Research in Transportation Economics最新文献

Studying the tradeoffs between commuting, working, and money—including the willingness to pay (WTP) for changes to travel time and work time—is of interest in both travel behavior research and transportation practice. Our study's objectives were to: (1) quantify WTP for travel time and work time changes; (2) measure preference heterogeneity in these time values; and (3) examine sensitivities to changes in income and travel cost. First, we conducted a stated choice experiment that added work time and income to traditional travel time and cost attributes, collecting data from 675 US adult commuters in late 2020. Second, we estimated pseudo panel mixed multinomial logit models with random and systematic preference heterogeneity. Average WTP was larger for travel time changes than for work time changes, although values varied across personal, household, and commute/work characteristics. Overall and on the margin, US commuters appear to dislike commuting more than they dislike working, a finding which differs from previous studies in Chile and Austria. Although future work could improve the realism of the choice experiment, our research offers a simple stated preference method to help work towards advancing an understanding of the values and tradeoffs involving both working and commuting.

The Transportation Demand Management (TDM) policies will not be authorized if they have not enough public acceptability. In this study, policy packing is proposed as a way to alleviate the unacceptability of coercive (push) TDM policies that have considerable effectiveness (e.g., cordon and parking pricing) by using some non-coercive (pull) TDM policies (e.g., transit development). Furthermore, in addition to the main effects, the interaction effects of TDM policies on the acceptability of two policy packages are addressed. Policy package (I) includes cordon pricing and reduction of transit access time, and Policy package (II) contains parking pricing and reduction of transit access time. A Random Parameter Ordered Logit (RPOL) model is developed based on a choice experiment designed for car commuters of Tehran, Iran. Results confirm that while reducing transit access time have a significant interaction effect with cordon pricing on the acceptability of Package (I) it has not a significant interaction effect with parking pricing on the acceptability of Package (II). Furthermore, the heterogeneity of respondents' cars value and the presence of free parking at the workplace can significantly affect the acceptability of Package (II). This study also addresses the effect of respondents’ trip and socio-economic characteristics on the acceptability.

This paper aims to quantify the environmental and economic impacts of a low emission zone in the context of urban freight transport. The research's originality lies in its combination of behavioral data, urban freight transport and environmental models, and cost-benefit analysis methodologies. Through this methodological framework, we examine the costs and benefits of implementing a low emission zone using different scenarios with varying perimeters and environmental requirements in the urban area of Lyon. The findings of this study suggest that increasing the size of the perimeter is more economically and environmentally efficient than tightening the level of environmental standards.

The service quality of a passenger transport operator can be measured through face-to-face surveys at the terminals or on board. However, the resulting responses may suffer from the influence of the intrinsic aspects of the respondent's personality and emotional context at the time of the interview. This study proposes a methodology to generate and select control variables for these latent psychosituational traits, thus mitigating the risk of omitted variable bias. We developed an econometric model of the determinants of passenger satisfaction in a survey conducted at the largest airport in Latin America, São Paulo GRU Airport. Our focus was on the role of flight delays in the perception of quality. The results of this study confirm the existence of a relationship between flight delays and the global satisfaction of passengers with airports. In addition, favorable evaluations regarding airports' food/beverage concessions and Wi-Fi services, but not their retail options, have a relevant moderating effect on that relationship. Furthermore, dissatisfaction arising from passengers' interaction with the airline can have negative spillover effects on their satisfaction with the airport. We also found evidence of blame-attribution behavior, in which only delays of internal origin, such as failures in flight management, are significant, indicating that passengers overlook weather-related flight delays. Finally, the results suggest that an empirical specification that does not consider the latent psychosituational traits of passengers produces a relevant overestimation of the absolute effect of flight delays on passenger satisfaction.

In this paper, we present an extension of the agent-based travel demand model mobiTopp with a last-mile parcel delivery module called logiTopp, in which online shopping choice is modeled explicitly. Online shopping behavior is modeled using logistic and Poisson regression models, which consider both the socio-demographic characteristics of the customer and aspects of their travel behavior. As mobiTopp is a framework that simulates travel demand over one week, we are able to capture interactions between travel behavior and online shopping that do not become apparent in single-day simulations.

The results show that the integrated choice model reflects the findings presented in the literature in that male, affluent, young professionals are most likely to (frequently) order parcels online compared to other groups of the population. Application of the agent-based model to a city in Germany shows that socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics are considered realistically within the simulation.

The model presented here is a suitable simulation tool for alternative urban last-mile delivery solutions, and the open-source and modular framework allows for transfer to other regions as the underlying choice models are consistent with literature from other spatial contexts.

The findings are of interest to transportation planners and policymakers as they contribute to the understanding of how increased e-commerce demand influences the transportation system and solutions to mitigate adverse effects.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems have become increasingly common in US cities. BRT stations provide a local amenity by improving transportation options for local residents, but may also represent a local nuisance due to noise or displacement of other road users. We estimate whether BRT is priced into local real estate by studying a recently opened BRT project in Vancouver, Washington. We use a difference-in-difference method with both hedonic and repeat sales estimators to test for a price effect. We estimate a 5%–7% price premium for homes located within a 20 min walk of a BRT station. Overall, BRT generated new real estate value that exceeded the project’s construction costs by a factor of six. We discuss how government could leverage future residential property value increases to fund construction of BRT projects.

Europe is finally entering a season of liberalisation in the long-distance rail passenger market, which takes the form of on-track competition among public and private operators. The paper provides a broad-scope comparison of relevant European markets, belonging to liberalised and non-liberalised countries, aiming to point out the patterns in terms of supply, competition model and prices. The paper is based on a sample of heterogeneous 69 city-pairs, analysed in two fourteen days periods in 2019 (May/June and November). All available modes are observed, collecting info on companies, frequency of services, and cheapest price. The analysis starts from a schematisation of different business models, based on literature. Then, using the database, we study the country's supply structure, size, and level of intermodal and intra-modal competition through HHIs. Prices are analysed in two steps: the average prices and the price dispersion, searching for their main determinants, including but not limited to competition. Results show that a higher competition level is not always corresponding to low prices, which are instead determined by many other factors such as size of market, demand, socio-economic characteristics, subsidies, production costs, speed advantage, strength of the incumbent, etc. The competition level, instead, directly influences the quality, the supplied capacity, and the price dispersion.

In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the efficiency of the bus route network in Akita City, Akita Prefecture, Japan. The DEA efficiency indices utilized route length (km) and overlap index (number of lines/km) as input values for the network efficiency, while the number of buses per year was used as the output value for the deployment efficiency. Operating costs (yen) were used as the input value for the revenue efficiency, and Operating costs (yen) and fare revenue (yen) were used as input and output values, respectively, for the revenue efficiency. The results of this study show that the overall network efficiency is low, indicating that complex and radial bus routes are inefficient and can be improved. Next, we surveyed the attitudes of residents of Akita City, regarding the use of bus routes. The results showed that 18.5% of the respondents did not want to transfer between bus trips, whereas 69.7% could tolerate transferring up to once. Furthermore, 2.7% of the respondents were unwilling to wait for the bus, whereas 52.4% were willing to wait within 10 min, while 38.6% were willing to wait between 10 and 20 min.

Based on the results of this analysis, which was conducted by a university laboratory, suggestions were made to the local government on how to provide an efficient network. The bus routes in Akita City are operated by private operators but managed by the local government. Thus, efficient bus routes with connections can be constructed through proposals to local governments.

Inefficient bus routes were identified using DEA, and a network with transfers was examined for their improvement. When examining such a network, the attitudes of the users toward transfers must be understood; the relationship involves understanding the attitudes of the users toward inefficient bus routes using DEA. This study revealed that a large number of people could tolerate up to one transfer. The transit time is a significant factor in the acceptance.

The deregulation of the U.S. railroad industry has largely been considered a success, as costs and rates have fallen due to changes in the mix of traffic and industry consolidation. However, rates did not fall as quickly as costs, and since 2000 rates have been rising while many measures of cost have remained relatively stable. We investigate these changes in rail rates using a sample of agricultural shipments from 2000–2016. We provide evidence that even after controlling for changes in cost drivers such as fuel, the relationships between prices and determinants have changed over time, suggesting that railroad pricing rules have driven increases in rates faced by shippers.

With increasing trends in online shopping, brick-and-mortar retailers have experienced declines in businesses forcing them to close down completely, downsize or go online. Shopping malls and strip malls, for example, have been faced with less foot traffic in recent years, while struggling to retain and attract new businesses to operate in various locations. Similarly, public transit agencies in the U.S have seen declines in ridership. Using a bivariate probit model and consumer-level data to examine the inter-relationship between online shopping, mall visits and public transit use, this study seeks to determine if online shopping activities contribute to the declines in public transit ridership in the U.S. Our results indicate that public transit use is positively associated with mall visits; for consumers who are online shoppers, online shopping creates a negative effect on mall visits thereby reducing their public transit use. This effect, however, is small relative to the effect of car ownership.