Applications of Random-Utility-based Multi-region Input–Output Models of Transport and the Spatial Economy

Abstract

An introduction to random-utility-based multiregional input–output models used for the purpose of spatial economic and transport interaction modelling is provided. The main methodological developments and important results of a dozen applications from the years 1996–2013 are described. This is followed by an outlook of potential future directions. Further research is mainly needed in five areas: (a) overall validation of the method, perhaps through back-casting applications on infrastructure plans with observed trade impacts; (b) extensions of trade coefficient models to add realism and improve accuracy; (c) the use of multi-scale modelling to capture interdependencies between geographical scales and to improve the representation of exports and imports; (d) improvements in the representation of price effects, as well as innovation and technological progress, by way of variable technical coefficients; and (e) a deeper investigation of the algorithm used to include elastic selling prices.     

Models of the Relationship between Transport and Land‐use: A Review

Abstract

A two‐way interaction between transport and land‐use has been one of the central research topics of transport studies. Thus, it is not surprising that there have been numerous approaches taken to investigate this reciprocal relationship. This paper critically examines the existing literature to see how effectively the current models represent this mutual interaction. This examination process intends to form a prototype reference that compares and contrasts the advantages and disadvantages of the various models. This undertaking is dealt with based on theoretical, methodological and operational characteristics of a respective model. Some conclusions and suggestions are also drawn.     

A Gendered Perspective of the Shelter–Transport–Livelihood Link: The Case of Poor Women in Delhi

Abstract

Women form an important part of the workforce originating from the slums in the city of Delhi, India. The paper illustrates that women spend more time travelling on slower modes of transport to access work; the faster modes are more expensive. Their time–poverty demands they look for work at shorter distances from home. The basic argument presented is that their ability to contribute to the alleviation of their standard of living and their status in society is severely curtailed by their limited mobility and the constrained accessibility to the transport system of the city. This transport deprivation becomes further exacerbated by the process of forced eviction and relocation of low‐income households to the periphery of the city, causing the women to lose livelihood opportunities.     

Assessment of Cross‐Border Spillover Effects of National Transport Infrastructure Plans: An Accessibility Approach

Abstract

Traditional transport infrastructure assessment methodologies rarely include the full range of strategic benefits for the transportation system. One of these benefits is the contribution to cross‐border integration, critical for the European integration process. However, this is a key issue in strategic planning and decision‐making processes, as its inclusion may increase the probability of large‐scale transport infrastructure projects being funded. This paper presents a methodology for the measurement of the contribution of transport infrastructure plans to European integration. The methodology is based on the measurement of the improvement in network efficiency in cross‐border regions of neighbouring countries, via accessibility calculations in a Geographical Information System support. The methodology was tested by applying it to the ambitious road and rail network extensions included in the Spanish Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Plan (PEIT) 2005–2020. The results show significant and important network efficiency improvements of the PEIT outside the Spanish border. For the road mode, while the Spanish average accessibility improvement accounts for 2.6%, average improvements in cross‐border regions of France and Portugal are of 1.8%. And for the rail mode, the corresponding Spanish value is 34.5%, whereas in neighbouring regions it accounts for 20.2%. These results stress the significant importance of this strategic benefit and the consequent need for its inclusion in strategic planning processes. Finally, the paper identifies the potential of the methodology when applied at different administrative levels, such as the local or state levels.     

What Happened to the National Road Carrier in a Post‐Communist Country? The Case of Poland's State Road Transport

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to seek to reconstruct the ownership transformation involving Poland's State Road Transport (PKS) companies passed through after 1990. Data collected from various sources (above all the Internet) were used to establish the degree of advancement of the transformation processes. Despite the passage of 18 years since the new economic reforms were launched, privatization processes are not well advanced. State ownership remains dominant, in the form of Treasury companies as well as state‐owned enterprises. Privatization processes have encompassed fewer than half of all firms, the most popular form taken (in about a quarter of all analysed cases) involving leasing by workers. This would seem of major interest, attesting as it does to the greater activity of some worker's teams, as well as the passive role of the state in privatization processes. A much smaller number of firms (26) have been purchased by external investors, the only important international concern among these being Veolia, which had taken control of 11 PKS companies as of mid‐2006. By and large, it is the firms carrying passengers or passenger and goods that are in a much better situation, as opposed to the companies that are commodity‐carriers only. The majority of the latter have collapsed, or have undergone the kind of privatization that involves simultaneous shutdown. Mixed passenger and goods carriers have had to reduce their level of activity in commodity transport.     

Transport in Romania—a British perspective

Abstract

Railways restructuring takes place under very different circumstances and with very different goals in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia. There are some improvements in productivity associated with the reforms in the European Union (among others access to infrastructure and vertical separation). But they are not certain to be replicated following similar restructuring in transition economies, especially if one takes account of the much higher shadow price on government subsidies in the latter. The current and proposed reforms in the railways of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia are described in detail; the likely outcomes of reforms in the special economic, regulatory and legal environments of these countries are analysed; and an alternative proposal for restructuring in Russia is presented.     

Application of Chinese Characters in the Design and Construction of the Badaling Great Wall Station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway北大核心CSCD

The new Badaling tunnel is the longest tunnel on the under-construction Beijing-Zhangjiakou highspeedrailway, with the Badaling Great Wall station to be built in the tunnel. This station, which is under the Badaling Great Wall historic site, is the world’s largest underground high-speed railway station with the most complicated structure and the largest overburden and excavation area. It is therefore a representative project for China’s highspeed railway development strategy, supporting infrastructure facilities for the Beijing Horticultural Expo 2019 and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and it is important that it be of high quality and completed safely. In the de-sign and construction of the station, the glyphs of the Chinese characters of "中",”国”,”人”and”品”are used, re-spectively, along the station route, in the rescue and evacuation mode, auxiliary adit and partial excavation, which is a way to successfully integrate the art of Chinese characters into tunnel engineering. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Study of the Settlement Control of Deformation Joints of Tunnels Passing Closely under the Existing Station北大核心CSCD

The newly-built tunnel passing closely under the existing station will inevitably lead to settlement of the existing station, and especially deformation joints are prone to differential settlement. Based on the Suzhoujie Station of Beijing Subway Line 16 passing closely under the existing Line 10, this paper analyzes the overall settlement of the existing station and the differential settlement at deformation joints through a combination of field measurement and numerical simulation. The study results show that installing jacks significantly prevents the settlement of the existing station, after installation of jacks the settlement of the existing station is reduced by about 58%, and the jacking force of the jack shall be controlled between 180-450 t; the impact of construction on the single-deck station structure side at deformation joints is greater than that on the double-deck station structure side, the stress on the socket is gradually increased with the excavation of the lower tunnel, and reduced after installation of jacks, indicating that the jack can effectively reduce the tensile stress of the existing station and maintain the safety of the existing station; with the action of the jacking force of jacks, the settlement curve of the existing station presents a stepwise change at the jack installation points, while the upper ground surface settlement is relatively uniform. © 2022, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

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.     

The economic impact of logistics infrastructure: the case of PLAZA – the Zaragoza Logistics Platform

Abstract

The economics literature offers many examples of studies of the economic impact of transportation infrastructure such as highways, ports, and airports; however, little attention has been paid to other types of infrastructure such as logistics platforms. This article is a first assessment of the economic effects of the largest logistics platform in Europe – PLAZA, the Zaragoza Logistics Platform – located in Spain. More precisely, this paper analyzes the economic significance of PLAZA on the economy of the Aragon region where it is located. The methodology is based on the application of input–output analysis to the final demand of logistics platform-based companies in a manner that is similar to well-established studies of the economic impacts of tourism on tourist expenditure. This makes it possible to quantify the various levels of economic effects (direct, indirect, and induced) in terms of jobs, salaries, and wages, turnover, gross operating surplus (GOS), and gross value added (GVA). The conclusions reveal the economic importance PLAZA has for the regional economy of Aragon, representing just over 2% of total GVA and 3% of turnover.     

Introducing Willingness‐to‐pay for Noise Changes into Transport Appraisal: An Application of Benefit Transfer

Abstract

Numerous research studies have elicited willingness‐to‐pay values for transport‐related noise. However, in many industrialized countries including the UK, noise costs and benefits are still not incorporated into appraisals for most transport projects and policy changes. This paper describes the actions recently taken in the UK to address this issue, comprising: primary research based on the city of Birmingham; an international review of willingness‐to‐pay evidence; the development of values using benefit transfers over time and locations; and integration with appraisal methods. Amongst the main findings are: that the willingness‐to‐pay estimates derived for the UK are broadly comparable with those used in appraisal elsewhere in Europe; that there is a case for a lower threshold at 45 dB(A)Leq,18h rather than the more conventional 55 dB(A); and that values per dB(A) increase with the noise level above this threshold. There are significant issues over the valuation of rail versus road noise, the neglect of non‐residential noise and the valuation of high noise levels in different countries. Conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of noise valuation based on benefit transfers in the UK and elsewhere, and future research needs in this field are discussed.     

Analysis of the Circulation System of a Slurry Shield and the Muck Carrying Ability of a Dredging Pipe北大核心CSCD

The circulation system of a slurry shield is composed of a transportation system and a processing system.For shield construction, correct selection of the circulation system for the slurry shield is directly related to construc-tion speed. Using the Nanjing Yangtze tunnel as an example, the material balance calculation of the circulation sys-tem, sieving effect analysis, and analysis of the muck carrying ability of the dredging pipe are conducted for various strata. The practical results show that above mentioned calculations and analysis method provide a good reference for the proper selection of a slurry separation system and dredge pipe. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Analysis of the Stability of the Shield Tunnel Excavation Face Considering Fluid-Solid Coupling Effect北大核心CSCD

In order to study the impacts of the transient seepage on the stability of tunnel excavation face during the installation of lining segments, the fluid-solid coupling effect based numerical model of the tunnel excavation face was developed by the finite element software PLAXIS. With adoption of the variablecontrolling approach, the influences of the depth/diameter ratio (the ratio of the buried depth to diameter of the tunnel) and the support pressure ratio (the ratio of the face support pressure to water and soil pressures ahead of the excavation face) on the face stability and ground settlement were investigated, respectively. At same time, the failure modes of the excavation face under the fluid-solid coupling analysis were also discussed. The results show that:1) the transient seepage leads to the development of the soil arching at the front of the excavation face, in which the smaller deformation at the excavation face is achieved, and so less support pressure for the face stability is allowed. While for the plastic analysis without taking into account the effect of transient seepage, a higher support pressure is required to maintain the stability of the excavation face; 2) in the fluid-solid coupling analysis, the depth/diameter ratio has less impacts on the stability of the excavation surface, but has larger impacts on the ground settlement. The larger the depth/diameter ratio, the larger the ground surface settlement and the settlement profile; 3) however, with the combination of the decrease of the support pressure and the impact of transient seepage on the settlement of ground surface, the soil arching effect in front of the excavation face is gradually reduced. The deformation zone at the ground surface is then connected with the deformed part ahead of the tunnel face to form a wedge-shaped soil sliding zone. It is also observed that the wedge-shaped body tends to have a larger funnel-shaped failure mode than that in the plastic analysis without considering the transient seepage. The results show that the transient seepage has a great impact on the stability of tunnel excavation face in the soil condition with high permeability ratio. The fluid-solid coupling analysis should be adopted to evaluate the deformation of excavation face and ground settlement. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Market Orientation in Public Transport Research—A Review

It is commonly argued that, in order to meet increasing competition, public transport organizations and systems need to be market oriented. Even though the notion of market orientationhas not been explicitly addressed in public transport research, studies relevant to market orientation have been conducted. The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of market orientation into the field of public transport, to review previous research into market orientation in public transport research, and to suggest directions for future research. Market orientation is defined as the generation and dissemination of market intelligence by organizations, as well as responses to it. The review suggests that previous academic research has focused on intelligence generation by developing and using models for measuring travel behaviour, stated preferences, perceived customer quality, and satisfaction. Studies of responsiveness have mainly addressed the physical improvements made in public transport organizations, which is also the primary concern of the industry research accounted for. There has been less research into the dissemination of market intelligence, the drivers of market orientation, the relations between the elements, and the overall concept of market orientation in public transport. It is thus concluded that future public transport research needs to address these issues.     

Analysis of the Circulation System of a Slurry Shield and the Muck Carrying Ability of a Dredging Pipe北大核心CSCD

The circulation system of a slurry shield is composed of a transportation system and a processing system.For shield construction, correct selection of the circulation system for the slurry shield is directly related to construc-tion speed. Using the Nanjing Yangtze tunnel as an example, the material balance calculation of the circulation sys-tem, sieving effect analysis, and analysis of the muck carrying ability of the dredging pipe are conducted for various strata. The practical results show that above mentioned calculations and analysis method provide a good reference for the proper selection of a slurry separation system and dredge pipe. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

The “Ubernomics” of ridesourcing: the myths and the reality

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the economics of ridesourcing (or app-based ride-hailing) with a particular focus on the US. It brings together the rather dispersed literature on the subject focusing on the economic characteristics of the underlying industry and sets this within the broader context of transportation economics. In particular, it sorts out the realities of ridesourcing from some of myths that were perpetrated in its early days and, in many cases, still persist. It considers some of the empirical evidence that has emerged regarding the key parameters that determine the way Uber and the like operate, and the welfare implications of this, together with comments on some of the regulatory reactions to the new transportation platform. It concludes by suggesting some ways in which recent developments in economic could move forward our understanding of the industry as technologies and markets change.     

Comprehensive Evaluation of the Intelligent Degree of the Mining Face Based on Grey Relational Analysis北大核心CSCD

In order to further evaluate the intelligent degree of the coal mining face scientifically and reasonably, this paper constructs a gray relational analysis based comprehensive evaluation model for the intelligent degree of mining face by deeply analyzing the influencing factors on the intelligent degree of mining face, such as surrounding rock detection, mining equipment, production system, supporting production system, organization and management, etc. By quantifying and scoring factors affecting the intelligence degree of mining face, using the hierarchical analysis method to obtain the weights and determine the correlations, the intelligence degrees of mining face are classified into four levels: excellent, good, medium and poor. Using the comprehensive evaluation model to empirically verify the 802 working face of Shaanxi Huangling Mining Co., Ltd., the calculated correlation is 0.765 8, which indicates that the intelligent degree of 802 working face is excellent according to the rating criteria, and it is consistent with the actual situation. Therefore, the comprehensive evaluation model based on gray relational analysis can accurately and objectively evaluate the intelligent degree of the mining face. © 2022, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.