Will subsidies drive electric vehicle adoption? Measuring consumer preferences in the U.S. and China

We model consumer preferences for conventional, hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV), and battery electric (BEV) vehicle technologies in China and the U.S. using data from choice-based conjoint surveys fielded in 2012–2013 in both countries. We find that with the combined bundle of attributes offered by vehicles available today, gasoline vehicles continue in both countries to be most attractive to consumers, and American respondents have significantly lower relative willingness-to-pay for BEV technology than Chinese respondents. While U.S. and Chinese subsidies are similar, favoring vehicles with larger battery packs, differences in consumer preferences lead to different outcomes. Our results suggest that with or without each country’s 2012–2013 subsidies, Chinese consumers are willing to adopt today’s BEVs and mid-range PHEVs at similar rates relative to their respective gasoline counterparts, whereas American consumers prefer low-range PHEVs despite subsidies. This implies potential for earlier BEV adoption in China, given adequate supply. While there are clear national security benefits for adoption of BEVs in China, the local and global social impact is unclear: With higher electricity generation emissions in China, a transition to BEVs may reduce oil consumption at the expense of increased air pollution and/or greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, demand from China could increase global incentives for electric vehicle technology development with the potential to reduce emissions in countries where electricity generation is associated with lower emissions.     

Financing local rural road maintenance. Who should pay what share and why?

The benefits from minor rural road infrastructure can be very individual, when a road is important for reaching a (group of) farm(s), serving little or no inter-local traffic. Rural road maintenance therefore asks for a specific taxation model that distributes costs according to benefits involved for the individual taxpayer. The distribution of maintenance costs among taxpayers used by local governments is often poorly founded. A new model was developed for two local road maintaining governments in the Netherlands. In essence, the model emphasises that the basic facilities for reaching buildings and parcels along a road should be paid by the rural real estate owners. Extra facilities (like additional pavement width and plantings) enable inter-local traffic. Therefore, maintenance of these extra facilities should be paid by all inhabitants of the community. This article describes, in detail, the model used and the resulting cost distribution, among others in relation to the definition of `basic facility'. We compare these results with the cost distribution of comparable authorities and conclude that the model offers a logical and clear calculation of who pays what share and why. The model might also facilitate taxing the costs of road maintenance, in a broader sense, for a wide range of areas and governmental organisations.     

NO.5 请开后门

01.自动开关式 多配备于中高档车型 首先需要说明的是，自动开关式只是一些中高档车型多种后备箱开启方式中的一种。例如在凯迪拉克SRX的后备箱中就设置有一个关闭按钮，按动按钮后备箱会自动关闭，这样的开启方式对消费者来说非常便捷，不需要人力的作用就可以开关后备箱。另外，这种功能在一些SUV上也比较常见，而且对女性车主颇为实...     

知更多行更远-梅赛德斯-奔驰卡车推出全新“T.C.O.运盈智汇”成本计算器服务

3月13日，北京，梅赛德斯-奔驰卡车在中国市场正式推出了“T.C.O.运盈智汇”成本计算器服务，旨在帮助中国物流行业更好地了解其业务的成本构成。即刻起，用户可通过互联网访问http://www.mb-tco.cn梅赛德斯-奔驰卡车“T.C.O.运盈智汇”网站，便可轻松使用这一服务。     

英国网站(www.londoncabs.co.uk)发布全球十大拥有最差劲出租车司机的城市

<正>1.马来西亚吉隆坡吉隆坡出租车司机一直以来都以多收钱和绕路而著称,虽然他们被要求按计价表收费,但许多司机经常拒绝打表。如果你真的碰到了这样的司机,那么最好的方法就是再等一辆车。此外,吉隆坡的出租车非常老旧,质量不佳。2.意大利罗马罗马之所以排在第二名,是因为许多人发现他们根本没法在罗马叫到出租车。这里的出租车数量不仅稀少,而且司机态度时常非常恶劣和难缠。如果你打车的时候刚好在下雨的话,那么就请准备好付双倍和三倍的车费吧。     

Management's role in U.S. rail passenger decline, 1920–1941

Opinions vary as to whether the decline of American railroad passenger service can be attributed primarily to consumer choice or partly to structural impedances to the supply. Results are reported from testing the hypothesis that railroad management supplied service inappropriate in the new motor era: that management catered to a small, high-priced market, whereas it should have catered to a mass, low-priced market. An aggregate demand model with non-linear elasticity characteristics is estimated on railroad traffic between a sample of American cities for 1933. The model is sensitive to speed, fare and headway variables under the control of railroad management and reveals that there was a unique fare for a service of a given speed that maximized gross revenues. The observed fare for most of the 187 cases in the study was near or below the optimal fare, showing that rail managers judged their markets well, at least in the short run.     

Does telecommuting reduce vehicle-miles traveled? An aggregate time series analysis for the U.S.

. This study examines the impact of telecommuting on passenger vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) through a multivariate time series analysis of aggregate nationwide data spanning 1966–1999 for all variables except telecommuting, and 1988–1998 for telecommuting. The analysis was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, VMT (1966–1999) was modeled as a function of conventional variables representing economic activity, transportation price, transportation supply and socio-demographics. In the second stage, the residuals of the first stage (1988–1998) were modeled as a function of the number of telecommuters. We also assessed the change in annual VMT per telecommuter as well as VMT per telecommuting occasion, for 1998. The models suggest that telecommuting reduces VMT, with 94% confidence. Together with independent external evidence, the results suggest a reduction in annual VMT on the order of 0.8% or less. Even with impacts that small, when informally compared to similar reductions in VMT due to public transit ridership, telecommuting appears to be far more cost-effective in terms of public sector expenditures.