Public transport policy for central-city travel in the light of recent experiences of congestion charging

Excellent public transport which makes the private car a minority mode of central-city travel is a necessary condition for a political process towards the introduction of congestion charges. However, the charging system costs in London and Stockholm have proved to be unexpectedly high. Therefore, before these costs come down to an affordable level, zero-fares for central-city travel and stricter parking policy would be a first-best combination in many cities, always provided that the public transport is really competitive. A bold venture in public transport development is consequently the top priority irrespective of the transport pricing policy direction.     

城市中心历史风貌保护区停车管理策略研究

为更好保护城市中心历史风貌,解决复杂的停车供需矛盾问题,通过分析城市中心历史风貌保护区交通特性及主要停车问题并借鉴发达国家老城区停车管理经验,提出了停车管理策略的总体理念原则,探讨了策略的制定和实施。研究认为,城市中心历史风貌保护区停车管理应从保护历史风貌出发,进行全过程、全方位、多层次的系统管理。实践表明,该策略为科学进行此类区域停车管理提供了系统思路,收效良好,有利于缓解区域交通拥挤。     

Part I: Externalities and economic policies in road transport

Road transport imposes negative externalities on society. These externalities include environmental and road damage, accidents, congestion, and oil dependence. The cost of these externalities to society is in general not reflected in the current market prices in the road transport sector.An efficient mobility model for the future must take into account the true costs of transport and its regulatory framework will need to create incentives for people to make sustainable transport choices. This paper discusses the use of economic instruments to correct road transport externalities, but gives relatively more weight to the problem of carbon emissions from road transport, as this is particularly challenging, given its global and long-term nature.Economics offers two types of instruments for addressing the problem of transport externalities: command-and-control and incentive-based policies.Command-and-control policies are government regulations which force consumers and producers to change their behaviour. They are the most widely used policy instruments. Examples include vehicle emission and fuel standards in the US as well as driving or parking restrictions in Singapore. The implementation cost of these instruments to the government is small. Although from an economic perspective these policies often fail to achieve an efficient market outcome, the presence of political constraints often make them the preferred option, in terms of feasibility and effectiveness.Economic theory shows how policies, which affect consumption and production incentives, can be used to achieve the optimal outcome in the presence of externalities. Incentive-based policies function within a new or an altered market. We first examine incentive-based policies, which cap the aggregate amount of the externality, such as carbon emissions, by allocating permits or rights to the emitters. The emitters are then free to trade their permits amongst them. The permit allocation mechanism is important-although market efficiency would be satisfied by an auction, political influences usually favour a proportional allocation based on historic emissions. We discuss EU ETS as an example of a cap-and-trade system, however, no such policy for CO₂ emissions in road transport has been implemented anywhere in the world to date.Fiscal instruments are, like command-and-control, widely used in road transport, because they are relatively cheap and simple to implement. They include the use of taxes and charges in order to bridge the gap between private and the social costs and, in principle, can lead to an efficient market solution. Registration, ownership, fuel, emissions, usage taxes, and parking and congestion charges have been implemented in many countries around the world. On the other side of the spectrum, subsidies can be given to those scrapping old cars and buying fuel-efficient vehicles. Some cities, such as London, have implemented congestion charges and many states in the United States have introduced high occupancy lanes. Other interesting possibilities include pay-as-you-drive insurance and other usage charges. However, the size and scope of taxes and subsidies are determined by governments, and because of their imperfect knowledge of the market the outcome is still likely to be inefficient.Governments have many effective economic instruments to create a sustainable road transport model. These instruments can be used separately or together, but their implementation will be necessary in the nearest future.     

The efficiency of congestion charging: Some lessons from cost–benefit analyses

This paper addresses methodological issues in cost–benefit analysis (CBA) regarding congestion charging schemes. Despite suspicion on the reality of travel time savings, it is argued that these savings are a conservative value of surplus gained from a congestion scheme. The methodology of measurement of travel time reliability is not yet stabilised, but the literature review suggests that it may take a growing share of benefits in the future. Sensitivity tests performed on the London and Stockholm case studies with a simulation model underline the need to accurately measure speeds, while the value of travel time appears less critical. Finally, the impact of costs of public funds on public accounts is greatly significant and may increase in the future.     

Violation or strengthening of the self-financing doctrine at international airports by SMCP funded PPP schemes?

International airports are among the few examples of transport infrastructures which can well achieve self-financing. The growing interest of private companies in airport construction and operation is the visible testimony to this fact. However, the financing structures of airports are complex, involving not only traffic, passenger and goods handling, but also non-aviation services, such as retail, car parking or intermodal facilities. The integration of social marginal cost pricing schemes into this organizational structure according to the strategic plans of the European Commission, however, is challenging. This paper investigates whether they comply with a second strategic policy objective at European and national level, which is to foster public-private partnerships (PPPs) in transport financing in terms of full cost coverage, risks and incentives.The cases analysed in this paper deal with two sites with very different characteristics: Munich Airport which has been publicly operated since 1991 and the Bulgarian airports Varna and Burgas, which have been managed since 2007 by one concessionaire and whose planning and future development is being accomplished with private capital. The results of both cases showed that self-financing is possible in case congestion costs are considered in the SMCP schemes, and given that air traffic growth rates return to the significant levels prior to the economic crisis. The chapter will discuss the legal implications of congestion pricing at European airports which are violating current EC legislation, as well as the impact of alternative pricing schemes on the environmental performance and technological innovation in aviation.     

昆明市一二一大街与学府路片区单向交通方案优化研究

单向交通是一种缓解城市交通拥堵、提高道路通行能力的经济而有效的交通组织方法。针对昆明市一二一大街与学府路片区在实施单向交通后的交通现状,从宏观和微观两个层面系统地分析了该路段存在的交通问题,对现行单向交通方案提出了综合优化措施。     

城市大型综合医院交通问题剖析及解决对策研究

近年来,随着城市化、机动化的快速发展,大型综合医院普遍存在的停车难、交通拥堵问题,逐步影响着市民日常生活,也限制了医院的可持续发展。文中以深圳为例,结合大量实地调查,对医院交通现状及共性问题深入分析。在此基础上,以医院现状交通问题和交通出行需求为双导向,遵循差异化、人本化的基本原则,从完善交通设施、调整停车供需、优化交通组织以及强化交通管理等方面提出相应的解决对策。     

厦门快速公交系统的功能定位

结合厦门的城市规模及经济水平、居民的出行方式、城市道路条件等自身条件，对厦门快速交通系统（BRT）进行了合理的功能定位，并介绍了厦门BRT一期工程情况。实践证明，厦门BRT定位准确，对改善出行条件、缓解交通拥堵及提高出行效率起到很大作用，为破解城市交通难问题做出了有益尝试，充分体现了BRT“大容量、安全、便捷、准时、舒适”的特点。     

Examining the linkages between electronic roadway tolling technologies and road pricing policy objectives

The surge of road pricing projects in the U.S. and around the globe over the past 15 years has been enabled by a variety of new communication and transportation technologies. While all of these technologies increase the efficiency of roadway tolling vis-à-vis manual collection, no “best” configuration has emerged. Rather, optimal configurations depend on the objectives of the tolling effort, such as facility type, geographic scope, desire to price externalities, integration with other operations, and so on. While such policy objectives for road pricing have been examined extensively, little has been written on the explicit links between tolling technology configurations and policy objectives. This paper addresses this gap in the literature through an examination of eight road pricing programs. For each program we evaluate the conduct of the three technical tasks via the nine technology sets in light of six principal policy objectives of road pricing.     

城市宏观交通组织思路及方法

阐述了城市宏观交通组织对解决城市交通问题的意义,在此基础上,从道路可接受服务水平、交通组织措施优选和拥堵范围3个角度分析了城市宏观交通组织方案的设计思路,给出了较完整的交通组织方案设计流程,并将其模拟应用于重庆朝天门地区交通组织方案优化。     

基于历史保护的老城区公共交通改善研究

受历史保护等诸多因素制约,我国许多城市的老城路网条件较差,交通拥堵严重,公共交通发展水平滞后。如何改善老城交通环境,构建宜居、活力、创新的老城,是社会各界共同关注的焦点。文中以佛山老城为例,提出基于历史保护的老城公共交通改善策略。对公交线网、公交场站、公交资源整合、配套管理等方面进行了研究。     

Part II: Policy instruments for sustainable road transport

Without questioning the fact that to achieve efficiency emitters should pay for the true costs of their actions (a core principle of economic policies such as pollution taxes), we find sufficient evidence in the literature to demonstrate that many other policy instruments can be used in combination with taxes and permits to ensure that the transport needs of the present generation can be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet any needs of their own.The policies and policy aspects considered in this paper broadly fall into three categories: physical policies, soft policies, and knowledge policies. All three aim to bring about changes in consumers’ and firms’ behaviour, but in different ways. The first category includes policies with a physical infrastructure element: public transport, land use, walking and cycling, road construction, and freight transport. We also consider the particular challenges for mobility in developing countries, and how these may be addressed. Soft policies, on the other hand, are non-tangible aiming to bring about behavioural change by informing actors about the consequences of their transport choices, and potentially persuading them to change their behaviour. These measures include car sharing and car pooling, teleworking and teleshopping, eco-driving, as well as general information and advertising campaigns. Finally, knowledge policies emphasise the important role of investment in research and development for a sustainable model of mobility for the future.The main findings can be summarised as follows.

Physical policies

An increase in the use of public transport, combined with a decrease in the use of private cars, can reduce traffic congestion and, more importantly, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, as public transport generally causes lower CO₂ emissions per passenger kilometre than private cars. Public transport fares are subsidised in most places, which can be justified by economies of scale and by the fact that public transport can reduce total road transport externalities. London, Singapore, Portland and Curitiba are all examples of good practice at government level, having achieved reliable, frequent and integrated public transport.Policies to increase public transport use must be part of an integrated policy. Integrated policy refers to integration across different modes of transport, different government objectives (such as the economy, health and the environment), considering the needs of different social groups, and coordinating action between the relevant government institutions. There is evidence that a lack of coordination can jeopardise the achievement of policy objectives.A sustainable model for transport policy also requires integration with land-use policies. These may be somewhat limited within the bounds of existing cities, but as cities grow and new cities are built, urban planners must put more emphasis on land use for sustainable transport in order to reduce congestion and CO₂ emissions. Sustainable land-use policy can direct urban development towards a form that allows public transport as well as walking and cycling to be at the core of urban mobility.Walking and cycling, which improve general health and produce no tailpipe emissions, constitute an excellent alternative to motorised transport on short-distance trips within towns and cities. The policies which can incentivise walking and cycling include crime reduction to make streets safer, well-maintained and clean pavements, attractive street furniture, safe crossings with shorter waiting times, dedicated cycle paths, showers in offices, and lower speed limits, to name but a few.Road construction and expansion used to be seen as one of the most promising ways to reduce traffic congestion. However, in the mid-1990s, the issue was reassessed and it was found that building and expanding roads, increased, rather than decreased, congestion, and ultimately induced higher levels of travel demand. The reason for this is that the extra capacity reduces the general cost of travelling and the less expensive the travel, the more it will be demanded. Regarding freight modal shift, road transport is much more polluting than rail per tonne-km of goods transported and therefore a shift towards greater use of rail in freight transport is desirable. Inadequate infrastructure is the main obstacle preventing this modal shift taking place.Developing countries face great mobility challenges: rural areas are often extremely poorly connected to transport infrastructure, such that, in contrast to the situation in developed countries, the benefits of road construction can strongly outweigh the total costs (including environmental ones). The main challenge, however, is to develop a solution to the problems arising from the combination of urbanisation and motorisation. Integration of transport and land-use policy will be key to rising to this challenge.

Soft policies

Car sharing and car clubs can also potentially reduce CO₂ emissions, although the aggregate reduction in congestion and emissions has not been measured with an adequate degree of precision in the literature. Teleworking and teleshopping can potentially reduce congestion and also CO₂ emissions. However, the evidence for this reduction is rather mixed, as it is unclear whether these measures lead to overall reductions in road transport.Eco-driving campaigns aim to inform and educate drivers in order to induce them to drive in a fuel-efficient and thus environmentally friendly way. There seems to be some consensus in the literature that eco-driving could lead to reductions in CO₂ emissions of around 10 per cent.Information and education policies have often been advocated as instruments which may affect behavioural change. We find in this paper that these types of measures are necessary, but not sufficient for behavioural change. Advertising and marketing may go a long way in changing peoples’ behaviour. In California, for example, Kahn (2007) finds the “Prius” effect: the Toyota Prius is preferred by consumers relative to other similarly green vehicles, probably due to extensive marketing and celebrity endorsements. Family life changes are also found to trigger changes in behaviour ( [Goodwin, 1989] and [106]). People whose lives are being changed by some important development (birth of a child, retirement, etc) tend to respond more to changes in the relative attractiveness of different transport modes. Advertising campaigns promoting a modal shift towards public transport, for instance, may thus be more successful if targeted at people in the process of important life transitions.

Knowledge policies

Research and Development is crucial for developing sustainable and low-carbon transport for the future, and it is essential that governments provide incentives to undertake R&D, so that new low-carbon technologies in the transport sector can be demonstrated and applied at a large scale.Finally, we consider the issue of policy combination and integration. There is evidence that the combination and integration of policies can lead to positive side-effects and synergies. Policy integration is crucial in order to rise to the challenges we face in moving towards a sustainable mobility model. We conclude that classical economic policies may be successfully combined with a number of policy measures discussed in this paper in order to achieve sustainability in transport.     

基于时间依赖网络的车辆调度问题研究

针对城市道路交通存在的不确定性问题,提出将动态车辆调度问题置于时间依赖网络的思想,建立了包括车辆固定成本费用、路阻费用和违反时间窗约束费用在内的广义费用最小化数学模型,采用改进的蚁群算法进行优化求解。仿真实验表明,该方法充分利用了城市道路交通时变性所呈现的周期性特点,是运输与物流企业进行车辆调度时节约成本的有效方法。     

Cities on the move – Ten years after

The World Bank urban transport strategy review, “Cities on the Move” analyzed urban transport problems in developing and transitional economies and articulated a proposed strategy framework for national and city governments. This paper describes how the urban transport problems of the developing world have changed in the last decade and assesses the extent to which the strategies recommended in 2002 have been successfully implemented. It shows that progress has been widespread in some areas – particularly in mass transit analysis and investment and some environmental policies – and that there have developed some good planning and public transport practices in a smaller number of model cities. But more strategic institutional and policy issues, including the mobilization and regulation of private sector initiative in meeting infrastructure and public transport supply deficiencies, have tended to be poorly developed. Above all, the growth of medium sized cities with weak institutions and finance highlights the need for the international development institutions to put greater emphasis on helping those cities by dissemination of best practice in strategic transport planning and traffic management.     

Global logistics city concept: a cluster-led strategy under the belt and road initiative

This paper develops a cluster-led strategic policy framework to assess the strategic positioning of key global logistics cities in Asia, most of which are affected by the ‘Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.’ One of the key challenges that the B&R Initiative is facing is underdeveloped logistics infrastructure in Asia, not to mention road congestion, dilapidated infrastructure, incessant supply chain disruptions, and capacity constraint, which imposes significant economic costs.

Global logistics cities are evaluated on logistics infrastructure capacity and service responsiveness. This involves selecting the key global logistics cities, identifying key indicators, standardising and indexing, mapping dimensions of global logistics cities, and developing the cluster-led strategic policy framework.

The results indicate the prevalence of a multi-tier system wherein Shanghai and Hong Kong have attained the maturity of a global logistics city, whilst Manila, Jakarta, and Bangalore are making slow but steady progress in that direction. In contrast, Dhaka, Phnom Penh, and Ho Chi Minh City are showing potential but require further enhancement through significant investment in infrastructure and service delivery improvement.

The cluster-led strategic policy framework formulates actions and strategies through which emergent logistics networks can be strategically aligned and functionally integrated with B&R-oriented global trading hubs and transport corridors..     

The external cost of speed at sea: An analysis based on selected short sea shipping routes

According to the mid-term review of the EU White Paper on Transport, Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is expected to grow at a rate of 59% (metric tonnes) between 2000 and 2020. If we consider that the overall expected increase in both freight exchanges and volume is 50%, sea transport is one of the most feasible alternatives to reduce traffic congestion on European roads. Maritime transportation may compete with road transport as far as certain traffics are concerned, but only when assuming external costs. This paper analyzes several intermodal transport chains involving a sea leg by comparing the effect of pollutant emissions from different ship types and road transport in terms of potential external cost savings. The translation of these emissions into environmental costs shows, for certain conditions, savings in the case of sea transport that would justify the use of an environmental bonus to promote the sea option.     

城市小汽车临时天桥结构设计

针对城市交通局部堵塞,根据临时桥梁的特点,参考相关规范,提出了在城市中发展轻型、可重复使用的临时桥梁,并对其结构进行了分析,证明了临时桥梁的安全性及有效性。     

Congestion pricing for Latin America: Prospects and constraints

In an effort to reduce the adverse impacts of the car and promote sustainable transport in Latin America, some governments have either implemented travel demand management policies or have considered ways of directly reducing the number of vehicles in congested areas. While demand management measures have been promoted in a small number of countries, including vehicular restrictions as well as the promotion of public transport modes, there are currently no congestion pricing programmes in operation in Latin America. This paper begins with an overview of travel demand management, including its principal aims as well as its primary objectives within the Latin American context. It discusses past efforts to promote traffic restraint and perspectives for developing congestion pricing schemes in both São Paulo and Santiago. Finally, it examines the potential role of congestion pricing as a demand management tool. While it is one of the most effective demand management measures in the industrialised world, a number of barriers currently prevent it from being widely adopted in Latin America.     

城市道路交通应急救援体系研究

道路交通事故应急救援体系能最大限度地降低交通事故的人员伤亡和财产损失,快速恢复正常的交通通行能力。本文研究并建立了城市道路交通应急救援体系,提供了城市道路交通安全软科学方面的支持。     

基于Logit模型的动态道路收费最优控制模型

在Logit动态的基础上建立了收费和通行能力的联合控制模型,通过控制时变的道路收费水平和通行能力,优化交通流的演化轨迹,使交通系统达到最优。通过简单的算例,在Logit动态的基础上对道路中的交通流进行分析和预测,进而对车辆进行诱导,从而达到交通管理的目的。