Urban Congestion Charging: A Comparison between London and Singapore

Abstract

The congestion charging schemes in London and Singapore are compared and assessed in the light of guidelines set out in the Smeed Report, published by the UK Ministry of Transport in 1964 Ministry of Transport. 1964. Road Pricing: The Economic and Technical Possibilities, London: HMSO.  [Google Scholar], and their performance in reducing congestion and raising net revenue. The aim is to draw lessons for other towns and cities considering the introduction of congestion charging. One important result from Electronic Road Pricing in Singapore is that a per‐entry charge is more effective at reducing congestion than a per‐day charge. It is concluded that although Electronic Road Pricing in Singapore is more in line with the desirable properties outlined in the Smeed Report, both schemes are part of a wider package of transport policies, and that is probably the most important reason for their success. The main lesson for other towns and cities around the world considering the possibility of introducing congestion charging is that any such scheme ought to be accompanied by complementary measures that will provide motorists with a valid alternative to the car.     

What encourages people to carpool? An evaluation of factors with meta-analysis

Non-household carpools (where two or more commuters from different residences travel together in the same private vehicle) bring public benefits. To encourage and incentivise it, transport practitioners and researchers must understand its private motivations and deterrents. Existing studies often report conflicting results or non-generalisable findings. Thus, a quantitative systematic review of the literature body is needed. Using meta-analysis, this study synthesised 22 existing empirical studies (representing over 79,000 observations) to produce an integrated review of the carpooling literature. The meta-analysis determined 24 non-household carpooling factors, and their effect sizes. Factors such as number of employees (\(\bar{r} = 0.42\)), partner matching programs (\(\bar{r} = 0.42\)), female (\(\bar{r} = 0.22\)) and fixed work schedule (\(\bar{r} = 0.15\)) were found to have strong effects on carpooling while judgmental factors (such as the motivation to save costs) only exhibited small influence (\(\bar{r} < 0.1\)). Based on the significant effects, the paper discussed prospects for improving carpooling uptake by developing: (i) target demographics, (ii) selling points for marketing, (iii) carpooling partner programs and (iv) multiple employer ‘super-pools’. The results warrant caution due to the small amount of studies synthesised. Transport practitioners might plan carpooling policies based on the findings; and transportation researchers might use the list of factors to model carpooling behaviour.     

Toll product preferences and implications for alternative payment options and going cashless

There has been a great deal of research on deriving estimates of the value of travel time savings (VTTS) as a way of converting travel time benefits of toll roads relative to free routes into monetary units, the major user benefit in the development of forecasts of traffic and hence revenue streams. By contrast there has been almost no consideration given to identifying the role that various tollroad products play in establishing preferences for toll routes over non-tolled routes. Increasingly tollroads give users the option to pay by cash at a toll booth, by electronic tolling or by a pre- or post-paid debit and credit account system involving vehicle identification. The efficiency gained by electronic tolling for both the users and the operator have resulted in moves in many jurisdictions to eliminate cash collection entirely (or not introduce it when introducing a new tolled road facility), and to introduce a range of pre- and post-payment options. This has been accompanied by a growing move to distance-based charging in some contexts which is more cumbersome to structure with a cash option. This paper investigates current and potential travellers’ preferences for a range of toll products and how much individual’s are willing to pay for very specific toll products. Data from a stated choice experiment is used in a mixed logit model to establish the role that toll products play in the context of offered times and costs of alternative routes, in choosing between alternative ways of paying for the use of tolled routes.

Specification of regret-based models of choice behaviour: formal analyses and experimental design based evidence

Travel behaviour analysis has recently witnessed a rapidly growing interest in regret-based models of choice behaviour. Two different model specifications have been introduced in the transportation literature. Chorus et al. (Transportation Research B 42: 1–18, 2008a; in: Proceedings 87th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, 2008b) specified regret as a (non) linear function of the difference between the best-foregone choice alternative and the chosen alternative. Later, as an approximation to the original specification, Chorus (2010) suggested a logarithm function of utility differences between all choice alternatives, mainly for ease of estimation. This paper makes two contributions to this literature. First, formal analyses are conducted to identify the parameter space where the logarithmic specification becomes theoretically inferior to the original specification. Second, an empirical stated choice study on the choice of shopping centre is conducted to empirically test which specification best describes stated choices. Results suggest that for the collected data the original specification outperforms the new specification. Implications of this finding for the application of regret-based choice models in travel behaviour analysis are discussed.     

A Microscopic Simulation Model for Incident Modeling in Urban Networks

Abstract

This paper reviews the main modules of an integrated system for incident management in real-time, -sim. A core to such a system is a microscopic simulator with extended abilities to model the temporal and spatial evolution of specified non-recurrent traffic conditions. The paper reviews the mathematical formulation of the car-following and lane-changing modules. The model is validated using a simulation-based approach. Concluding comments on the general validation process of the model are provided. The paper finally presents a sample of the accident patterns replicated by the model together with their implications for real world validation.     

A methodological approach for developing and assessing business models for flexible transport systems

Flexible transport services include a wide range of demand responsive transport systems that provide non-conventional passenger and freight transportation services. Several alternative business models varying according to the local market conditions, the socio-economic, legal, and institutional framework may be developed for the provision of Flexible Transport Systems (FTS). The objective of this paper is twofold: first to present an integrated methodological framework for developing and assessing alternative FTS business models and second to demonstrate its applicability to a case study regarding the prioritization of alternative FTS business models for the provision of flexible passenger transport services in Helsinki.

Evaluating marginal improvements to a transport network: An application to the Santiago underground

This paper describes a simplified methodology designed for quick investment appraisal of improvements to a transport network, and discusses its limitations and advantages particularly in the context of a developing country. The approach basically considers:

- a method to define the total population (relevant origin-destination pairs) affected by the project

- the selection of a low-cost background model to represent transport demand on a network at an aggregate level

- the choice of a suitable marginal demand model (in this case a discrete mode choice model) capable of providing the required sensitivity and accuracy to model the project

- the estimation of the marginal demand due to the project during all the years of the study horizon, and

- a sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of the decision recommended using these two models.

Finally, the paper summarises the results of applying the methodology to the case of an extension to the Santiago underground; it was found that the project has a high social rate of return (almost 20 per cent). However, from the point of view of a private evaluation, it can cover its operating costs only.     

Contribution to the design of the Athletes Bus Network during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games

This paper describes important aspects of the design of the Athletes transportation system for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The unique characteristics of this network include the close dependence of the vehicle schedules on the competition and training program, the requirement for 100% service reliability, as well as the requirement for full system monitoring and control. In this paper we present methods for the development of service specifications, estimation of the bus fleet size, the design of the network’s organization and management system, and corresponding critical implementation issues. All these issues are relevant to the design and management of bus transport systems for large events.     

Income effects,cost damping and the value of time: theoretical properties embedded within practical travel choice models

Mackie et al. (Values of travel time savings in the UK. Report to Department for Transport. Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds & John Bates Services, Leeds and Abingdon, 2003) proposed an identity relating the value of time (VoT) for commute and leisure travel to income and travel cost, reporting the prevalence of ‘cost damping’ (i.e. the phenomenon where VoT increases as travel cost increases). This identity (or a variant thereof) has been adopted within official methods for estimating VoT in the UK, Switzerland and The Netherlands. The present paper shows that Mackie et al.’s identity: (i) implies linear preferences, not strictly convex preferences as reported by Mackie et al.; (ii) complies with homogeneity and symmetry by construction; (iii) complies with adding-up if and only if VoT is unit elastic with respect to income; (iv) complies with negativity if VoT is unit elastic or greater with respect to income; (v) violates both adding-up and negativity in the case of the 2003 UK national VoT study. We propose alternative identities which comply with adding-up and homogeneity by construction, and offer comparable fit to Mackie et al.’s identity on the UK VoT dataset. We also find that the imposition of adding-up and negativity on Mackie et al.’s identity, through appropriate constraint on model estimation, leads to an increase of around 20% in valuations from the 2003 UK dataset.     

Systematic variability in repetitious travel

The focus of this paper is the degree to which day-to-day variability in the individual's travel pattern has a systematic, or nonrandom, component. We first review the different sources of variability in travel, emphasizing the difference between between-individual and within-individual variation and the implications of this difference for travel analysis. After discussing the impact of measurement (i.e. the way in which travel behavior is measured) on the study of repetition and variability, we use the Uppsala data to examine the level of systematic variability in an individual's longitudinal travel record. The analysis focuses on two questions:

- How well does observation over one week capture longer-term (five-week) travel behavior; in other words, is behavior highly repetitive from week to week?

- How systematic is within-individual variability; in other words, are certain stops distributed over the five-week record in a nonrandom, that is either regular or clustered, fashion?

Using measures of travel that include more than one stop attribute (e.g. activity, mode, time of day, and location), we found that:

- A seven-day record of travel does not capture most of the separate behaviors exhibited by the individual over a five-week period, but it does capture, for most people, a good sampling of the person's different typical daily travel patterns.

- Whereas a considerable portion of intraindividual variability is systematic (nonrandom), clustering is a more important source of nonrandom variation than is regularity.

The results suggest that behavior does not follow a weekly cycle closely enough for a one-week travel record to measure the longer-term frequency with which the individual makes certain stops or to assess the level of day-to-day variation present in the individual's record. Because these results are likely to reflect the particular measures of behavior we used, one conclusion of this study is the need for other studies that replicate the aims of this one but use a variety of other travel measures. Only through such additional work can we truly assess the sensitivity of our findings to measurement techniques.     

Cargo Container Loading Plan Model and Solution Method for International Air Express Carriers

Abstract

In this article, a cargo container loading plan model is developed based on the operations of FedEx, the international air express carrier. The objective is to minimize total container handling cost, subject to related operating constraints. The model is expected to be a useful planning tool whereby international air express carriers such as FedEx can decide on container loading plans that will lead to lower operating costs, thus enhancing profits and market competitiveness. The model is formulated as a non-linear mixed integer program that is characterized as NP-hard. A solution method is then developed, with the use of the mathematical programming solver, CPLEX, to solve the problem efficiently. To evaluate the model and the solution method, we perform a case study using data from FedEx. The preliminary results indicate that the model and the solution method are both efficient and effective.     

The application of cost-benefit analysis to transport investment projects in Britain

This paper explains the need for the application of cost-benefit analysis to the evaluation of alternative projects for investment in the transport field and outlines briefly the historical development of the technique. The results of a comparative survey of a number of cost-benefit studies which have been carried out in Britain and some conclusions as to their thoroughness and comprehensiveness (or otherwise) are presented. The article concludes with a number of specific and detailed recommendations to remedy apparent methodological weaknesses. Six of these recommendations seem to merit particular attention:

1. The viewpoint of most studies should be extended so as to avoid confinement, for example, within an arbitrary local government boundary, and a wider range of “externalities” should be considered. Intangibles should be included explicitly in all such evaluation exercises.
2. The actual incidence of costs and benefits should be examined in order to indicate the directional impact of the project and its implications in terms of equity. The elimination of transfer payments and double-counting should be postponed until the latest possible stage in the evaluation.
3. Equity considerations should be investigated in any transportation plan, since most projects have considerable equity implications for particular areas or socio-economic groups.
4. Discounted cash flow techniques, which are still used only in a minority of transportation studies, should become standard practice. Most evaluations are based on a single-year rate of return, or at best on simple trend forecasting. More resources should be devoted to proper evaluation of alternative plans which give due importance to the cost and benefit streams through time.
5. Sensitivity analysis should be used in all transportation evaluations. Knowledge of the impact of different assignments, shadow prices, and discount rates are essential information for any decisionmaker.
6. Last, but not least, much greater communication should exist between analyst and decisionmaker than has existed in the past.

     

Road Safety Trends at National Level in Europe: A Review of Time-series Analysis Performed during the Period 2000–12

Abstract

This paper presents a review of time-series analysis of road safety trends, aggregated at a national level, which has been performed in the period 2000–12 and applied to European national data sets covering long time periods. It provides a guideline and set of best practices in the area of time-series modelling and identifies the latest methods and applications of national road safety trend analysis in Europe. The paper begins with the methodological framework adopted for aggregate time-series modelling that will be considered, and then discusses a number of relevant applications to long-period data aggregated at the national level, whether for countries alone, or for groups of countries. Some analyses, which were performed at the disaggregated level, are also provided, as they are being used more and more. Finally, the paper summarizes and discusses the significant changes in aggregate road safety trend analysis which occurred during the period and provides recommendations for continuing these research efforts.     

Bus Transit Service Reliability and Improvement Strategies: Integrating the Perspectives of Passengers and Transit Agencies in North America

Abstract

Transit agencies are consistently trying to improve service reliability and attract new passengers by employing various strategies. Previous literature reviews have focused on either passengers' or transit agencies' perspectives on service reliability. However, none of the earlier reviews have simultaneously addressed these differing perspectives on service reliability in an integrated manner. In response to this gap in the literature, this paper first reviews previous work on passengers' perspectives of transit service reliability and their response to service adjustments made by different agencies. Second, it analyzes transit agencies' plans and reports regarding their reliability goals and used strategies in order to improve service reliability, while looking at the impacts of these strategies on service. Reviewing these two parts together provides a needed contribution to the literature from a practical viewpoint since it allows for the identification of gaps in the public transit planning and operations field in the area of reliability and provides transit planners and decision makers with effective and valuable policy-relevant information.     

Freight Data Assembling and Modeling: Methodologies and Practice

Abstract

In comparison to personal travel, freight movements within large metropolitan areas are much less studied. Most conventional transportation models and planning analysis that disregarded freight flows have been criticized on the plausibility of their results and conclusions. To alleviate these problems, this study proposes a non-survey based approach to assemble and process freight data in a systematic way. A freight origin–destination (OD) matrix of freight flows can be developed using secondary data sources. The estimated freight flows can be loaded together with conventional passenger flows onto the regional highway network of a large metropolitan area. As a case study, this non-survey based approach was applied to build a freight OD and study the traffic flows in Los Angeles. It concluded that this approach can be used to analyze urban freight movement in a low-cost way in which planning agencies can overcome the common omission of freight flow information in their transportation plans.     

Short-term work team scheduling models for effective road repair and management

Abstract

In this study, we focus on the development of work team routing/scheduling models incorporating stochastic travel and repair times. Robust and expected optimization concepts, combined with a time–space network technique, are used to develop the models. We perform numerical tests based on operational data for Taoyuan County in Taiwan. The test results show the good performance of the models.