income, possessing a driver’s license, frequency of leaving home, and personal mobility limitations—are tested but do not display, in bi-variate analysis, statistically significant differences for transit riders versus non-transit riders. However, features of the built environment—including distance (actual and perceived) between home and transit stop, transit service level, population density, number of street intersections, metropolitan location, and neighborhood crime (property and violent) rate—display statistically significant differences for transit riders versus non-transit riders. Both objective and perceived walking distances to access fixed-route transit show statistically significant differences between transit riders and non-transit riders. Average walking distance from home to transit for non-transit riders—who mostly live in suburbs—is three times greater than average walking distance between home and the nearest transit stop for transit riders—who mostly live in the central city. When asked how near a bus stop is to their homes, transit riders slightly overestimate the actual distance, while non-transit riders underestimate the distance.     

Urban walkability considering pedestrians’ perceptions of the built environment: a 10-year review and a case study in a medium-sized city in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Numerous methodologies measuring walkability have been developed over the last years. This paper reviews the Walkability Index (WI) literature of the last decade (2009–2018) and highlights some limitations in the current approaches. Only a few studies have evaluated walkability in Latin America, mainly in big cities but not in medium and small-sized cities in the region, which present their own urbanisation dynamics, security issues, sidewalk invasion problems, and poor planning. Furthermore, most WIs in the literature use objective mesoscale variables to assess walkability in a given area. This paper contributes to filling these gaps by generating new evidence from a medium-sized city in Latin America to question if characteristics of the built environment encourage walking trips, as found in the literature, are transferable among regions. The study also proposes a novel index comprised of microscale and mesoscale built environment variables to assess walkability using virtual tools and considering users’ perceptions. The WI estimation relies on ranking probability models. The results of the case study suggest that subjective Security and Traffic Safety are the most crucial factors influencing walkability in these kind of cities, which is different from what is found in the literature from cities in developed countries where Sidewalk Condition and Attractiveness are the most important factors. Security appeared to be strongly associated with a subjective dimension, represented by the fear of crime or perceived risk for crime, instead of the actual occurrence of crimes. This result evidences the importance of the physical attributes of the real world and how they are captured, judged, and processed by pedestrians. Then, regional transferability of WIs needs to be done carefully. Finally, results in this paper highlight the importance of microscale built environment characteristics in the WI formulation in these cities. Results are in line with other research in some cities of the region, which found that microscale variables such as pavement quality and presence of obstacles on the sidewalks are relevant components to promote walkability.     

Estimating the value of risk reductions for car drivers when pedestrians are involved: a case study in Spain

We estimated the benefits associated with reducing fatal and severe injuries from traffic accidents using a stated choice experiment where choice situations were generated through a statistically efficient design. Specifically, the risk variables were defined as the expected annual number of vehicle car-users that suffered their death or were severely injured in a traffic accident. In addition, and differing from previous research, the number of pedestrians that died or were severely injured in traffic accidents per year was also included as a risk attribute in the choice experiment, to attempt at measuring drivers’ willingness to pay to reduce the risk of hitting pedestrians in a crash. The empirical setting was a choice of route for a particular trip that a sample of car drivers periodically undertakes in Tenerife, Spain. Models were estimated accounting for random taste heterogeneity and pseudo-panel data correlation. The median of the distribution of simulated parameters was used to obtain a representative measure for the monetary valuation of risk reductions. We found that the ratio between the values of reducing the risk of suffering a serious injury and that of reducing a fatality was approximately 18 %. Further, and quite novel, we also found that the value of reducing a pedestrian fatality was 39 % of the value of reducing a car occupant fatality.     

Environmental and transport effects of warehouse relocationing: evidence from Norway

Reducing traffic volumes and CO2-emissions from freight transport has proven difficult in many countries. Although the increasing suburbanization of warehouses is seen as a relevant land use trend, comprehensive analyses of their impact remain scarce. This study uses real data in modeling transport, costs, environmental and modal effects from warehouse relocations around Oslo and Trondheim (Norway). Results indicate that for Oslo, traffic performance (ton-km), CO2-emissions, and transport costs increase following warehouse suburbanization. For Trondheim, transport performance and CO2-emissions increase less, while transport costs decrease marginally. We conclude that specific case characteristics (geography and trade patterns) are important in determining the strength and direction of effects, and expect that common concomitant developments (warehouse centralization and consolidation) would lead to more pronounced results. Our findings confirm some, but challenge other, findings from the relatively scarcely literature available. Finally, the study's more general insights and observations can help advance similar analyses beyond Norway.     

A comparison of modelled and real-life driving profiles for the simulation of railway vehicle operation

A key factor in determining the performance of a railway system is the speed profile of the trains within the network. There can be significant variation in this speed profile for identical trains on identical routes, depending on how the train is driven. A better understanding and control of speed profiles can therefore offer significant potential for improvements in the performance of railway systems. This paper develops a model to allow the variability of real-life driving profiles of railway vehicles to be quantitatively described and predicted, in order to better account for the effects on the speed profile of the train and hence the performance of the railway network as a whole. The model is validated against data from the Tyne and Wear Metro, and replicates the measured data to a good degree of accuracy.     

Does transport help people to gain employment? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence

ABSTRACT

The role of transport in providing access to employment has received considerable attention. Since transport policies may be motivated by assumed effects on employment probability outcomes, it is important to establish the nature of the relationship between transport and employment outcomes. While the majority of the empirical evidence suggests a positive association, it is not conclusive or consistent and often shows mixed results. To address this confusion, our study has systematically reviewed this evidence base and synthesised it through meta-analysis. We first identified 93 studies that quantitatively assessed the impact of transport on employment outcomes. By systematically merging the empirical evidence, this study establishes a positive association between transport and employment outcomes, with varying effects for four identified categories of transport measures (or combinations thereof): car ownership, public transport access, commute times, and job accessibility levels. This positive association persists in studies that control for endogeneity between transport and employment, but a larger evidence base is needed to establish a more robust relationship, in particular for cities and smaller (rural) areas outside the US-context and with regard to public transport. We then selected 20 methodologically comparable studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Our meta-regression models clearly demonstrate that car ownership significantly increases individual employment probabilities, in particular among welfare recipients. Young drivers benefit from access to household cars when these are not in use by their parents, and they are more sensitive to the time and cost implications of longer commutes. While our systematic review suggests that better access to public transport and higher levels of job accessibility increases employment probabilities, meta-regression analysis requires more consistent transport measures. The findings in this study are important for policymakers in that they imply that job seekers may benefit from public policies targeted at improving their access to public transport, in particular for people without access to cars and in areas with fewer job opportunities.