Measuring the benefits derived from a transportation investment

This paper reviews the problems associated with application of the concept of consumers' surplus to the measurement of benefits derived from a transportation investment. This review is warranted since such measurement is very complicated when alternative modes or different paths are available to the users and benefit measures have been proposed which, on the surface, appear not to agree. In particular, as Mohring (1976), Williams (1976) and Agnello (1977), among others, have discussed, demand curves for interdependent modes will shift in response to a modal specific improvement, i.e. a unimodal investment, thereby complicating the measurement of consumers' surplus. The perspective taken in this paper resolves seeming inconsistencies in the literature regarding the directions of demand shifts and the correct measure to be used in calculating changes in consumer's surplus following an investment. This is accomplished by introducing an aggregate, origin-destination demand curve which is independent of the alternative modes actually available and from which traditional modal demands can be derived. An approach for deriving the modal demands from the aggregate demand and the behavioral assumptions behind the aggregate supply is described; the aggregate demand is used to unequivocably determine the directions of shifts in the modal demand curves due to specific modal investments. The resulting consistency of modal and aggregate demand is shown to lead to an unambiguous measure of total consumers' surplus variation. Extensions to include producers' surplus are also given.     

Economic policies and seaports: Are port authorities necessary?

This paper first presents arguments for having public sector port authorities. They can deal, flexibly and permanently, with property rights within their own areas. They can plan and regulate port areas comprehensively. They can provide 'public goods'. They can deal, in various ways, with externalities. They can promote efficiency, whether their own (if they operate as a comprehensive port) or that of the private sector (if they are largely landlords). For example, if their policy is to rely on the private sector to produce efficiency through competition then they can see to it that there actually is competition and not any kind of cartel or monopoly. Examples are cited where this last function has not been performed. The exception for single-user ports is noted.

Against them are the general disadvantages of public authorities (or bureaucracies)—though examples are cited where port authorities had very small staffs. The common instances of 'market failure' may thus be contrasted with those of 'government failure'. Finally, a pragmatic approach is advocated, tailored to the needs and resources of the country in question. The increasing effect of the economies of scale in port technology, and its limitation on competition, is, however, noted and to be discussed in the next paper.     

Wanting to travel,more or less: Exploring the determinants of the deficit and surfeit of personal travel

This study investigates the determinants of peoples desire to increase or decrease the amount of travel they do. We use data from 1,357 working commuters, residents of three different neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The dependent variables are indicators of Relative Desired Mobility for ten categories of travel (short- and long-distance overall and by several mode- and purpose-specific categories). These variables are measured on a five-point ordinal scale ranging from much less to much more, through which the respondents indicated the amount of travel they want to do (in the category in question) compared to what they are doing now. Censored ordered probit models were developed for these variables, with explanatory variables including general travel attitudes, specific liking for travel in each of the same separate categories, objective and subjective measures of the amount currently traveled in each category, and personality, lifestyle, and socio-demographic characteristics. The results support the hypotheses that the liking for travel has a strong positive impact, and subjective qualitative assessments of mobility have a strong negative impact, on the desire to increase ones travel. Finally, a number of general types of effects on Relative Desired Mobility were identified, among them complementarity and substitution effects. The results of this study can provide policy makers and researchers with new and valuable insight into key principles that affect individual travel demand.     

Spatially Prioritizing Seafloor Mapping for Coastal and Marine Planning

Coastal and marine areas provide vital services to support the economic, cultural, recreational, and ecological needs of human communities, but sustaining these benefits necessitates a balance between growing and often competing uses and activities. Minimizing coastal zone conflict and reducing human-induced impacts to ecological resources requires access to consistent spatial information on the distribution and condition of marine resources. Seafloor mapping provides a detailed and reliable spatial template on the structure of the seafloor that has become a core data need for many resource management strategies. The absence of detailed maps of the seafloor hinders the effectiveness of priority setting in marine policy, regulatory processes, and marine stewardship. For large management areas, the relatively high cost of seafloor mapping and limited management budgets requires careful spatial prioritization. In order to address this problem, a consensus based approach, aided by decision-support tools, and participatory geographic information systems (GIS), was implemented in Long Island Sound to spatially prioritize locations, define additional data collection efforts needed, and identify products needed to inform decision-making. The methodology developed has utility for other states and regions in need of spatially prioritizing activities for coastal planning, and organizations charged with providing geospatial services to communities with broad informational needs.     

Selection of techniques for reducing shipping NOx and SOx emissions

This paper develops a subjective generic methodology for providing ship owners with a transparent evaluation tool for selecting their preferred NOx and SOx control techniques. We quantitatively analyse the merits of the control methods available in marine air pollution control practice using data collected from shipping companies, shipyards and maritime academies. We also prioritize the applicable control techniques with respect to operational shipping environments.     

Towards a general microeconomic model for the operation of public transport

After Vickrey's view, Mohring constructed a microeconomic model to determine the optimal frequency of buses serving a corridor with fixed demand. The main result was that frequency should be proportional to the square root of demand. The role of users' costs was shown to be crucial. This approach has evolved over the past decades, improving our understanding of public transport operations. This paper describes and analyses the evolution of microeconomic models for the analysis of public transport services with parametric demand, leading towards a more comprehensive one. An in-depth review of all the contributions in the academic literature is presented, emphasizing both the treatment of variables and the form of the results mostly in terms of frequency and fleet size. A series of partial new elements is also identified. An extension of Jansson's model for a single period is developed analytically, including the effect of vehicle size on operating costs and the influence of crowding on the value of time. Numerical simulations are used for comparison and analysis. A general model is then proposed where bus operations are optimized accounting for a number of simultaneous relations. Finally, the different models are discussed and compared.     

Value of accessibility to Bogotá's bus rapid transit system

With several successful cases world‐wide, bus rapid transit (BRT) has reemerged as a cost‐effective transportation alternative for urban mobility. Despite the resurgence of BRT, there is a world‐wide paucity of research examining its ability to spur and development. By estimating spatial hedonic price functions, the paper determines the extent to which access to BRT stations in Bogotá, Colombia, currently are capitalized into land values. Results suggest that for every 5 min of additional walking time to a BRT station, the rental price of a property decreases by between 6.8 and 9.3%, after controlling for structural characteristics, neighbourhood attributes and proximity to the BRT corridor. Evaluated at the average walking time to a BRT station, this effect translates into an elasticity of between ??0.16 and ??0.22. Although these estimates cannot be attributable directly to the presence of the BRT system because a cross‐sectional design is used, they suggest that the land market in Bogotá values access to BRT station locations.     

What determines university student’s willingness to pay for bikeways?

Transportation - Inadequate infrastructure is recognized as an important barrier to cycling; therefore, improvements in the provision of bicycle facilities, such as bikeways, are frequently...     

Classifying Ports for Efficiency Benchmarking: A Review and a Frontier-based Clustering Approach

Abstract

Port efficiency and port clustering are two aspects that have received different degrees of attention in the existing literature. While the actual estimation of port efficiency has been extensively studied, the existing literature has paid little attention to developing robust methodologies for port classification. In this paper, we review the literature on classification methods for port efficiency, and present an approach that combines stochastic frontier analysis, clustering and self-organized maps (SOM). Cluster methodologies that build on the estimated cost function parameters could group ports into performance metrics’ categories. This helps when setting improvement targets for ports as a function of their specific cluster. The methodology is applied to a database of Spanish port authorities. The dendrogram features three clusters and five outlier Spanish Port Authorities. SOM are employed to track the temporal evolution of Spanish Port Authorities that are of special interest for some reasons (i.e. outliers). Results show that use of a combination of cost frontier and cluster methods to define robust port typology and SOMs, jointly or in isolation, offers useful information to the decision-makers.