Ramsey pricing in practice: the case of the Norwegian ferries

The article develops a cost model for ferry operators, which enables us to estimate how long-run marginal costs for transporting different categories of vehicles are related to trip lengths. The model is estimated using cross-sectional data from 64 ferry services in Norway. The present fare system for the ferries is then compared with marginal costs and with Ramsey fares with the presumption that the ferries' subsidy needs are at today's level. Ramsey pricing implicates steeper relationships between fares and trip lengths than present fares, in particular for heavy vehicles. Consequently, fares based on general principles of economic welfare should, under present financial constraints for the ferry operators, lead to lower fares for short journeys and significantly higher fares for long journeys.     

Determinants of route choice behavior: A comparison of shop versus work trips using the Potential Path Area - Gateway (PPAG) algorithm and Path-Size Logit

This paper presents an in-depth comparison of route choice models for work and shop vehicle trips—with emphasis on the interactions between route attributes and individual characteristics—to better understand the route choice determinants that are assumed to vary by trip purpose. Insights into the route choice behavior involving two dominant vehicle trip purposes—work and shop trips—will help in the design of traffic facilities and implementation of measures to influence route choice in the desired direction.In this study, we show that the utility and scale parameters for separate models of work and shop trips differ by direct comparison using a sequential scaling estimation method and likelihood ratio tests, and highlight the differences in route choice behavior by considering the interaction of route attributes and individual characteristics using Path-Size Logit modeling. In the process, we used Potential Path Area - Gateway (PPAG) algorithm—that generates feasible route choice sets for route choice modeling from GPS trajectories of observed routes.The results show that, indeed, route choice behavior varies by trip, which suggests that drivers attach value to route choice determinants relative to trip purpose. The inclusion of interaction terms in model specifications further indicates that work route choice behavior tends to be restrictive compared to the nonrestrictive route choice for shop trips—a generalization consistent with the mandatory and discretionary nature of work and shop trips, respectively. Specifically, individual characteristics such as personal income, age, gender, tenure, household size, and access to public transit affect route choice behavior.     

The access journey to the railway station and its role in passengers’ satisfaction with rail travel

This paper focuses on two lines of investigation with regard to access to railway stations in the Netherlands. Firstly, the profile of the access and egress modes on journeys to and from railway stations is analyzed. We also examine how the availability of car affects the mode choice on journeys to the station. Secondly, the effect of passengers’ perception of the station and of the journey to the station on the overall perception of traveling by rail is estimated. The results show that most of the passengers choose walking, bicycle and public transport to get to or from the railway station and that the availability of a car does not have a strong effect on the choice of access mode to the station. The quality of the station and the access/egress facilities was found to have an important effect on the general perception of traveling by rail.     

Heterogeneous preferences of green vehicles by vehicle size: Analysis of Seoul case

Although there are several policies for promoting green vehicles, green vehicles have yet to penetrate the market to the extent desired. To attain the goal, a complete understanding of consumers’ preferences of green vehicles is essential. This paper proposes and specifies the fuel-type choice models among conventional gasoline vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles by vehicle size using the stated preferences data collected in Seoul, Korea. The results highlight the need to accommodate the correlation between similar alternatives and the unobserved heterogeneity within the context of choosing a green vehicle. The choice probabilities of green vehicles are affected by the relative impacts of the vehicles’ attributes and socio-demographic variables, and both of these variables are affected by the sizes of the vehicles. For compact size and mid-size vehicles, the effects of operating costs were less than those of purchase prices; however, for the subcompact vehicles, the effects of operating cost were greater than those of purchase price. The parameter of operating costs was not statistically significant in the full-size model. With respect to electric vehicles, the availability of fuel stations would be more important in Seoul than in the U.S. These results can also be useful for policy makers in that they provide information about the impact of green vehicles’ attributes on the choice probabilities of green vehicles.     

Shortest path distance vs. least directional change: Empirical testing of space syntax and geographic theories concerning pedestrian route choice behaviour

Existing knowledge on the impact of built environment (BE) on route choice behaviour is doubtful due to an unresolved tension between two schools of thought. One represented BE geographically and found that most people tend to choose the shortest route. The other represented BE topologically and showed that least directional change is a key determinant of route choice. How do pedestrians make a trade-off between these two factors in route choice? This question is answered using walking route data of 178 pedestrians in Brisbane, Australia. Their reported routes were examined against the corresponding shortest path and least directional change routes using the percent overlap method. The effects of 25 additional BE factors were also estimated in a conditional logit model. The results reveal that: (a) Together distance and direction are likely to explain 53% of route choice decisions; (b) Individually, distance and direction are likely to explain 34% and 46% of route choice decisions respectively; (c) 28% of the chosen routes satisfied both distance and direction criteria. These findings confirm the claims of both schools, but also point that the least directional change route is a preferred option, and that pedestrians tend to minimise both criteria if they can.     

Moving freight on public transit: Best practices,challenges, and opportunities

Freight on Transit (FOT) refers to an operational strategy where public transit vehicles and/or infrastructure are used to move freight. Examples include moving goods alongside passengers on buses, attaching cargo trailers to transit vehicles, and operating freight vehicles between trains on subway lines. This paper describes the methods and results of a three-round Delphi study engaging 34 transportation experts to explore challenges and opportunities of FOT and to conceptualize and evaluate potential FOT operations in Toronto. Traditional Delphi methods were used for the exploration of FOT challenges and opportunities, and a modified approach was formulated to integrate experts' opinions and develop new FOT concepts for Toronto. The results support previous claims that technical challenges of FOT may be easier to overcome than institutional barriers. Evaluation of potential FOT operating strategies in Toronto suggests that while the current public transit network does not have capacity to support additional movements, there may be realistic opportunities to include freight service in future projects as a means of offsetting operating costs and reducing the impacts of goods movements.     

A GPS data-based analysis of built environment influences on bicyclist route preferences

This study examines the effects of built environment features, including factors of land use and road network, on bicyclists' route preferences using the data from the city of Seattle. The bicycle routes are identified using a GPS dataset collected from a smartphone application named “CycleTracks.” The route choice set is generated using the labeling route approach, and the cost functions of route alternatives are based on principal component analyses. Then, two mixed logit models, focusing on random parameters and alternative-specific coefficients, respectively, are estimated to examine bicyclists' route choice. The major findings of this study are as follows: (1) the bicycle route choice involves the joint consideration of convenience, safety, and leisure; (2) most bicyclists prefer to cycle on shorter, flat, and well-planned bicycle facilities with slow road traffic; (3) some bicyclists prefer routes surrounded by mixed land use; (4) some bicyclists favor routes which are planted with street trees or installed with street lights; and (5) some bicyclists prefer routes along with city features. This analysis provides valuable insights into how well-planned land use and road network can facilitate efficient, safe, and enjoyable bicycling.     

Seamless,accessible travel: users’ views of the public transport journey and interchange

Emphasis on the need to reduce the deterrence effects and costs associated with interchange, so that increasingly seamless public transport journeys can be provided, is now a key policy goal. This paper reports the findings from a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews of both public transport users and car users that were undertaken for a Scottish Executive funded study on interchange and travel choice. It explores how interchange is perceived and how this perception deters public transport use amongst car users or limits public transport use amongst public transport users. The paper also provides insights into lifestyles, the decision-making processes and types of considerations that are made at key stages in the journeys of both car users and public transport passengers.     

Random and fuzzy utility models for road route choice

The objective of this work is the specification, calibration and validation of a route choice model distinguishing the phases of set perception and route choice among the alternatives belonging to the chosen set. Route generation is performed with a selective multi-criteria approach; route choice is performed using random and fuzzy utility models. As regards the fuzzy utility models, a new specification of a fuzzy model is introduced. Random and fuzzy utility models are compared and applied on a test road network and were specified and calibrated for national road freight transport on a real Italy-wide network.     

Shortest path or anchor-based route choice: a large-scale empirical analysis of minicab routing in London

Understanding and modelling route choice behaviour is central to predicting the formation and propagation of urban road congestion. Yet within conventional literature disagreements persist around the nature of route choice behaviour, and how it should be modelled. In this paper, both the shortest path and anchor-based perspectives on route choice behaviour are explored through an empirical analysis of nearly 700,000 minicab routes across London, United Kingdom. In the first set of analyses, the degree of similarity between observed routes and possible shortest paths is established. Shortest paths demonstrate poor performance in predicting both observed route choice and characteristics. The second stage of analysis explores the influence of specific urban features, named anchors, in route choice. These analyses show that certain features attract more route choices than would be expected were individuals choosing route based on cost minimisation alone. Instead, the results indicate that major urban features form the basis of route choice planning – being selected disproportionately more often, and causing asymmetry in route choice volumes by direction of travel. At a finer scale, decisions made at minor road features are furthermore demonstrated to influence routing patterns. The results indicate a need to revisit the basis of how routes are modelled, shifting from the shortest path perspective to a mechanism structured around urban features. In concluding, the main trends are synthesised within an initial framework for route choice modelling, and presents potential extensions of this research.     

Route choice of bike share users: Leveraging GPS data to derive choice sets

To identify the determinants of bike share users' route choices, this research collects 132,397 hub-to-hub global positioning system (GPS) trajectories over a 12-month period between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016 from 750 bicycles provided by Hamilton Bike Share (HBS). A GIS-based map-matching algorithm is used to derive users' routes along the cycling network within Hamilton, Ontario and generate multiple attributes for each route, such as route distance, route directness, average distance between intersections, and the number of turns, intersections, and unique road segments. Concerning route choice analysis, the origin and destination pair should be the same for all routes within a choice set, thus HBS users' trips are grouped by origin-destination hub pairs. Since trips taken by different users between a hub pair can follow the same route, unique routes are extracted using a link signature extraction tool. Following this, a normalized Gini (G_n) coefficient is calculated for each hub pair to evaluate users' preferences among all the unique hub-to-hub route choices. A G_n closer to 0 indicates that routes between a hub pair are more evenly used, while a value closer to 1 implies a higher preference toward one dominant route. Three route choice models, a global model, a medium G_n model, and a high G_n model, are estimated using Path-Size Logit to determine how route choice is affected by the presence of dominant routes. These models suggest that HBS users are willing to detour for some attributes, such as bicycle facilities, but tend to avoid circuitous routes, turns, steep slopes, and roads with high traffic volume.     

An ex ante evaluation of mobile depots in cities: A sustainability perspective

Today, a large share of cost, congestion, and emission in cities is attributed to light goods vehicles like carrier vans distributing to the last mile. The aim of many policy agendas is to reach cleaner cities with less disturbance from the distribution vehicles. Several suggestions have been put forward and tested in research and practice, such as access restrictions, multimodal transport, and use of cleaner vehicles. In this paper, we develop a case for a more sustainable freight distribution within cities using an ex ante case study. The idea of the mobile depot is built on the iteration between historical transitions within cities and contemporary developments in urban freight distribution, and then analyzed ex ante both quantitatively in calculations and qualitatively in two stakeholder workshops. The idea is integrated and multimodal, based on a mobile depot (e.g., a bus, truck, barge, or tram) that circles the city and connects to low emission last mile delivery options such as LEVs (Light Electrical Vehicles) or cargo bikes. We found that such a system can be environmentally and socially better for the city context, while maintaining economic viability above a certain utilization rate of the mobile depot for the transport operators.     

Travel time use and its impact on high-speed-railway passengers' travel satisfaction in the e-society

The availability of wireless networks and the pervasive use of mobile ICT devices have allowed passengers to conduct various e-activities during journeys. These various e-activities, in turn, may change people's conventional perception of travel time from being “wasteful” and “unproductive,” to “desirable” and giving rise to satisfaction. Journeys on high-speed railway (HSR) is particularly relevant for transport researchers to probe into this question because of its characteristics of being medium to long-distance (typically taking half-an-hour or more), seat availability, and a smooth ride. Using a questionnaire survey on passengers along the Shanghai-Nanjing HSR route, this study aims to examine the nature of ICT device use and in-vehicle e-activities conducted by HSR passengers and the influence on their travel satisfaction with their on-board journey experience. Our results reveal a high percentage of ICT device use and a wide variety of e-activities such as e-working, e-communication, and e-reading for leisure on HSR trains. In addition, the higher use of ICT device was associated with an increase of passengers' travel satisfaction. Furthermore, we found a positive effect of work-related e-activities on travel satisfaction for business/work trips, while a positive effect of entertainment-related e-activities for non-business/work trips. Given that HSR is potentially a more sustainable transport mode, some possible policy implications are proposed to encourage people to use HSR, as opposed to driving or flying, for medium to long-distance intercity journeys.     

在时间窗条件下应急物资运输路径优化问题研究

应急物资调运主要是应急车辆在最短的时间内把应急物资运送到需求点,其研究的核心是最短路径选择问题。通过对研究问题的描述,界定其中交通网络的道路和节点均带有禁止时间窗,模型目标是通过路径选择最小化调运时间,鉴于模型的组合属性,利用动态规划和标号法算法对设计问题求解,以实例计算说明模型算法的有效性。     

Exploring the choice of battery electric vehicles in city logistics: A conjoint-based choice analysis

Adoption of electric vehicles by transport companies remains limited although major European cities should reach CO₂-free city logistics by 2030. This paper explores therefore the vehicle choice behaviour of transport companies through a conjoint-based choice analysis.The results showed that the benefits of battery electric vehicles are less valued than their disadvantages. However, a majority of respondents agrees that authorities should encourage the use of battery electric vehicles. Based on the preferences of transporters, we conclude that the most important measures are to develop a larger charging infrastructure and implement financial incentives through subsidies or tax exemption.     

Environmental footprint of road freight: Case studies from Switzerland

Current Swiss policy aiming to reduce the environmental footprint of heavy vehicles is presented. The environmental footprint of 46 heavy vehicle cases defined as dynamic load, noise, vibration and gaseous emissions is measured based on criteria set by the European project Eureka Logchain footprint. These parameters were measured for freight vehicles selected from the traffic stream and were compared to the criteria set up as a result of current Swiss policy. Results show that parameters that are currently controlled and their reduction encouraged such as gaseous emissions, axle loads and gross weight are indeed below or close to acceptable limits. However, other important parameters such as tyre pressure and noise remain higher than acceptable limits. In order to encourage the operation of vehicles with a low total environmental footprint parameters need to be set and controlled systematically.     

Route choice behavior in a radial structured urban network: Do people choose the orbital or the route through the city center?

We use a license plate survey to study route choice through the city center of a medium-sized Dutch city, in which car drivers can basically choose between the orbital and center ring. For a sample of 1397 trips, we fitted a multinomial logit regression model. According to this model, route choice is relatively little influenced by actual travel time. This corresponds with the fact that many drivers did not choose the shortest time route. Travel distance in combination with one “route type velocity” for all orbital routes, and one route type velocity for all center routes is the most decisive factor. The route type velocity indicates how fast and attractive routes of that type are (being perceived). The results support the hypothesis that orbital routes are more attractive as these routes avoid the busy city center. This effect is however partly offset by the fact that drivers also prefer routes in the direction of their destination. These direct routes are mainly center routes. The results show the importance of considering complete routes in relation to their location and not only as a set of links and nodes when modeling route choice.     

Modelling the impact of alternative fare structures on train overcrowding

The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) provides the backbone to rail regulation in Great Britain. As part of its responsibilities, the SRA monitors overcrowding on trains which it measures in terms of the proportion of passengers on trains in excess of the seat capacity for longer distance services, and with an allowance for standing passengers on shorter journeys of less than 20 min. Overcrowding on Britain's railways fell during the early 1990s but has been on the increase since 1996 with particularly acute problems in the morning peak for services travelling to London. In a study conducted on behalf of the SRA we developed the PRAISE rail operations model to include penalties for overcrowding based upon journey purpose, journey time and degree of overcrowding. Using demand, fares and timetable information for an actual case study route, we examine how fares and ticketing restrictions can be set to manage demand throughout the day without significantly reducing the overall demand for rail travel.     

Using spatial network analysis to model pedal cycle flows,risk and mode choice

Spatial network analysis (SpNA) provides a promising alternative to traditional transport models for the modelling of active travel, because walking and cycling behaviour is influenced by features smaller than the scale of zones in a traditional model. There is currently a need for link-level, city wide modelling of cycling, both to ensure the needs of existing cyclists are catered for in planning, and to model the effects of changing infrastructure in shaping cyclist behaviour. Existing SpNA models treat cyclists and car drivers as if they make navigational decisions in a similar way, which in reality is not the case.This paper presents an SpNA model using hybrid betweenness, which fits cyclist flows in Cardiff, Wales using distance, angular distance, motor vehicle traffic and slope as predictors of route choice. SpNA betweenness is also shown to implicitly capture the effect of urban density on mode choice. As it handles route finding decisions of drivers and cyclists separately, the model presented is also applicable to road safety models examining the interaction between the two classes of road user. The model has low cost of data collection and is reproducible using publicly available network analysis software and open mapping data. Further avenues for modelling the effect of infrastructure on cycling are discussed.     

Analysis of travel mode choice and trip chain pattern relationships based on multi-day GPS data: A case study in Shanghai,China

As the propensity to link multiple intermediate stops in a trip chain (a sequence of journeys that starts and ends at home, includes visiting one or more locations) is more prevalent, the relationship between travel mode choice and trip chain pattern aroused the attention of academics. This paper examines two distinct structures to identify the decision process of travelers between travel mode choice and trip chain pattern: one structure in which trip chain pattern organization precedes travel mode choice, another structure in which travel mode choice decision precedes the organization of trip chain pattern. To accommodate multi-day behavioral variability and unobserved heterogeneity in personal characteristics ignored by traditional travel surveys, multi-day GPS data collected in Shanghai is employed to estimate these two structures within Nested Logit (NL) model. The Monte Carlo (MC) method simulates the switch of trip-chaining and mode choice under possible Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies based on estimation results. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) trip chain pattern decision precedes travel mode choice, which means trip-chaining is organized first and affects travel mode choice; (2) complex trip chain is related to higher automobile dependency, and it is a barrier to the tendency to adopt public transit; (3) people who generally travel by automobiles might switch to public transit when private cars are unavailable, and an increase in household bicycle ownership enhances competition between the bicycle and public transit which leads people to turn to cycling. These findings help implement TDM strategies to develop sustainable transportation systems and optimize the urban trip structure.