Determinants of car ownership among young households in the Netherlands: The role of urbanisation and demographic and economic characteristics

In the Netherlands, car ownership among young adults has slowly decreased in recent decades. The main causes of this trend are still unclear. Using a unique dataset in which vehicle registration data were combined with population and income register data for 2012/2013, this paper explores how car ownership among young Dutch households varies with household composition, urbanisation level (of household location), household income, employment status and ethnic background. Logistic regression analysis of this data revealed that urbanisation level and household composition are essential factors influencing car ownership. In addition, we found significant interaction effects between these two factors: the influence of urbanisation level on car ownership was much stronger for young couples than for young families or singles. Our results imply that increasing urbanisation and postponement of parenthood could reduce future car ownership among young adults in general. However, the increasing number of young families moving to more urbanised areas could increase future car ownership in cities.     

Optimisation models for the urban parking pricing problem

Parking pricing strategies are important tools for rebalancing the modal split between private car and transit systems in urban areas. Indeed, high congestion levels are mainly due to users' preference for the private car system. In order to obtain a more balanced modal split it is possible, together with an improvement in transit system quality, to set fees on the use of private cars through road pricing and/or parking pricing strategies. Parking pricing strategies are simpler, since they can be managed without adopting advanced technologies. In this paper some parking pricing strategies are proposed and some optimisation models are formalised.     

Local authority and academic attitudes to urban road pricing: a UK perspective

Urban road pricing as an instrument of traffic management has generated a great deal of interest in the UK in recent years. Whilst this is the case there is still no urban road pricing scheme in operation in the UK. The reason for this is primarily one of ‘acceptability.’ This paper, through the use of a national survey, examines the attitudes of key stakeholder groups with respect to urban road pricing. How serious is traffic congestion and traffic related pollution perceived to be by Local Authority Councillors, Officials and the Academic community in the UK? How is urban road pricing viewed by this sub-group of the population in terms of its effectiveness and public acceptance when compared to other policy options? and how could the saleability of urban road pricing be improved? This raises issues in terms of how the revenue raised from urban road pricing should be utilised, the use of urban road pricing as part of a package of measures, the concerns expressed by the stakeholders with respect to urban road pricing, such as the invasion of road users’ privacy, and the type of technology which should be considered. Overall, the paper aims to further the debate among policy makers.     

Key research themes on regulation,pricing, and sustainable urban mobility

ABSTRACT

This article considers both theoretical arguments and practical experience regarding a range of urban pricing and regulation policies, namely road pricing, public transport pricing and regulation, car parking policies, home and low-emissions zones, and regulation and subsidies to bring about cleaner vehicles. It concludes that effective urban transport policies require a consistently structured package of measures, and that the most urgent research needs surround the design of such measures to achieve their objectives while being financially sustainable and attracting public and political support.     

Determinants of private car users' acceptance of road pricing

The study investigates determinants of private car users' acceptance of road pricing. A model specifying the strength and direction of causal paths between latent theoretical variables was estimated for data from a survey of 524 car owners living in a metropolitan area of Sweden. The estimated model showed that acceptance of road pricing is negatively affected by perceived infringement on freedom and unfairness which in turn increase with intentions to reduce car use. Income is negatively and expectations that others will reduce car use positively related to intentions to reduce car use.     

Research challenges in modelling urban road pricing: An overview

This article introduces the contributions of this special issue on modelling of urban road pricing and its implementation. The issue focuses on the design of urban road pricing schemes, and their spatial and temporal impacts, using quantitative transport (and land use) models. The policy implications of road pricing, including welfare and equity aspects, are studied for Paris, Brussels and Oslo using state of the art planning models. The issue is completed with a study of public acceptability and the upcoming road-pricing trial in Stockholm, and a review paper on the history of thought and future prospects of road pricing.     

Households transport-home energy conservation strategies in response to energy price policies: A stated adaptation experiment based on portfolio choices and cross effects designs

This article explores consumer investment choice in long-term energy conservation technology and assesses trade-offs in energy saving behaviour between the housing and transportation domains. The long-term energy conservation choice problem is conceptualized as a portfolio choice problem. Consequently, to measure trade-offs between investments in housing and transport options, a cross effects choice design is developed in which respondents were shown one or more alternate ways to reduce their current energy consumption: (1) investing in new technology in the house, such as solar panels; (2) exchanging the current car for a more energy efficient car; (3) buying a new energy-efficient car, such as EV or solar car; (4) moving house to reduce current travel distances. To help respondents linking these options to their current energy consumption, a new Web-based survey system (SINA) to implement and administer stated adaptation experiments was developed. The system was used to collect two sets of data. First, data about out-of-home and in-home energy consumption, together with detailed time use data, was collected. Second, using a cross effects design, respondents were asked to select a portfolio of energy-saving strategies in response to different energy pricing policy scenarios. Results reported in this paper are based on 572 respondents who completed the survey and responded to seven adaptation questions based on their current energy expenditures. A random parameters logit model is estimated to predict the probability of choosing a particular portfolio of energy-saving options. Estimation results indicate that individuals from different socio-demographic groups exhibit varied preferences. The saving option characteristics, especially cost related characteristics have significant effects on individuals' preferences. Moreover, the results also showed significant effects of choice set composition on energy saving options. Further, the energy pricing policies had showed mixed effects on individual's preferences.     

Same city—different options: An analysis of the work trips of married couples in the metropolitan area of Oslo

The question raised in this paper is in which ways the urban structure interacts with or creates different conditions for activities made by men and women. To explore this question the paper focuses on the travel to work of married couples in an urban context, how they adapt time use and deal with the spatial choices of work places and the allocation of transport resources. The empirical analyses are based on a personal travel study from the Oslo-region in 1990/91. Women work closer to their homes than the husbands, and have less choice on the geographical labour market. In families with one car, the husband has the first choice. Women have more often tasks on the way to and from work related to household responsibilities.     

How large is the gap between present and efficient transport prices in Europe?

In this paper, we analyse the gap between present transport prices and efficient transport prices. Efficient transport prices are those prices that maximise economic welfare, including external costs (congestion, air pollution, accidents). The methodology is applied to six urban and interregional case studies using one common optimal pricing model. The case studies cover passenger as well as freight transport and cover all modes. We find that prices need to be raised most for peak urban passenger car transport and to a lesser extent for interregional road transport. Optimal pricing results for public transport are more mixed. We show that current external costs on congested roads are a bad guide for optimal taxes and tolls: the optimal toll that takes into account the reaction of demand is often less than one third of the present marginal external cost.     

Keep the children walking: active school travel in Tirana,Albania

This paper examines how characteristics of the physical and socio-economic environment influence children’s school travel mode in Tirana, the capital of Albania. A survey of students aged 11 to 13, revealed that an overwhelming majority walk to school, while bicycling and bus use are minimal. Students who walk to school often do so as part of a larger group of schoolmates, attend schools that are located relatively near their house, are faced with relatively few major road crossings during their journey, and belong to families that are less likely to own a car. Children who are driven to school (only 13.5% of our sample) usually have higher-income families and live farther from the school. Although Tirana’s high residential density has some environmental drawbacks, we deem it positive in that its result is that most students live very close to their schools and in close proximity to classmates walking to school. The fine grain pattern of the urban public school network contributes to the short distances between schools and homes. We provide a number of recommendations for the promotion of walking in home-school trips, as well as for the future physical development of the city and the school network.     

Mapping the potential consequences of car-use reduction in urban areas

Policy measures managing the demand for private car use are contemplated in urban areas all over the world. A first step in evaluating the effectiveness––as well as the interrelated sociospatial consequences––of travel demand management (TDM) measures is determining how their implementation changes the travel options faced by households in different segments. Geocoded travel diary data from Gothenburg, Sweden, are analysed with the aim of determining the number and type of trips by car to the city centre that would be affected by the introduction of traffic regulations varying spatially and temporally. Logistic regression analyses are performed to identify effects on different trip purposes, as well as individual and household characteristics related to changes in travel options. The possible application of the results within a policy context and to other urban areas is discussed along with the potential implications for research into adaptation strategies adopted in response to the implementation of TDM measures.     

Detecting urban road network accessibility problems using taxi GPS data

Urban population growth and economic development have led to the creation of new communities, jobs and services at places where the existing road network might not cover or efficiently handle traffic. This generates isolated pockets of areas which are difficult to reach through the transport system. To address this accessibility problem, we have developed a novel approach to systematically examine the current urban land use and road network conditions as well as to identify poorly connected regions, using GPS data collected from taxis. This method is composed of four major steps. First, city-wide passenger travel demand patterns and travel times are modeled based on GPS trajectories. Upon this model, high density residential regions are then identified, and measures to assess accessibility of each of these places are developed. Next, the regions with the lowest level of accessibility among all the residential areas are detected, and finally the detected regions are further examined and specific transport situations are analyzed.By applying the proposed method to the Chinese city of Harbin, we have identified 20 regions that have the lowest level of accessibility by car among all the identified residential areas. A serious reachability problem to petrol stations has also been discovered, in which drivers from 92.6% of the residential areas have to travel longer than 30 min to refill their cars. Furthermore, the comparison against a baseline model reveals the capacity of the derived measures in accounting for the actual travel routes under divergent traffic conditions. The experimental results demonstrate the potential and effectiveness of the proposed method in detecting car-based accessibility problems, contributing towards the development of urban road networks into a system that has better reachability and more reduced inequity.     

Survey of E-scooter users in Vienna: Who they are and how they ride

In many cities around the world, electric (e-)scooters have emerged as a new means of transportation. They are often advertised as supporting modal shift towards more sustainable transportation and as a tool for enabling more equity in mobility. However, the environmental impact depends on how they are used and what kinds of trips they replace. Integration of e-scooters into urban transport systems also implicates discussions on fair road space allocation. In our study, we assess the socio-economic profiles and usage patterns of e-scooter users in Vienna, Austria. We differentiate between two basic groups of e-scooter users (renters and owners) and apply two different methods. Firstly, based on an online survey, we examine the age, gender and education of e-scooter users and we look into which kinds of trips (commuting, shopping or leisure) and which other means of transportation are replaced by e-scooter trips. Secondly, we analyse data from field observations at cycle paths in Vienna in order to determine the share of e-scooter riders and their gender distribution. We find that e-scooter users are more likely to be young, male, highly educated and residents of Vienna. According to the survey, there are considerable differences in usage between owners of private scooters and users of sharing schemes. Whereas in both groups, e-scooter trips mostly replace walking and public transport as a mode, e-scooter owners also show a considerable mode-shift from private car trips. These results implicate that e-scooter riders are additional users of cycling infrastructure. This puts further pressure on the current allocation of road space, which provides little space for active modes of transport. We conclude that city policies should address this competitive relationship adequately by allocating more space to safe and convenient cycling infrastructure and traffic-calmed zones. This could not only help ease the current challenges due to e-scooters but also provide better conditions for walking and cycling and thereby at the same time contribute to a more sustainable and equitable urban transport system.     

Making urban road pricing acceptable and effective: searching for quality and equity in urban mobility

Urban Road Pricing has been proposed many times as a powerful instrument to fight congestion in urban traffic, but has systematically faced a hostile political envirionment, due to lack of confidence on its promised (traffic) results and fear of its political consequences. Lack of action in this front is contributing to stable or even growing congestion problems in most large cities.This paper tries to address the problem with a fresh look at the objectives of road pricing and at the reasons for that political hostility. For managing and developing the urban mobility system, efficiency and equity are normally taken as the basic economic objectives. Sustainability objectives may be integrated in the efficiency objective if we are able to represent adequately the costs of the resources consumed in the process. Political hostility is normally based on having to pay for what was freely available, and on the risk of exclusion for those with little revenue available for the extra cost of driving into the city.Pursuit of efficency leads to suggestion of marginal social cost pricing but this is hard to explain to the public and application of this principle is fraught with pitfalls since some components of that cost get smaller as traffic grows (noise related costs for example). Pricing is still a good option but the objective has to be something easier to understand and to serve as a target for mobility managers. That “new” objective is quality of the mobility system, with a meaning similar to that of “level of service” in traffic engineering, and prices should be managed to across space, time and transport modes in such a way that provision of service is made with good quality in all components.Pursuit of equity leads to some form of rationing, which has often been associated with high transaction costs and abuse by the administrators. But the use of electronic road pricing should allow easy ways to address the rationing process without such high costs. The basic proposition is that all local taxpayers receive as a direct restitution of their tax contribution a certain amount of “mobility rights”, which can be used both for private car driving in the tolled areas and for riding public transport.These principles are easily applicable with a variety of technical solutions for road pricing, from the simplest cordon pricing to the more sophisticated “pay-as-you-go” schemes. The paper addresses this question of implementation and argues for increasingly sophisticated schemes, as people get accustomed to the principles and finer targeting of demand segments may be needed.     

A fuel surcharge policy for reducing road traffic greenhouse gas emissions

This paper proposes a car pricing policy based on fuel surcharges in substitution of car ownership taxes for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by cars. The aim of the proposed policy is to change some (fixed) costs of car use that are not perceived at each trip into (variable) costs. The amount of fuel surcharges and the effects of their application on fuel consumption and on GHG emissions are estimated by a model that is able to relate gasoline and diesel consumption with fuel prices. The effects of the proposed policy on fuel consumption and on GHG emissions are estimated for Italy. The results show that car users prefer to shift towards more efficient fuel vehicles than to public transport, producing a significant, but less than expected, reduction of GHG emissions.     

Built environment and potential job accessibility effects of road pricing: A spatial econometric perspective

This paper analyzes the impacts of the built environment (BE) as it relates to the potential job accessibility (PJA) effects of road pricing. The relationships between the BE elements and PJA under a road charging policy are established using a spatial econometric approach, which uses an integrated land use and transportation model (TRANUS model) and a spatial lag model (SLM). With the intent of further analyzing the differences in the PJA effects of road pricing on traffic analysis zones (TAZs) that contain different combinations of BE elements, a quantitative classification method combining factor and cluster analysis is applied. This will quantitatively categorize TAZs inside and outside the tolled areas. In exploring the relationship between changes in PJA and the road pricing policy, we found the spatial autocorrelation coefficient to be negative. This result suggests that we are unable to increase the PJA of all the regions through road pricing, but rather affect a redistribution of PJA between different regions. Results also indicate that the impacts of road charging on PJA are associated with urban BE elements. Moreover, such effects are the common result of specific characteristics of the BE. The higher the number of jobs, the better the public transportation conditions, and the better the street design (high densities of street and intersections), the less the region will be negatively influenced by a road charging policy, and vice versa. To avoid the negative effects of road pricing on PJA prior to the launch of such a policy, cities should improve public transportation networks and enhance the street design of the road pricing policy areas, especially the toll ring periphery area.     

Constraints affecting mode choices by morning car commuters

In New Zealand as elsewhere, there is an increasing interest in alleviating congestion on the road transport network to improve economic productivity, reduce pollution, and to use the transport network more effectively. Governments enact various policies to encourage car drivers to change their behaviour, but often find that the full impact is not reached. We propose that car drivers have constraints influencing their mode choice for the morning peak period trip (e.g. needing to transport children, needing a car for work during the day). A stated preference experiment conducted in the three largest New Zealand urban areas not only quantifies the likely impact of a wide range of policy tools (both ‘sticks’ discouraging car use, and ‘carrots’ encouraging alternative modes) for each area, but also identifies many significant constraints.     

Assessing the effects of access policies on travel mode choices in an Alpine tourist destination

Alternative Transportation Systems (ATS) can contribute to an overall reduction of visitation-related impacts in natural areas if their design and management are informed by a clear understanding of the factors influencing visitors’ mode choice. This is particularly relevant in areas served by multiple alternative transportation options at different locations because mode choices in this case can largely modify visitation patterns. This study investigated mode choices in a popular hiking area of the Dolomites (Italian Alps) that is reachable by car, bus, and lifts (i.e. cable car and chairlift). A stated preference survey was used to elicit visitor sensitivities to a series of management and experiential conditions, while simulation was applied to predict mode choice as a consequence of various access policies. While indicating lift as the most preferred transportation option, results suggest the existence of two main kinds of visitor: one preferring road-accessible trailheads and another preferring lift-accessible trailheads. These two kinds seem to reflect a traditional view (i.e., very sensitive to fares, road closures, and overcrowding) and a more modern one (i.e., moderately sensitive to lift fares, relatively insensitive to crowding), respectively. Simulations performed for both groups led to four management principles: road traffic is not reduced significantly without disincentives for car use; overly cheap lift fares are counterproductive; fare-frequency trade-off is key to ensure adequate bus ridership within both groups; and road closures may be comprehensively more effective than road tolls. The findings of this study may support managers and administrators in setting up access policies that better preserve natural resources and visitors’ recreational experience.     

Car ownership and urban development in Chinese cities: A panel data analysis

Growth in car ownership has significant impacts on the use of urban space and management of urban environments, which makes it a topic of increasing interest especially for developing countries such as China. The dynamics of and factors influencing ownership in Chinese cities need careful investigation. Using fixed effects models applied to annual panel data (1994–2012; 293 cities) this study aimed to achieve the following: 1) assess the relationships between car ownership and average annual income per capita, population, built-up area, road area per capita, urban population density, number of taxis and bus passenger volume; 2) examine the variation of these relationships across geographical regions (East, middle, and West China) and city sizes (cities with small, medium, large, and super-large populations). The results showed that car ownership was positively associated with average annual income per capita, built-up area, road area per capita, urban population density, and number of taxis at the national level. All associations, except with the number of taxis, varied significantly across geographical regions. Built-up area, road area per capita, and number of taxis had different associations with car ownership depending on city sizes. The findings improve the understanding of relationships between car ownership and urban environments vis-a-vis variations in income and infrastructure per capita, population density, and transportation alternatives. These results have important policy implications for managing cars and health problems related to cars in China.