Public responses to policies designed to internalise environmental and social externalities from road transport in New Zealand

Based on a public survey of registered voters, we explore four options for internalising the social and environmental costs of road transport. The options were presented together with generalised factual information about their benefits and costs. Respondents are highly supportive of fuel use efficiency standards and exhaust gas quality standards, with lesser support for proposed initiatives of road user charges and speed reduction. Demographic analysis of responses enables identification of those who might favour or oppose particular options. In this case women are identified as being strongly supportive of the speed reduction option.     

Transport policy for London in 2001 The case for an integrated approach

The paper reports the results of a series of studies conducted to enable the London Planning Advisory Committee to provide advice on strategic transport policy for London. The analytical approach combined the use of an area-based, multi-modal strategic model (LAM) and professional judgment. The performance of LAM as a basis for providing rapid advice on complex issues in transport policy is assessed.The resulting policy advice advocated a coherent approach, involving new infrastructure, particularly for rail; improved management of the road and public transport networks; the use of subsidy to enhance public transport service levels; and road user charges to reduce the impact of private vehicles on congestion and the environment. Road user charges emerged as the pivotal issue in the policy; the paper discusses their role, and the questions which still need to be resolved before they can be implemented.The main message of the study is that no one element of transport policy can tackle London's problems alone; an integrated policy in which infrastructure provision, management and pricing are used to complement one another is shown to be far more effective.     

浅谈工程项目成本管理

文章分析了工程项目成本管理存在的问题,从管理人员、成本控制要素、人工费、材料费、机械使用费、项目管理费等方面提出健全项目成本管理体制的措施。     

Tales on the dark side of the transport infrastructure provision: a systematic literature review of the determinants of cost overruns

ABSTRACT

Cost overruns are an endemic feature of the provision of transport infrastructure worldwide. In recent decades, a considerable amount of studies has been devoted to assessing the magnitude and determinants of cost overruns in the transportation sector. However, the empirical findings are scattered between different strands of literature, ranging from the fields of construction engineering and management to that of applied economics. To shed light on the determinants of cost overruns in the execution of transport infrastructure projects, we conduct a systematic review of the empirical literature on the topic. Of the 945 articles retrieved, 26 articles published between 2000 and 2016 meet our inclusion criteria. For them, we describe the different empirical approaches, we provide a classification of the determinants employed in the analyses and summarise their impact on cost overruns. Finally, we suggest some directions for further research in the field.     

Much Ado about Nothing? - An analysis of economic impacts and ecologic effects of the EU-emission trading scheme in the aviation industry

From 2012 on, all CO₂ emissions from flights departing from or arriving at airports within the European Union have to be offset. We analyze the economic and ecological impacts that are caused by an inclusion of the aviation industry into the proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS). Building on the now fixed system design we employ a simulation model to estimate the impacts of the scheme. Our results indicate that financial impacts are highly dependant on external settings, such as allowance prices and demand growth. We show that the financial burden on the aviation industry will be rather modest in the first years after the introduction of the system and therefore induce only low competition distortions. Likewise, emission reductions within air transportation will be comparably low. While aviation will induce a decline of emissions in other sectors, significant absolute reductions within air transportation can only be reached by a more restrictive system design.     

浅谈公路勘察设计控制工程质量和造价的对策

文章基于当前广西公路勘察设计质量和工程造价现状,分析了公路工程勘察设计质量和造价控制方面存在的主要问题,提出了提高勘察设计质量、控制工程造价的对策。     

How to best address aviation’s full climate impact from an economic policy point of view? – Main results from AviClim research project

The interdisciplinary research project AviClim (Including Aviation in International Protocols for Climate Protection) has explored the feasibility for including aviation’s full climate impact, i.e., both long-lived CO₂ and short-lived non-CO₂ effects, in international protocols for climate protection and has investigated the economic impacts. Short-lived non-CO₂ effects of aviation are NO_x emissions, H₂O emissions or contrail cirrus, for instance.Four geopolitical scenarios have been designed which differ concerning the level of international support for climate protecting measures. These scenarios have been combined alternatively with an emissions trading scheme on CO₂ and non-CO₂ species, a climate tax and a NO_x emission charge combined with CO₂ trading and operational measures (such as lower flight altitudes). Modelling results indicate that a global emissions trading scheme for both CO₂ and non-CO₂ emissions would be the best solution from an economic and environmental point of view. Costs and impacts on competition could be kept at a relatively moderate level and effects on employment are moderate, too. At the same time, environmental benefits are noticeable.     

How does environmental concern influence mode choice habits? A mediation analysis

Starting from the intuition that people with high environmental concern have a better perception of public transport and therefore a better perception of the utility of public transport, we construct a theoretical model in which the effect of environmental concern on mode choice habits is mediated by the indirect utility of travel. Travel procures the direct utility of providing access to activities, but it also offers an indirect utility that is inherently personal and perceptual. We approach the indirect utility of public transport by measuring perceptions of time and feelings. The indirect utility of the car is approached by measuring affective and symbolic motives. Taking into account car use habits and habits of public transport use, the results show that people who have a high environmental concern perceive public transport use as easier, more useful and more pleasurable than people who do not have that environmental motivation. Such positive attitudes foster public transport use. Conversely, low environmental concern generates non-instrumental motives for car use, such as affective and symbolic motives. However, the relationship between affective and symbolic motives and car use habits is not robust. We can conclude that environmental concern influences mode choice habits and that the effect is partially mediated by perceptions and feelings towards public transport but not significantly by affective and symbolic motives for car use.     

Transport policy prioritisation for Dublin

Internalisation of the external costs of transport is currently the subject of much debate. Estimation of costs such as those of pollution and congestion is a primary element in any strategy involving policies for use in the internalisation of these costs. The objective of the TRENEN II STRAN project, funded by the EU, was to develop a methodology for estimation of the marginal external costs of transport. The model developed during the project was used in a series of case studies. One of the case studies, that conducted for Dublin, is reported in this paper. A brief summary of the TRENEN approach is presented followed by the results for Dublin produced from policies such as Do Nothing, Uniform pricing (internalising external costs by means of fuel taxation), Congestion Pricing (cordon pricing) and a first-best policy, the Full Optimum where one assumes that the policy maker has perfect pricing instruments available. As one would expect, the model shows that the greatest reduction in traffic level and external costs would occur if it were possible to introduce a highly differentiated and sophisticated pricing system. Increased taxation on fuel is not an efficient policy as it does not address the marginal external costs of congestion in a way that time-differentiated road-use pricing would. The results from testing of the different measures are interesting particularly those relating to parking and the way in which residents within the CBD and commuters to the CBD are dealt with. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.