Do Public Transport Improvements Increase Agglomeration Economies? A Review of Literature and an Agenda for Research

Public transport improvements may increase economic productivity if they enable the growth and densification of cities, downtowns, or industrial clusters and thereby increase external agglomeration economies. It has been argued that the potential agglomeration benefits are large; if so, understanding them better would be useful in making funding decisions about public transport improvements. We reviewed theoretical and empirical literature on agglomeration as well as a small number of articles on transportation's role in agglomeration. The theoretical literature is useful in understanding possible avenues by which transportation improvements might affect agglomeration, although there is little discussion of public transport specifically. Relevant empirical studies tend to focus on metropolitan regions and use a generalized measure of transportation cost. But public transport impacts on agglomeration are likely to be different from road investment impacts. We identified several ways of conducting research building on this literature that would help evaluate the agglomeration impacts of public transport proposals: tracing the links between transport, agglomeration, and productivity; better motivating research using theories of agglomeration mechanisms; taking scale and redistribution into account; exploring the functional form of agglomeration economies; accounting for endogeneity in model structure; and considering development context.     

Should BEVs be subsidized or taxed? A European perspective based on the economic value of CO2 emissions

Battery Electric vehicles (BEVs) are generally considered as potentially contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Consequently, many countries have promoted (or are in the process of promoting) policies aimed at directly or indirectly subsidizing BEVs to accelerate their market uptake. The aim of this paper is to assess whether BEVs’ subsidies are justified (and by what amount) with reference to the carbon component, distinguishing by car segments and countries. To address these research questions, a simulation model is developed, based on the most recent and reliable data available. The model estimates and monetizes the Well-to-Wheel CO₂ emissions of six car segments in 28 European countries. The monetary value of the difference of the CO₂ emissions between the non-BEVs and the BEVs ranges from −€1133 (tax) to +€3192 (subsidy), depending on the car segment and on the nation considered. These results are then compared to the policies about alternative fuels adopted by the single EU countries, suggesting in some cases the necessity to rethink such incentives.     

Impacts of Pokémon GO on route and mode choice decisions: exploring the potential for integrating augmented reality,gamification, and social components in mobile apps to influence travel decisions

Transportation - This study aims to understand the impacts of Pokémon GO, a popular location-based augmented reality (AR) mobile gaming app, on route and mode choices. Pokémon GO...     

What type of road pricing scheme might appeal to politicians? Viewpoints on the challenge in gaining the citizen and public servant vote by staging reform

The greatest hurdle facing road pricing reform is political commitment. With rare exception, efforts to introduce significant reform in road pricing, aimed at raising sufficient revenue to ensure that road investment and ongoing maintenance is secured, without an additional impost to users above current outlays, while at the same time reducing traffic congestion, has fallen largely on politically non-supportive ears. The big challenge is to convince politicians (and their advisers) that it is possible to reform road pricing so that users are made better off (at least the great majority) in terms of time spent travelling and monies outlaid, and that government secures growing levels of revenue, but with at least some funds being used to improve public transport and the existing road network. This paper identifies the major issues that make much of the academic research into road pricing somewhat limited in terms of achieving real change. Staging reform is an appealing way forward, but ensuring the order and timing of events to secure progress is the big challenge. We offer some suggestions, including some ideas on new language designed to increase the level of buy in, and recognise that progress through action will require compromises in respect of an ‘ideal’ economically efficient pricing reform agenda.