A cross-country study of fairness and infringement on freedom as determinants of car owners' acceptance of road pricing

Jakobsson et al. (2000) found that in Sweden public acceptance of road pricing decreases if it is perceived to be unfair and to infringe on freedom. The present study reports a survey investigating whether the same effects are found in the Asian countries of Japan and Taiwan. The results indicate that fairness plays the same role. However, income had a direct effect on acceptance in Taiwan but not in Japan or Sweden.     

Analysis of the environmental benefits of a motorcycle idling stop policy at urban intersections

In an attempt to reduce CO₂ emissions from motorized transport, the Taiwanese government introduced an idling stop policy for vehicles in early 2007. This paper seeks to quantify the environmental benefits of the policy based on a stated preference analysis. Motorcyclists were surveyed at urban intersections in Taiwan, to identify the amount of time they would be willing to turn off their engines while waiting at traffic lights (the WTO). A contingent valuation framework based on stated preference questions was designed to determine the WTO. Results obtained from the Spike model showed that the average motorcyclist’s WTO is 82 s. In another analysis, in which other variables were taken into consideration, such as the possibility that the policy will be enacted as legislation, the expected WTO increased to 101 s. In both cases, an idling stop policy would have positive environmental effects, reducing gasoline usage by 1021 L per hour and reducing CO₂ emissions by 0.56 metric tons per hour at the intersection studied during peak periods.     

Freeway drivers’ willingness-to-pay for a distance-based toll rate

This paper applies the contingent valuation method to investigate and estimate the toll rate that freeway drivers are willing-to-pay (WTP) for each unit of distance they travel, after switching from per-entry based to distance-based tolling system. Due to a large portion of respondents who are unwilling to pay a toll at all, we adopt the spike model to avoid estimation errors. The estimation results show that average willingness to pay toll is TWD¹ 0.86/km, which can be refined further to TWD 0.81/km for short distance travelers, TWD 0.93/km for medium distance travelers, and TWD 0.97/km for long distance travelers. Additionally, the WTP toll rate of short distance travelers is significantly different on public holidays but not during peak hours. In contrast, the WTP toll rates of medium and long distance travelers significantly different during peak hours but not on public holidays.     

A Novel Method to Predict Traffic Features Based on Rolling Self-Structured Traffic Patterns

In this study, a novel method is proposed to predict the traffic features in a long freeway corridor with a number of time steps ahead. The proposed method, on the basis of rolling self-structured traffic patterns, utilizes the growing hierarchical self-organizing map model to partition the unlabeled traffic patterns into an appropriate number of clusters and then develops the genetic programming model for each cluster to predict its corresponding traffic features. For demonstration, the proposed method is tested against a 110-km freeway stretch, on which 48 time steps of 5-min traffic flows are predicted (i.e., a 4-h prediction). The prediction accuracy of the proposed method is compared with other models (ARIMA, SARIMA, and naive models) and the results support the superiority of the proposed method. Further analyses indicate that applications of the proposed method to larger scale freeway networks require sufficient lengths of observation to acquire enough traffic patterns for training and validation in order to achieve higher prediction accuracy.     

A study of motorcyclist's idling stop behavior at red lights

Abstract

Motorcycle activity in Asian economies is a significant contributor to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, both when moving and when idling at traffic lights. This paper investigates Taiwanese motorcyclists’ behavior of turning off the idling engine while stopping at traffic lights based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), which recognizes that the achievement of voluntary change behavior can be identified by knowing an individual's attitudes (or behavioral intentions [BIs]) in the context of social norms (SN). A structural equation model system is used to identify candidate causal links between attitudes, SN, BI and behavior related to the idling stop behavior of motorcyclists. A partial least squares (PLS) model is built to correct the covariance matrix, given the relatively small sample size. Results suggest that attitudes, SN and perceived behavioral control, are significant determinants of idling stop BI at red lights.     

Route Choice Behaviour of Freeway Travellers Under Real-time Traffic Information Provision – Application of the Best Route and the Habitual Route Choice Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper investigates route choice behaviour on freeways between Taipei and Taichung in Taiwan under the provision of real-time traffic information. Two types of route choice selection rules (the best-route and habitual-route) are analysed using ordered probit models to identify the major influences on freeway travellers’ route choice behaviour. The level of service associated with each route is defined as a generalised cost saving (GCS) and specified non-linearly with a threshold inherent to travellers. The marginal (dis)utility thresholds in the ‘best’ and ‘habitual’ behaviour models are identified through a goodness-of-fit grid. The results confirm that the thresholds for changing the inertia behaviour of drivers should be larger than the ones for choosing the best routes. In addition, the drivers are more likely to choose either the best or the habitual routes once the GCS are greater than the identified threshold values.     

Modeling the impact of pre-trip information on commuter departure time and route choice

The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of pre-trip information on auto commuters’ choice behavior. The analysis is based on an extensive home-interview survey of commuters in the Taichung metropolitan area in Taiwan. A joint model for route and departure time decisions with and without pre-trip information is formulated. The model specifications are developed for both the systematic and random components. In particular, econometric issues associated with specifying the random error structure are addressed for parameter estimation purposes. Insights into the effects of attributes are obtained through the analysis of the model's performance and estimated parameter values. A probit model form is used for the joint model, allowing the introduction of state dependence and correlation in the model specification. The results underscore the important relationship between the different characteristics and the propensity of commuter choice behavior under two scenarios, with and without pre-trip information.     

Integrated modeling of car/motorcycle ownership, type and usage for estimating energy consumption and emissions

Devising effective management strategies to relieve dependency on private vehicles, i.e. cars and motorcycles, depends on the ability to accurately and carefully examine the effects of corresponding strategies. Disaggregate choice models regarding the ownership, type and usage of cars and motorcycles are required to achieve this. Consequently, this study proposes integrated car and motorcycle models based on a large-scale questionnaire survey of Taiwanese owners of cars and motorcycles, respectively. Incorporating gas mileage and emission coefficients for different types of cars and motorcycles into the proposed models can enable the estimation and comparison of reductions in energy consumption and emissions under various management strategies. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed integrated models, scenarios involving 10% and 30% increases in gas prices are analyzed and compared. The results indicate that gas price elasticities of cars and motorcycles are low, ranging from 0.47 to 0.50 for cars and 0.11 for motorcycles. Additionally, a high ratio of discouraged car users shifting to use of motorcycles neutralizes the effects of increased gas price in reducing energy consumption and emissions. Pollution of CO and HC even slightly increased because motorcycles are much more polluting in terms of CO and HC. At last, the reductions of energy consumption and emissions under 10% and 30% increase (or decrease) in other manipulating variables are also estimated and compared. The countermeasures for reducing ownership and usage of cars and motorcycles are then recommended accordingly.     

The asymmetric income effect on household vehicle ownership in Taiwan: A threshold cointegration approach

This paper uses the asymmetric threshold cointegration test to examine the asymmetric relationship between household income and vehicle ownership in Taiwan, presenting estimated asymmetric error correction models. The empirical data include information on household income, car ownership and motorcycle ownership in different regions from 1974 to 2009. The results show that, first, motorcycle ownership is asymmetrically cointegrated with household income in each region, and car ownership is asymmetrically cointegrated with household income in all regions except Taipei city. Second, both car and motorcycle ownership levels increase faster than they decrease in the asymmetric adjustment of their long-run relationship. Third, sensitivity tests for the period 1987-2009 show that the cointegration relationship of the car ownership equations vanished. Finally, we find evidence on the effects of household income on motorcycle ownership, and the effects of income variables on car and motorcycle ownership are dissimilar. This study exhibits different results across regions. These findings may be related to the development of public transit system in each region.     

Using fuzzy logic controller and evolutionary genetic algorithm for automotive active suspension system

This study designs a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) for an active automobile suspension system in which the membership functions and control rules are optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA). The objective of the FLC is to strike an optimal balance between the ride comfort and the vehicle stability. The values of the crossover and mutation parameters in the GA are adapted dynamically during the convergence procedure using a fuzzy control scheme. The convergence state of the GA is determined by using a support vector machine (SVM) method to identify the variation in each of the genes of the best-fit GA chromosome following each iteration loop. The feasibility of the proposed GA-assisted FLC scheme is verified by performing a series of numerical simulations in which the characteristics of the controlled plant are compared with those observed in a passive suspension system and obtained under an optimal linear feedback controller. The results demonstrate that the GA-assisted FLC results in a lower suspension deflection, a reduced sprung mass acceleration and a lower bouncing distance between the tire and the ground.