Highway impacts on regional employment

Economic development is increasingly used by state DOT's as a criterion in arriving at highway funding decisions. However, there exists little evidence in the literature justifying the use of such a criterion, especially since existing techniques only determine correlations between highways and development. In this paper a time-series methodology is developed to differentiate the effects of highways on development from the effects of development on highways. This methodology includes structural plot analysis and causality tests and is based on pooled time-series and cross-sectional data on highway construction expenditures and county employment. The results indicate that increases in highway expenditures do not, in general, lead to statewide increases in employment other than temporary increases in the year of construction. However, in counties that are economic centers of the state, highway expenditures do have a positive long-term effect, i.e. employment increases above the normal trend of the economy. Such gains are apparently counterbalanced by employment losses in counties adjacent to the economic centers.     

Donor states and donee states: investigating geographic redistribution of the US federal-aid highway program 1974–2008

In 2009, the US government spent more than $42 billion on the federal-aid highway program. Most of this money was raised from motor vehicle taxes, whose proceeds are deposited in the highway trust fund. Federal motor vehicle user taxes flow into the fund and aid expenditures flow out from it to build and maintain highways and other transportation infrastructure. With so much money at stake it should be no surprise that expenditure decisions are the subject of intense political debate. Chief among these debates is the conflict between donor states, whose residents pay more in highway user taxes than the state receives in federal highway aid and donee states, whose residents pay less in highway user taxes than the state receives in highway aid. While this geographic redistribution has been masked recently by infusions of general fund revenue into the trust fund, the debate nevertheless continues. This paper attempts to understand why some states are donors and others are donees by simultaneously testing four hypotheses about the geographic redistribution of federal highway dollars that relate to a state’s highway need, economic condition, level of urbanization, and representation on the key Congressional oversight committees. The analyses show that redistribution does not favor states with larger highway systems, more highway use, or lower median incomes, all of which are different indicators of need. Instead, states that are less urban and better represented on the four key Congressional committees generally benefit from redistribution. These findings indicate that the user tax revenues are not used in places where they are most needed. Thus they provide little empirical support for any compelling policy argument for continued geographic redistribution of federal highway user tax dollars.     

智慧高速公路设计案例分析

本文以某智慧高速的设计案例为依托,首先对国内外智慧高速发展和应用现状进行归纳总结,分析认为电动化、智能化的新型运载工具,信息化和功能专业化的基础设施,开放、共享、协同的管理与服务将是未来高速公路三大发展趋势。通过对高速公路使用者和管理者的需求针对性地精准分析,构建面向高速公路使用者和管理者的创新型应用服务。结合新技术的发展趋势,以服务需求为导向,建设"三网合一"智慧高速基础设施和智慧云控平台构成、数据流为驱动的、"开放、包容、创新"的智慧高速公路。基于案例分析的智慧高速规划设计全过程,对于国内智慧高速的整体设计和建设规划具有重要参考价值,探索开辟全新的高速公路智能化建设方向和思路。     

Accident cost saving and highway attributes

Two semi-logarithmic regression models are developed to estimate accident rates and accident costs, respectively, for rural non-interstate highways in the state of Iowa. Data on 21,224 accidents occurring between 1989 and 1991 on 17,767 road segments are used in the analysis. Seven road attributes of these road segments are included as predictor variables. Applying the resulting regression models to a rather typical highway upgrade situation, the present value of the accident cost saving is computed. The sensitivity of the estimated cost saving to values for fatal, personal injury, and property damage only accidents is tested.Because factors other than road characteristics greatly influence accident costs, the models developed in this research explain a limited amount of the variance in these costs among road segments. Results of the analysis indicate that the most important attribute associated with accident costs is average daily traffic per lane, followed by conditions requiring passing restrictions and the sharpness of curves. Varying the values for the three categories of accidents shows that results are far more sensitive to the value of personal injuries than fatalities. The feasibility of using predictive models of accident costs in benefit-cost analyses of highway investments is demonstrated.     

Agricultural vehicles and sustainable safe road traffic: solving conflicts on arterial highways

Addressing the issues of traffic safety in rural areas presents a constant challenge. The mix of light and heavy vehicles and the considerable differences in speed among these traffic participants result in high risks and delays for the faster vehicles. Agricultural vehicles (AVs) in particular have such an impact on traffic, especially when using arterial highways. This paper reviews the problems of safety and delays that AVs cause on arterial highways, and the appropriate mitigation. The concept of 'sustainable safety' in The Netherlands focuses on these problems, because of the proposed construction of parallel roads alongside all arterial highways. However, Dutch accident statistics cannot justify the high costs for the construction of parallel roads alongside 7000 km of arterial highways. Delays experienced by fast traffic are another reason for separating AVs from other road users with parallel roads. Alternative measures alongside the arterial highway, such as passing bays, restricting AVs to travelling at off-peak only and improving the conspicuity of the AVs, may be more cost-effective ways of reducing delays and/or improving traffic safety on arterial highways. Another solution may be to eliminate the need for AVs to use the arterial highway by altering their routes. For this purpose, land reallocation projects (as practised in Holland) can provide a useful tool.     

Highway expenditures and non-metropolitan employment

Using data on state highway expenditures and employment from 30 Minnesota non-metropolitan counties over a 25-year period, possible interactions between transportation and employment are investigated. While crosssectional analysis suggests no significant interactions, causality tests and time-series analyses indicate that highway expenditures affect manufacturing and retail employment, and employment influences expenditures. Although expenditure increases cause employment improvements in the short-term, long-term effects are less favorable. Highway expenditures respond quickly to increased needs caused by retail improvements.     

Highway pricing and capacity choice in a road network under a build–operate–transfer scheme

It is often argued lately that the private sector should be allowed to build and operate roads in a transportation network at its own expense, in return it should receive the revenue from road toll charge within some years, and then these roads will be transferred to the government. This type of build–operate–transfer (B–O–T) projects is currently fashionable worldwide, especially for developing countries short of funds for road construction. One of the important issues concerning a highway B–O–T project is the selection of the capacity and toll charge of the new road and the evaluation of the relevant benefits to the private investor, the road users and the whole society under various market conditions. This paper deals with the selection and evaluation of a highway project under such a B–O–T scheme. For a given road network with elastic demand, mathematical models are proposed to investigate the feasibility of a candidate project and ascertain the optimal capacity and level of toll charge of the new highway. The response of road users to the new B–O–T project is explicitly considered. The characteristic of the problem is illustrated graphically with a numerical example.     

Transport infrastructure costs in low-carbon pathways

The rate and manner in which transport infrastructure (e.g. roads, railway tracks, airports) is deployed, will play an important role in determining energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and the economic impact of the transport sector. This paper describes an exercise where the costs of infrastructure deployment for the transport sector have been incorporated into the IMACLIM-R Global E3 IAM. In addition to adding these costs, the modelling of the criteria for the deployment of infrastructure for roads has also been improved. It is found that this model recalibration results in a more accurate baseline as compared to historically observed data (2001–2013) for investments in energy demand, road infrastructure, and passenger kilometers travelled. Regarding macroeconomic effects, it is found that the imposition of a carbon emission trajectory to 2100 cause GDP to decrease relative to the newly calibrated baseline – this is a standard IAM result. However, when the deployment of infrastructure for roads and air travel is further constrained, the GDP loss is less than with a fixed carbon emission trajectory only. This is because early restriction of infrastructure for roads and air travel allows an expansion of public transport infrastructure which is adequate to meet low-carbon transport service demand whereas when less public transport infrastructure is available, more costly mitigation investments must be made in other parts of the economy. This suggests that restricting infrastructure deployment as a complementary policy to carbon pricing, lowers the cost of mitigation.     

加宽五车道和三车道不对称小近距隧道设计

随着交通运输的迅速发展,超大断面小近距高速公路隧道或城市快速干道的建设将成为发展的重点。福州市机场二期隧道初步设计定为加宽五车道,无论是洞室跨度还是设计施工难度均属全国公路隧道之首。对于超大断面隧道来说,扁平率不但直接影响工程造价,而且对结构设计和施工带来新的问题。文章主要通过结构受力和经济比选内轮廓,并通过有限元计算,分析隧道设计的合理性。     

Mobile mapping technology of wind velocity data along highway for traffic safety evaluation

Traffic safety of highway vehicles under strong crosswind gust and other hazardous driving conditions has become a pressing issue for modern highway transportation and economy. It is known that the actual wind environment at the typical height of a moving vehicle varies considerably from one segment to another even on the same highway, because of influence of the specific terrain and surroundings. Therefore, accurate crosswind velocity data in both time and spatial domains are needed, for a rational assessment of traffic safety risks for various moving vehicles on highways in windy conditions. In addition to site-specific wind data which can be used for most vehicles, vehicle-specific crosswind velocity is often required for an accurate safety assessment of high-sided vehicles with unique shapes. A mobile mapping technology aiming at collecting site-specific as well as vehicle-specific wind velocity data for traffic safety evaluations was developed. Such technology integrates a 3D sonic anemometer and geospatial video mapping system, mounted on a vehicle driven along highways at a normal (cruising) speed. As a result, both vehicle-specific and general site-specific crosswind velocity can be directly “sensed” and collected by using a high-sided vehicle or a streamlined car as the test vehicle. A field test of the developed technology with a high-sided truck driven on mountainous sections of the interstate I-70 (in Colorado) was conducted. The crosswind data at six selected feature locations along I-70, representing different roadside environments, was analyzed. Wind-tunnel investigations employing the scaled models of the truck used in the field test as well as a common streamlined sedan car were conducted to evaluate the accuracy and the feasibility of the developed technology.     

Integrated approach to determine highway flooding and critical points of drainage

Among the natural hazards that threaten transportation infrastructure, flooding represents a major hazard to highways as it challenges their design, operation, efficiency and safety. In extreme cases, it may lead to massive obstruction of traffic and direct damages to the road structures themselves and indirect damages to the economic activity and development of the region. To enable the prevention of such consequences, and the proposition of adaptive measures for existing infrastructure, this paper presents an integrated framework to identify the most vulnerable points to flooding along a highway. This is done through the combination of remote sensing information (e.g. LiDAR based Digital Elevation Model, satellite imagery), a high-quality dataset, and a quasi-2D hydrodynamic model. The forcing condition is defined using a hyetograph associated to a storm with duration of 1 day and return period of 100 years. The selected highway is located in the Mexican state of Tabasco, where extreme precipitation events and floods are frequent. Results demonstrate the ability of the methodology to identify critical water levels along the road (h > 1.50 m) at those locations where flooding has been experienced, as well as points of inspection for the highway drainage. These locations were visited in the field and maintenance problems were detected that do increase its level of exposure. We show that this framework is useful for the generation of a flood management strategy to the analyzed highway, which includes an optimum location of adaptive measures to an anticipated more intense future climate.     

On user charges for highway financing

At both the federal and state levels, the main source of highway infrastructure financing has been from road-user charges, particularly in the form of fuel taxes. Although there are widespread differences from state to state in highway user charge structures, the formof these structures, in most states, has remained basically unchanged ever since such charges were introduced several decades ago. Changes in vehicle characteristics and usage, economic changes and concernsof energy conservation, and environmental protection have made an impact on the methods of user charges that have been traditionally used. This paper surveys current practices of user charges in the U.S. and reviews their appropriateness in the light of the changes that have occured and would continue to occur in the next decade or even in the next century. A possible future policy direction on highway user charge structure that can incorporate the technological and other emerging developments is then examined.     

基于公路改扩建节能减排造价管理系统的研究

随着节能减排工作的深化和细化,公路基础设施建设的节能减排越来越受到重视。基于全国公路工程造价管理系统和中国生命周期核心数据库,可以快速实现改扩建公路生命周期能耗和碳排放的规范化核算,从而筛选出节能减排效益较优的设计方案。文章通过海南省某省道改扩建项目的实证研究,为设计方案节能减排核算及效益评价提供范例,为优化公路建设行业节能减排管理提供思路。     

Validation and use of equilibrium network assignment for urban highway reconstruction planning

The need to rehabilitate interstate highways and bridges will increase tremendously in the next decades. Due to traffic restrictions imposed during construction, these rehabilitation activities will cause major disruptions in existing traffic patterns. In order to develop mitigation strategies to reduce such travel impacts, reliable forecasts of likely travel pattern changes would be beneficial. In this paper, we examine the suitability of using an equilibrium traffic assignment model to predict the impacts of a major highway reconstruction project. A case study of travel impacts during reconstruction of I-376, the Parkway East, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is made to validate the adequacy of the network assignment model. Results are compared with actual volume counts collected during periods with and without traffic restrictions. The model produced estimates of link volumes that were, on average, from 16% to 28% different from the observed link counts along two screenlines. Large discrepancies with some of the counts could be explained in part by aberrations in the observed data or in the network model's structure. A sketch-planning analysis is also performed, and the results are compared with those from the network assignment model. The network assignment model is also used to predict the impacts of a hypothetical reconstruction scenario in which the Parkway East is totally closed during its reconstruction.     

Measuring post-disaster transportation system performance: the 1995 Kobe earthquake in comparative perspective

Recent earthquake disasters have caused major damage to transportation networks, leading to significant economic disruption. While this suggests the need to evaluate total system performance in transportation risk assessment, in addition to examining the vulnerability of individual components such as bridges, no appropriate measures currently exist. This paper develops post-disaster system performance measures and applies them to the urban rail and highway transportation systems in the Kobe, Japan, region devastated by the 1995 Hyogoken–Nanbu earthquake. Performance is evaluated in terms of network coverage and transport accessibility. Performance degradation was much more severe for highways and railways than for other lifeline infrastructure systems. Both transportation systems fared poorly in the disaster but service restoration proceeded much more rapidly for rail. The restoration of highway system performance correlated closely with the recovery of highway traffic volumes. The paper further develops a measure of subarea transport accessibility and applies this to Kobe’s constituent city wards. Results indicate substantial spatial disparity that is maintained throughout the restoration period. Comparisons with the 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes in the US show that although these disasters caused notable damage to highway bridges, system performance degradation was small in comparison with the Kobe experience. The paper argues that explicitly measuring transportation system performance can greatly facilitate both understanding the effects of historic disasters and preparing for future hazard events.     

Operation of signalized diamond interchanges with frontage roads using dynamic reversible lane control

Signalized diamond interchanges (SDI), connecting major highways and surface streets in urban and suburban areas, are probably the most widely used interchange patterns. The limited storage space between the two closely joined intersections coupled with heavy traffic volumes may easily oversaturate the facility and cause spillback problems, especially with the presence of frontage roads. This paper presents an innovative design and operational model for SDI by dynamically reversing certain lanes in the internal link on a regular basis with the deployment of overhead reversible lane control signs. A Binary-Mixed-Integer-Linear-Program (BMILP) is formulated to simultaneously optimize lane markings, dynamic usage of the reversible lane, and signal timings for the new SDI system. Results from extensive numerical analyses reveal the promising property of the proposed design and operational model in expanding capacity and reducing congestion at the SDI with frontage roads.     

Integrated modeling framework for leasing urban roads: A case study of Fresno,California

Increasing private sector involvement in transportation services has significant implications for the management of road networks. This paper examines a concession model’s effects on a road network in the mid-sized city of Fresno, California. Using the existing transportation planning models of Fresno, we examine the effects of privatization on a number of typical system performance measures including total travel time and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the possibility of including arterials, and the differences between social cost prices and profit maximizing prices. Some interesting insights emerge from our analysis: (1) roads cannot be considered as isolated elements in a concession model for a road network; (2) roads can function as complements at some levels of demand and become substitutes at other levels; (3) policy makers/officials should consider privatizing/pricing arterials along with privatizing highways; (4) temporally flexible but limited price schedule regulations should be part of leasing agreements; and (5) non-restricted pricing may actually worsen system performance, while limited pricing can raise enormous profits as well as improve system performance.     

Japanese highway planning: A western interpretation

At the 1952 Census, less than 6 percent of national highways and prefectural roads in Japan were paved, and mechanically-propelled vehicles accounted for only 6 percent of total vehicle registrations; by 1981, 2792 km of expressway were in service (an addi tional 2623 km were under construction or being surveyed) and her industry was dominating world markets for motor vehicles. This paper, drawing on material translated from the Japanese language, examines the history of transport planning and engineering ideas that inspired the modernisation of the highway system in the period after the Pacific War. Three distinct phases are identified: (a) a politically and economically dependent Japanese state which borrowed methods from the U.S.A. in formulating 5-year national road programmes; (b) a more independent state, absorbing western techniques and refining them in 23 urban transportation studies; and (c) a donor state, exporting these ideas to Southeast Asian cities as one instrument of Japanese foreign policy. The triad of international antecedents, domestic context and content, and foreign application is a suitable framework when interpreting the intricate relationships between transport and society.     

Evaluating the public investment mix in US freight transportation infrastructure

This research empirically evaluates the public sector investment in the US freight transportation infrastructure. In particular, the infrastructures to support the two most comparable modes of freight transportation – highway and intermodal rail – are examined as alternatives for public fund allocation. Indicators for public sector transportation infrastructure investment mix are established based on financial analysis of both private and social costs and benefits, as well as the propensity of freight shippers to utilize such infrastructures. The research results in recommendations for the aggregate allocation of public funds in the US based on these indicators. We find that approximately a quarter of truck freight could be handled at a 25% lower cost if rail infrastructure to support it existed. Because an additional 80% reduction in social costs could be achieved through this modal conversion, the public sector is a critical participant in creating a more efficient transportation infrastructure.     

Has the transport-led economic growth effect reached a peak in China? A panel threshold regression approach

Using China’s province-level panel data from 1987 to 2010, this study explores the optimal level of transport infrastructure accumulation maximizing the growth rate. We investigate under what circumstances can additional transportation infrastructure capacity positively affect economic growth, based on panel threshold regression models. Our empirical findings suggest that there is a non-monotonic relationship between the stock of transport infrastructure and the long-run growth rate. The magnitude of transport-led economic growth effect significantly depends on the level of the existing transport network. The empirical results identify two endogenous cut-off points of efficiency of transport-led economic growth effect. When the highway network density is lower than 0.17 km/km², an insignificant positive relationship between highway infrastructure accumulation and economic growth was found. When the highway density is estimated between 0.17 and 0.38 km/km² or higher than 0.38 km/km², expanding the highway network has a significant positive effect on economic growth, but the magnitude of the impact is weaker in the latter, with the estimated coefficients equal to 0.23 and 0.09 respectively. Although China still enjoys a positive economic growth effect led by building more large-scale highway infrastructure, the magnitude of the effects of most provinces in China has already passed the saturation point and continuously expanding the highway network is not very productive.