A cross-country study of fairness and infringement on freedom as determinants of car owners' acceptance of road pricing

Jakobsson et al. (2000) found that in Sweden public acceptance of road pricing decreases if it is perceived to be unfair and to infringe on freedom. The present study reports a survey investigating whether the same effects are found in the Asian countries of Japan and Taiwan. The results indicate that fairness plays the same role. However, income had a direct effect on acceptance in Taiwan but not in Japan or Sweden.     

An environmental assessment of air traffic speed constraints in the departure phase of flight: A case study at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport,Sweden

This paper considers the environmental effects of air traffic management speed constraints during the departure phase of flight. We present a CO₂ versus noise trade-off study that compares aircraft departure procedures subject to speed constraints with a free speed scenario. A departure route at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport in Sweden is used as a case study and the analysis is based on airline flight recorded data extracted from the Airbus A321 aircraft. Results suggest that CO₂ emissions could be reduced by 180 kg per flight if all departure speed constraints were removed at a cost of increased noise exposure below 70 dB(A).     

Effects of economic disincentives on private car use

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of economic disincentives on private car use. Eighty two-adult households who were owners of at least one car were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and one control group. Both experimental and control groups logged their car trips during one week before, one week during, and one week after treatment. The treatment consisted of charging two of the experimental groups approximately 100% of normal cost per kilometer of driving during 2 weeks, and charging the third experimental group this amount per kilometer of driving during 4 weeks. With the purpose of investigating whether deliberate planning increases the effect of economic disincentives, the households in one of the former and in the latter group were asked to fill out a prospective car log for the following week. The control group was not charged or requested to fill out a prospective car log but was in other respects treated in the same way. Analyses of the car logs and odometer readings during and at the end of treatment showed a weak reduction of car use due to the economic disincentives that however were almost completely dependent on planning.     

Mooring line tension observed through a maximum entropy spectrum

A method for measuring mooring line tension is proposed based on observation of the natural frequencies of the mooring line segment between the winch and the fairlead. The anchor line tension is observed through the string equation where an analytical expression for the line's eigen-frequencies is obtained. The tension is observed on line by utilizing a nonparametric system identification approach in which the peaks of a maximum entropy spectrum of the transverse acceleration measures of the vibrating string are automatically identified. The method is verified against full-scale data from the Troll B floating concrete oil production platform operating in the North Sea. Received for publication on Feb. 24, 1999; accepted on July 26, 1999     

Out-of-home activities,daily travel,and subjective well-being

It is argued that utility theory that underpins current cost-benefit analyses of daily travel needs to be complemented. An alternative theoretical framework is to this end proposed which applies subjective well-being (SWB) to travel behaviour analysis. It is posited in this theoretical framework that participation in goal-directed activities, facilitated or hindered by travel, contributes to SWB, that the degree of travel-related stress in participating in these activities reduces SWB, and that positive affect associated with travel in itself has an impact on SWB.     

Shipper's councils: role and responsibility—a western view

Traditionally, liner markets have been seen as dominated by conferences on the seller side, facing small, unorganized shippers onn the buyers' side. This perceived asymmetry has greatly influenced conference legislation in North America (and more recently in the E.U.) and it has been deemed essential that government should regulate conference activities in order to curb any abuse of 'conference power'. In this view, shipowners and shippers are adversaries engaged in a zero-sum battle over transport costs rather than potential or actual partners in global distribution systems. This paper suggests that in today's global markets much can be achieved by cooperationn in the development of logistics systems and that shipowners and shippers may have much to gain from such cooperative alliances. A survey of shippers' councils in 1991-1992 demonstrates the diversity and increasing sophistication of many national shippers' councils, which devote themselves to the task of improving markets through education and the legislative process. The situation in the U.S.A. is different: for legal reasons, conventional shippers' councils do not exist. Instead, 'shippers' associations' play a commercial role in liner markets. It is suggested that European style shippers' councils can and should play an important role in the development and formulation of policies for internatinal liner markets. Such participation requires a cooperative industry environment quite different from the traditional adversarial approach, which is ill suited to global trade and logistics alliances.     

Participating mass in colliding risers

One of the main challenges in estimating impact energy in collisions between marine risers is the assessment of the riser mass involved in the collision. Evidently the entire riser mass does not contribute to the collision. Hence, the question is: What is the equivalent riser mass which contributes to the impact energy? This article presents three different ways of estimating the riser mass participating in the collision energy. The first method is strictly experimental. The second method uses a numerical experiment together with system identification techniques. The third method is a strictly analytical method, which results in an asymptotically upper bounded estimate of the participating mass. Two risers are examined as case studies. The first riser is a 1 : 100 model scale riser used in collision experiments carried out at Marintek's towing tank in Trondheim, Norway. The second case uses a real world riser in use on the Troll B oil production platform operating in the North Sea. The proposed methods yield consistent and comparable results. Received for publication on Feb. 1, 1999; accepted on July 8, 1999     

The influence of personality on acceptability of sustainable transport policies

Previous research has shown that fairness, infringement on freedom, and perceived effectiveness are determinants of transport pricing acceptability. In the present study we investigate determinants of acceptability of environmental (carbon) taxation for which trust in government and environmental concern are additional determinants. Carbon taxation is an extension of fuel taxes and may thus be viewed as transport pricing. Our main focus is on the role played by personality traits. Structural equation modeling reveals that acceptability is related to the personality traits extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Extraverted individuals have higher levels of trust in government which leads to higher acceptability. Also correlations between agreeableness and conscientiousness as well as environmental problem awareness and personal norm are observed. We discuss strategies for effective marketing of transportation policies considering how acceptability is related to personality traits.     

Costs of air pollutants from shipping: a meta-regression analysis

ABSTRACT

This study estimated the external cost of air pollution from shipping by means of a meta-regression analysis, which has not been made before. Three pollutants, which were included in most of the primary studies, were considered: nitrogen oxides (NO_x), sulphur dioxides (SO₂) and particulate matters with a diameter of max 2.5 micrometres (PM_2.5). All primary studies included damages of health and a majority added impacts on agriculture and estimated the cost of air pollutants by transferring cost estimates from studies on costs of air emissions from transports in Europe. Different regression models and estimators were used and robust results were found of statistically significant emission elasticities of below one, i.e. total external costs increase by less than 1% when emissions increase by 1%. There was a small variation between the pollutants, with the highest elasticity for PM_2.5 and lowest for NO_x. Calculations of the marginal external cost of the pollutants showed the same pattern, with this cost being approximately six times higher for PM_2.5 than for the other pollutants. Common to all pollutants was that the marginal external cost decreases when emission increases. Another robust result was a significant increase in the cost of studies published in journals compared with other publication outlets. These findings point out some caution when transferring constant external unit cost of air pollutant from shipping, which is much applied in the literature, and the cost functions estimated in this study could thus provide a complementary transfer mechanism.