The role of habit and residential location in travel behavior change programs,a field experiment

Transportation - Early evaluations of travel change programs demonstrated dramatic success in shifting people out of cars and into transit and active travel. Yet methodological shortcomings of...     

Unlimited Access

Universities and public transit agencies have together invented an arrangement – called Unlimited Access – that provides fare-free transit service for over 825,000 people. The university typically pays the transit agency an annual lump sum based on expected student ridership, and students simply show their university identification to board the bus. This paper reports the results of a survey of Unlimited Access programs at 35 universities. University officials report that Unlimited Access reduces parking demand, increases students' access to the campus, helps to recruit and retain students, and reduces the cost of attending college. Transit agencies report that Unlimited Access increases ridership, fills empty seats, improves transit service, and reduces the operating cost per rider. Increases in student transit ridership ranged from 71 percent to 200 percent during the first year of Unlimited Access, and growth in subsequent years ranged from 2 percent to 10 percent per year. The universities' average cost for Unlimited Access is $30 per student per year.     

Car-deficit households: determinants and implications for household travel in the U.S.

Transportation - In the U.S., households with less than one car per driver (auto-deficit households) are more than twice as common as zero-vehicle households. Yet we know very little about these...     

The use of dynamic programming in optimally allocating funds for highway safety improvements

An integrated system approach to traffic accident countermeasure selection is presented. This approach draws primarily upon the resources of a computerized accident records system for identifying high accident locations. Once high accident locations are identified by type, local investigations of these locations are conducted producing standardized cost and benefit data. These data are processed through a dynamic programming algorithm to produce optimal policies for implementation. Since this system has been in operation in two states in the United States for about five years, it should be of special interest to practitioners.     

The exclusive economic zone: criteria and machinery for the resolution of international conflicts between different users of the EEZ

It is highly probable that one of the results of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea will be the recognition of a new jurisdictional zone—the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This 200-mile zone will be used for a variety of potentially conflicting purposes by both the coastal state and non-coastal states and it is therefore important to ensure that the new convention emerging from the conference should establish criteria and make provision for machinery for the resolution of the international conflicts between different users which will undoubtedly arise. This paper contains a critical analysis of the latest draft articles under consideration at the Conference and considers the criteria by reference to which disputes might be resolved.     

Climate Change and Coastal Management Decisions: Insights from Christchurch Bay,UK

The integration of climate change adaptation considerations into management of the coast poses major challenges for decision makers. This article reports on a case study undertaken in Christchurch Bay, UK, examining local capacity for strategic response to climate risks, with a particular focus on issues surrounding coastal defense. Drawing primarily on qualitative research with local and regional stakeholders, the analysis identifies fundamental disjunctures between generic concerns over climate change and the adaptive capacity of local management institutions. Closely linked with issues of scale, the problems highlighted here are likely to have broad and continuing relevance for future coastal management elsewhere.     

Decisionmaking in the motor carrier industry

Distinct discrete decisions made by the same economic actor are likely to be correlated, particularly those decisions involved in transportation demand. These correlations may be due to economic interactions among the decisions, or to heterogeneity, or both. This paper develops an econometric method that can distinguish among these possibilities and applies this method to analyzing motor carrier deregulation. One overall goal of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which substantially reduced federal regulation, was to promote greater competition in the industry. Other things equal, the more competition in an industry, the less concentration. However, concentration has been increasing among general freight carriers since deregulation. The positive correlations found between the decisions to acquire broker authority and to be a general freight carrier could be due to joint economies between broker authority and general freight carriage, in which case the two interact as economic complements, or to heterogeneity among motor carrier licensees. In the first case, but not the second, deregulation of broker authority could lead to increased concentration in the general freight sector. Empirically, we find that the decisions are correlated due to heterogeneity, but do not interact. Thus, increased concentration in the general freight sector must be attributed to other causes.     

A shipbuilder's view of safety

Shipbuilders do not consider themselves leaders in furthering safety. There has been rapid growth in safety legislation but actual improvement has been modest. Casualty rates could most effectively be reduced in future by removing older ships. The responsibilities for safety in the longer term need consideration.     

Residents’ expectations for new rail stops: optimistic neighborhood perceptions relate to subsequent transit ridership

Transportation - Although complete street policies are proliferating, little is known about how nearby residents perceive and act on their new active transportation opportunities. We survey the...     

Hailing a change: comparing taxi and ridehail service quality in Los Angeles

Transportation - For decades, taxis have provided for-hire vehicle service without significant competition from other modes. But in 2012, ride-hail services such as Uber and Lyft upended the taxi...