Integrated transportation and energy sector CO2 emission control strategies

This paper analyses the mutual benefits of integrating strategies for future energy and transport CO₂ emissions control. The paper illustrates and quantifies the mutual benefits of integrating the transport and the energy sector in the case of Denmark. Today this issue is very relevant in Denmark due to the high share of fluctuating renewable energy produced in the country. In the future, such issue will apply to other countries who plan to use a high share of renewable energy. In short, the energy sector can help the transport sector to replace oil by renewable energy and combined heat and power production (CHP), while the transport sector can assist the energy system in integrating a higher degree of intermittent energy and CHP. Two scenarios for partial conversion of the transport fleet have been considered. One is battery cars combined with hydrogen fuel cell cars, while the other is the use of biofuel (ethanol) and synthetic fuel (methanol) for internal combustion cars. An increase in the fraction of electricity delivered by fluctuating sources like wind power will lead to excess electricity production and the two aforementioned scenarios have a substantial effect on the decrease of the excess production.     

Ramsey pricing including CO2 emission cost: An application to Spanish airports

The long-term growth in the air transport is leading to the need to expand airport infrastructure but this has serious environmental implications. Thus, there is the need to establish an alternative to the traditional airport pricing structure for landing fees, which reflects the overall costs that air transport operators impose on others. Airport pricing should provide a sound guide for future investments, and at the same time reflect whether additional facilities are needed and at what price, by taking into account all costs, including environmental costs. This paper analyses one application of Ramsey Pricing on uncongested Spanish airport, by considering the CO₂ emission costs as a valuable input.     

PM,NOx and CO2 emission reductions from speed management policies in Europe

Speed reduction measures rank among the most common schemes to improve traffic safety. Recently many urban streets or entire districts were converted into 30 kph zones and in many European countries the maximum permissible speed of trucks on motorways is under discussion. However, besides contributing to traffic safety, reducing the maximum speed is also seen as beneficial to the environment due to the associated reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions. These claims however are often unsubstantiated.To gain greater insight into the impact of speed management policies on emissions, this paper examines the impact on different traffic types (urban versus highway traffic) with different modelling approaches (microscopic versus macroscopic). Emissions were calculated for specific types of vehicles with the microscopic VeTESS-tool using real-world driving cycles and compared with the results obtained using generalized Copert-like macroscopic methodologies. We analyzed the relative change in pollutants emitted before and after the implementation of a speed reduction measure for passenger cars on local roads (50–30 kph) and trucks on motorways (90–80 kph). Results indicate that emissions of most classic pollutants for the research undertaken do not rise or fall dramatically. For the passenger cars both methods indicate only minor changes to the emissions of NO_x and CO₂. For PM, the macroscopic approach predicts a moderate increase in emissions whereas microscopic results indicate a significant decrease. The effects of specific speed reduction schemes on PM emissions from trucks are ambiguous but lower maximums speed for trucks consistently result in lower emissions of CO₂ and lower fuel consumption. These results illustrate the scientific uncertainties that policy makers face when considering the implementation of speed management policies.     

An alternative explanation of the persistent low EV-uptake: The need for interventions in current norms of mobility demand

Worldwide, electric vehicles (EVs) are regarded as a key technology in decarbonising the transport sector by integrating renewable energy sources into the grid. Considering the great potentials to disseminate this smart-grid technology, the EV uptake remains low. This tension between the recent years high anticipation of the peak-shaving and storage potential of EVs and the associated persistent minor adoption rate is discussed through an in-depth case study of a Danish mobility operator's attempt to test EVs across a variety of Danish households. Considering the operator's ambitious and strategic promotion of EVs lower cost of operation, sustainable aspects and ability to meet driving needs, almost none of the participants wanted to adopt an EV after the trial ended. Corresponding with dominant approaches, the operator reproduced conventional problem framings' focus on technology, economic rationality, and information. However, through an alternative practice-based analysis, this paper critically recommends urgent sustainable mobility interventions to identify the crucial intervention points in the complexes of interlinked social practices to help explain the persistent low EV-uptake. The paper essentially acknowledges the need for policy makers and designers to scale down the focus on technology fix and innovation, and strategical intervene in the current concepts of practice configurations. In particularly, governance of mobility is recommended to involve multiple change agents to design practice-based interventions that target to reframe and reconceptualise the norms enmeshed in current mobility demand.     

An econometric analysis of domestic air traffic demand in regional airports: Evidence from India

The Indian aviation industry has a vast potential to grow to cater to its population and commerce through developing air transport services to the regional airports. This paper examines the possible determinants of domestic air traffic demand in Indian regional airports serving below three million passengers per annum. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that distance to the nearest airport and accessibility of the airport significantly affect traffic volumes in regional airports. This study also highlights the specificities of Indian regional airports.     

Implications of the ageing society and internationalisation for airport services: A perspective on passenger demand for personal space at airport terminals

“Per-passenger-space” has been used as one of the fundamental units of Level of Service (LOS) measurement to evaluate the capacity of airport terminals for passenger comfort and service satisfaction. This study addresses the questions of how air passengers perceive personal space as an airport service attribute, and how the territoriality of passengers is moderated by their age and cultural background. Participants were grouped depending on their age and nationality for a comparative study. The results from the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and open-ended questions supported the conclusion that passengers of different age and cultural backgrounds perceive personal space differently, and their service satisfaction would be partially affected by the availability of personal space within the airport terminal. These findings suggest a necessity for alternative LOS standards that are cost-effective and able to reflect changing age structure and cultural composition of air passengers.     

Sensation‐Seeking Attributes Associated with Storm‐Chasing Tourists: Implications for Future Engagement

This study explores recreational storm chasing, a new form of niche tourism. In particular, this study examines sensation‐seeking traits associated with participants' socio‐demographics, storm‐chasing involvement and tour satisfaction levels. Results show that recreational storm chasers scored highest on Experience Seeking and lowest on Boredom Susceptibility sensation‐seeking dimensions. Correlation tests showed that several socio‐demographic, storm‐chasing involvement and tour satisfaction indicators are associated with Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Boredom Susceptibility, and Experience Seeking dimensions. Marketing and management implications of study results also are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of carbon emission fees on passenger demand and air fares: A game theoretic approach

The implementation of an environmental market-based measure on U.S. aviation industry is studied. Under this policy, each airline pays a carbon fee for the carbon dioxide emissions it generates. The impact on ticket prices and corresponding market shares is investigated via the joint estimation of an air travel demand model and an airlines' behavior model. In the demand model, aggregate air traffic data is used to determine the marginal effects of flight attributes that are specific to itinerary, airline and airport on market share. The airline's behavior model incorporates the carbon fee in the airline marginal cost. After the implementation of the carbon policy, the increased cost forces airlines to adjust ticket prices in order to maximize profits. The results obtained by the proposed model indicate a moderate price increase which strongly depends on the per tonne carbon price. Air travel demand falls from 2.4% to 21% depending on the carbon price level.     

Life events and mobility milestones: Advances in mobility biography theory and research

The concept of mobility biographies has recently gained considerable currency in social-scientific transport research, reflecting increasing awareness of the long-term development of mobility practices. To complement existing work on the effects of major life events on mobility practices, we introduce the novel concept of ‘mobility milestones’, that is, mobility-related events across the life course that show a very high dependence on (infra)structural factors. Overall, the paper explicitly recognises the centrality of interactions between structural factors and human agency, thereby moving beyond a sole focus on individual travel behaviour.Initially, this paper reviews social and interdisciplinary research on mobility biographies, especially studies that use retrospective survey methodologies. Building on this review, we present an innovative online survey tool that has been deployed on the island of Ireland (n = 324) to record changes in individuals' mobility biographies and their connections with both life events and mobility milestones. This is followed by a discussion of key findings regarding the impact of starting college, residential relocation and changing employment, as well as buying a car or bicycle or getting a driving licence on individuals' modal choice.     

Investigating the impacts of energy consumption,real GDP,tourism and trade on CO2 emissions by accounting for cross-sectional dependence: A panel study of OECD countries

The objective of this study is to analyse the long-run dynamic relationship of carbon dioxide emissions, real gross domestic product (GDP), the square of real GDP, energy consumption, trade and tourism under an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. Since we find the presence of cross-sectional dependence within the panel time-series data, we apply second-generation unit root tests, cointegration test and causality test which can deal with cross-sectional dependence problems. The cross-sectionally augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and the cross-sectionally augmented Im-Pesaran-Shin (CIPS) unit root tests indicate that the analysed variables become stationary at their first differences. The Lagrange multiplier bootstrap panel cointegration test shows the existence of a long-run relationship between the analysed variables. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimation technique indicates that energy consumption and tourism contribute to the levels of gas emissions, while increases in trade lead to environmental improvements. In addition, the EKC hypothesis cannot be supported as the sign of coefficients on GDP and GDP² is negative and positive, respectively. Moreover, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality tests exploit a variety of causal relationship between the analysed variables. The OECD countries are suggested to invest in improving energy efficiency, regulate necessary environmental protection policies for tourism sector in specific and promote trading activities through several types of encouragement act.     

Analysis of CO2 emissions for island ferry services

In this study CO₂ emissions are calculated for ferries operating on both short and long range sea routes between mainland Scotland and the Orkney Isles. CO₂ emissions for land transport options connecting with the respective ferry services are also analysed. In particular the study offers a comparison of transport CO₂ emissions for long-range ferry services between Aberdeen and the Orkney Islands and short-range ferry services across the Pentland Firth. The latter involve a longer road journey for vehicles than the former. The results indicate significantly greater CO₂ emissions for long-range ferry services, despite shorter road connections. Existing public policy in this regard specifies and subsidises higher CO₂ emission ferry services operating on longer sea routes, to the disadvantage of non-subsidised short crossing services, the latter offering much lower CO₂ emission impacts (inclusive of connecting land transport CO₂ emissions). This suggests that policymakers need to focus on assessing CO₂ emission impacts when considering future tenders for subsidised ferry services. Findings also suggest that, for modest sized ferries serving islands, the optimal solution may be to use/specify the shortest possible sea routes in order to reduce CO₂ emissions from transport.     

Research agenda for low-carbon mobility: Issues for New World cities

ABSTRACT

Low-carbon mobility (LCM) features strongly in debates about the sustainability of cities and their resilience in the face of demographic, economic, and climate change. Transport is a major source of carbon emissions and there are indications that these continue to increase, despite the considerable recent advances in vehicle, engine, and fuel technologies. Reducing carbon emissions from transport may become more difficult, not easier. A particular issue relates to the New World cities, typified by those of North America and Australasia, which largely developed from the latter half of the nineteenth century onward and whose transportation systems were largely based around private vehicle ownership and usage. These cities are typically composed of low-density, dispersed suburbs, which are highly car dependent and resource and carbon emission intensive. This article develops a research agenda directed at determining and testing policy and planning measures relevant to the quest for low carbon mobility in New World cities. It suggests a rich agenda for essential research on LCM. Much of this agenda falls within the realm of the integration of transport and land use, with attention to urban design details to enhance the perceptions of and opportunities to use low carbon transport alternatives. Research topics identified for LCM research include (1) urban design and land use–transport integration (LUTI), (2) low carbon mobility policies directed at achieving widespread behavior change, (3) opportunities for new technology and its application, including requirements for systems and infrastructure, and (4) analysis and tools for informed decision making, including modeling, measurement, visualization, and especially assessment.     

The demand for cycle sharing: Examining the links between weather conditions,air quality levels,and cycling demand for regular and casual users

This paper examines temporal variation in the demand for cycling to understand how environmental conditions may promote or hinder active travel. The role of environmental conditions is considered in terms of the prevailing weather as well as the concentration levelof local air pollutants. Using data derived from the London Bicycle Sharing Scheme, a set of autoregressive distributed lag models are specified to explore these relationships. The models distinguish casual cyclists from regular cyclists to allow the analysis to consider the demand profiles of these two market segments separately rather than jointly. The analysis makes use of an open science approach, with the data inspected, the models applied, and the results derived being made freely available to interested parties through an online repository.The results of the models indicate that the demand of casual cyclists is more strongly linked to concurrent weather condition as compared to the demand of regular cyclists, though regular cyclists seem to be more inclined to delay trips to avoid inclement weather. The associations between cycling demand and air quality levels is mixed, with high concentrations of ozone linked with lower levels of demand from regular cyclists while high concentrations of particulate matter 10 are positively related to both regular and casual cycling demand. The findings of this paper could provide benefits to bicycle sharing system managers such as in planning the schedule of maintenance work as well as highlighting the need to inform cyclists about the actions they can take to reduce their exposure to local air pollutants.     

Housing mobility and travel behaviour: A process-oriented approach to spatial mobility: Evidence from a new research field in Germany

During recent years, some effort has been made to understand the location changes in the life course underlying travel demand in Germany. Such studies have presented travel behaviour and long-term housing mobility as intertwined decision flows within the life course. This perspective calls for new methods, for example comparisons of travel behaviour before and after relocation, or comparisons between different ‘relocation types’. A number of studies have taken on this new perspective. Although there are certain methodological problems arising, notable progress has already been achieved towards a more precise understanding of travel demand. This includes the investigation of the use of transport modes as well as travelled distances and activity spaces. This contribution provides an overview on these studies. Theoretical groundwork, empirically validated aspects, and deficits and blind spots of research are being discussed.     

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.     

Life-cycle CO2 emissions and influential factors for asphalt highway construction and maintenance activities in China

This study tried to clarify the magnitude of CO₂ emissions from highway construction and maintenance in China through life cycle assessment (LCA) method. For this, 227 real highway projects constructed from the year 2000 to 2011 in Zhejiang Province, China are classified into six types by two categories of N road (62 projects without grand bridge, great bridge and tunnel) and Y road (165 projects with the same road structures) and three sub-categories of (i) newly constructed road, (ii) replacing pavement road and (iii) full rehabilitated road. Significant influential factors of LCA results were revealed through multivariate linear regression models, combined with data quality assessment and sensitivity analysis. Numerical interval of assessment results indicate that the construction emissions of N highway project are more centralized to no more than 2900 t/lane-km, while Y project have a normal upper boundary of construction CO₂ emissions, about 5000 t/lane-km. The contribution of maintenance to CO₂ emissions probably could exceed that of newly construction both for Y project and N project. In addition, the pavement replacing and rehabilitation could bring about large amount of CO₂ emissions which even match with the CO₂ emissions from cumulative traffic volume during highway's life cycle. There are common factors for six categories. Cement and steel are the top largest CO₂ emissions contributors and sensitive factors for N road and Y road. The LCA results are not sensitive to the local construction materials but sensitive to the emission factor of diesel used in transportation and on-site construction.