Second-Best Congestion Pricing: The Case of an Untolled Alternative

This paper deals with second-best one-route congestion pricing in case of an untolled alternative. Using a two-link network simulation model, the effects of various demand and cost parameters on the relative efficiency of one-route tolling are analyzed. It is investigated whether the existence of costs of congestion charging may be a reason for one-route tolling to be more “overall efficient” than two-route tolling. Finally, the efficiency of revenue-maximizing one-route and two-route tolling is discussed.     

Land use in a circular city: Some numerical results

In a previous paper (“Land Use in a Circular City”, Journal of Economic Theory, 1974), I considered efficient land use and travel patterns in a circular city consisting of a homogeneous economic activity and a network of radial and circumferential roads. My analysis assumed that under decentralized optimum conditions, the price of traveling circumferentially through a radian would increase with distance from the city center. Under this and a second pricing assumption, an optimum would involve either restricting inward trip penetration or providing travelers with an inner ring road. This paper provides numerical illustrations of the optimum when trip penetration is restricted. The results suggest that the underlying pricing assumptions are likely not valid.     

ANALYSIS OF HOUSEHOLD LEISURE AND SHOPPING BEHAVIOR IN IBARAKI PREFECTURE, JAPAN

Understanding household leisure and shopping behavior is an important component of market research, shop location decisions, travel behavior, and consumer behavior studies. This paper estimates a gravity model of travel behaviors related to leisure and shopping trips in the Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, based on a 1998 survey data set by Poisson regression. The overall results indicate that GDP per capita of cities of origin and of destination, population, train stations, and store area of the destination city affect trip flow positively. Intercity distance, store areas in the city of origin, and higher density in the city of origin negatively affect trip flow. Different variables distinctly affect the shopping behavior for different commodities.     

Urban household behavior in a model of completely centralized employment

The following results are obtained from an urban residential model of completely centralized employment, first expounded by Richard Muth: Housing price falls at a decreasing numerical rate with distance from the CBD; the CBD-employed household's housing consumption and location (distance from the CBD) are positively related to preferences for housing, but negatively related to housing price (level and rate of decline with distance) and transportation costs (level, rate of increase with distance, and rate of increase with value-of-time). Some of these results are new and others are generalizations, corrections, or clarifications of Muth's original results.     

The spatial structure of production with a Leontief technology

The structure of the optimal spatial pattern of production is studied when there are interdependencies among production units which can be described by a Leontief technology, and when there is a single marketplace of final demand, the CBD. Transportation cost is proportional to distance. It is shown that the various goods are produced in rings which can be ranked by distance from the CBD independently of the levels of final demand. Furthermore shipment of goods for meeting intermediate and final demand can only be in the direction of the CBD and no shipment of goods towards the periphery can occur. A finite algorithm is given for the construction of the optimal pattern and for determining a system of f.o.b. prices and land rents which sustain it as a competitive equilibrium.     

Optimal policies in cities with congestion and agglomeration externalities: Congestion tolls,labor subsidies,and place-based strategies

This paper develops a spatial general equilibrium model that accommodates both congestion and agglomeration externalities, while firms’ and households’ land-use decisions are endogenous across continuous space. Focusing on the interaction between externalities and land use patterns, we examine the efficiencies of first-best policies and second-best pricing and place-based strategies using numerical simulations. A first-best policy must combine both Pigouvian congestion tolling (PCT) and Pigouvian labor subsidies (PLS) instruments, or design an optimal toll (or subsidy) internalizing agglomeration externalities (or congestion externalities). We also examine second-best pricing policies if only one instrument is adopted. Congestion pricing policies alone (e.g., a partial PCT or a flat-rate toll) can improve social welfare only in heavy-congestion cities, and their welfare gains may be insignificant (e.g., below 10% of the welfare improvement achieved by first-best policies). In contrast, second-best labor subsidy policies alone are a more effective alternative to first-best policies. As to place-based policies, the firm cluster zoning (FCZ) regulation is more efficient than the urban growth boundary (UGB) policy. UGBs only have small effects on the agglomeration economy but could worsen land market distortions via residential rent-escalation effects. These findings suggest that it is important to internalize business land use decisions and relax monocentricity assumptions, in order to appreciate the interplay of both urban externalities, since spatial adaptations to policy interventions can distort system efficiencies.     

Does public transit reduce car travel externalities? Quasi-natural experiments' evidence from transit strikes

One of the unanswered questions in the field of urban economics is to which extent subsidies to public transit are justified. We examine one of the main benefits of public transit, a reduction in car congestion externalities, the so-called congestion relief benefit, using quasi-natural experimental data on citywide public transit strikes for Rotterdam, a city with mild congestion levels. On weekdays, a strike induces travel times to increase only marginally on the highway ring road (0.017 min/km) but substantially on inner city roads (0.224 min/km). During rush hour, the strike effect is much more pronounced. The congestion relief benefit of public transit is substantial, equivalent to about 80% of the public transit subsidy. We demonstrate that during weekends, travel time does not change noticeably due to strikes. Furthermore, we show that public transit strikes induce similar increases in number of cyclists as number of car travelers suggesting that bicycling-promoting policies to reduce car congestion externalities might be attractive in combination with first-best congestion pricing.     

Evolution of Employment Centers in Seoul

The objectives of this study are to identify employment centers in Seoul for 1981, 1991, and 1996 and to examine the dynamics of urban spatial structure. We found that Seoul has experienced polycentric spatial transformation since 1981, having one major center (CBD) and two sub–centers. Like most Western cities, Seoul has experienced significant CBD decline during 1981–1996. Employment share of the CBD has decreased dramatically from 34.5% in 1981 to 17% in 1996, and absolute number of employment in the CBD has decreased by about 170,000 during 1981–1996. As two sub–centers have emerged since 1981, the role of the CBD as a provider of high–order services such as FIRE has shifted into the sub–centers. We also found that the polycentric urban form in Seoul makes average commuting distance longer.     

Transport tax reform, commuting, and endogenous values of time

We consider a model of urban transport with two trip purposes, commuting (assumed perfectly complementary to labour supply) and noncommuting, to analyse the effects of transport tax reform on the value of time and marginal external congestion costs. Higher commuting taxes plausibly reduce time values, but higher noncommuting transport prices will typically raise the value of time. The intuition for this latter finding is that the reduction in congestion that follows from the tax increase itself raises net wages per hour of work (inclusive of commuting time). Empirical illustrations with Belgian data show a potentially large effect of transport tax reform on time values. In quite a few of the tax reforms studied traffic levels are reduced, but the increase in time values implies that marginal external congestion costs actually increase.     

Household behavior under income uncertainty in a monocentric urban area

For a household living outside of but commuting to and from the CBD of an urban area and experiencing income uncertainty, housing consumption and location (distance from the CBD) are inversely related to the probability of unemployment and directly related to the level of unemployment compensation under fairly unrestrictive assumptions. Under more restrictive assumptions, it is found that these variables are inversely related to housing price and transportation costs. Finally, income compensation causes housing consumption and location to be directly related to the probability of unemployment and the level of unemployment compensation.     

改扩建高速公路施工保通组织设计

针对云南曲靖至嵩明(小铺)高速公路改扩建工程建设过程中对沿线居民出行产生的影响,从施工保通组织设计出发,提出改扩建高速公路施工保通设计的目标、原则和措施,尽量降低项目建设过程中对沿线居民出行的影响,减少交通拥堵,确保建设期既有道路的正常运营。     

基于博弈论的城市道路交通拥挤收费分析

针对城市道路交通拥挤不断加剧,交通供需不平衡矛盾日益尖锐的现实问题,在分析城市道路交通拥挤收费基本原理的基础上,应用博弈论的分析方法,针对交通出行车与交通管理者之间的拥挤收费进行了博弈分析,以期对我国实施该政策具有借鉴意义。     

Trip Chaining: Who Wins Who Loses?

This paper studies how trip chaining (combining commuting and shopping or commuting and child care) affects market competition: in particular, pricing and the equilibrium number of firms as well as welfare. We use a monopolistic competition framework, where firms sell differentiated products as well as offering differentiated jobs to households, who are all located at some distance from the firms. The symmetric equilibriums with and without the option of trip chaining are compared. We show analytically that introducing the trip chaining option reduces the profit margin of the firms in the short run, but increases welfare. The welfare gains are, however, smaller than the transport cost savings. In the free-entry long-run equilibrium, the number of firms decreases but welfare is higher. A numerical illustration gives orders of magnitude of the different effects.     

北京地铁定价的思考:基于对私家车的替代角度

北京地铁作为介于公交和私家车之间的次优选择,其定价方案一直备受关注。实践中发现,长期低廉票价不仅给地下交通安全带来极大隐患,其在缓解交通拥堵方面也捉襟见肘。为此,本文提出一种北京地铁服务定位、定价的新思路:地铁应该提高其舒适性以满足高层次的出行者需求,只有这样才能分流私家车出行,从而从供需结构上缓解北京拥堵问题。     

The spatial structure of production with a leontief technology – II: Substitute techniques

The structure of the optimal spatial pattern of production is studied when there are dependencies among production units which can be described by a Leontief technology with substitute techniques, and when there is a single marketplace of final demand, the CBD. Transportation cost is proportional to distance. The various goods are produced in rings. There are a finite number of patterns in which these rings are arranged, and they can be obtained by a finite algorithm. The particular pattern depends on the final demand. Hence there is no ‘non- substitution’ theorem. ‘Reswitching’ of techniques can occur, that is, in an optimal pattern a technique may be operated at large and small distances from the CBD, but not at intermediate distances; this contradicts prevailing beliefs about optimal capital/land profiles.     

Road congestion: A reconsideration of pricing theory

In this paper, the effect of congestion tolls upon the pattern of traffic flows is examined. Congestion tolls influence the individual commuter's decision of when to make a trip, inducing him to travel at less congested times. When all commuters are taken together, congestion tolls and the individual consumers' decisions lead to an efficient reorganization of traffic flows relative to a non-toll situation. In fact, for the same total number of commuters, per person costs of travel including the toll may decline with the imposition of tolls and efficient reorganization of traffic flows.     

The impact of traffic congestion when optimising delivery routes in real time. A case study in Spain

This paper studies the importance of considering congestion costs when optimising delivery routes. Through the analysis of two study areas (the region of Catalonia and the city of Barcelona, in Spain), four different scenarios have been implemented and compared in which different objective functions are minimised: Euclidean distance, real distance, real time with static congestion, and real time with dynamic congestion. The data have been collected from Google Maps, which allows us to obtain information on traffic conditions in real time. The results indicate that minimising real time considering congestion as a dynamic attribute which varies throughout the day is the most efficient method to optimise delivery routes, especially within urban areas. For the two study areas, and using this dynamic approach in which real-time congestion costs are reflected into the vehicle routing problem, savings in time up to 11% have been obtained.     

价值工程在提高旅游交通价值中的应用

旅游交通对旅游者游览而言 ,在一定程度上存在着主观上的不必要和客观上的必须之间的矛盾。本文利用价值工程理论分析了克服该矛盾的途径和对策 :通过使旅行成为游览必要的准备过程 ,保持旅行与游览同步和尽可能使旅游交通成为旅游者的目的之一来提高旅游交通的功能 ;通过严格控制旅游交通价格 ,节省旅游交通花费的时间等来降低旅游交通的成本。旅游交通功能的提高和成本的降低在很大程度上提高了旅游交通的价值 ,也就是提高了旅游者对旅游交通的认同度和满意度。旅游者对旅游交通认同度和满意度的提高就能够激发其对旅游的兴趣和热情 ,进而提高我国旅游业的市场竞争力。     

Nontechnological innovation in urban transit: A comparison of some alternatives

Transit alternatives, including conventional technology used in innovative ways, are compared on the basis of full costs (capital and operating costs plus user time costs). Bus wagon jitneys are estimated to have lower full costs than conventional buses for short-haul, low-density residential collection or inner-city circulation, particularly at higher travel time values. Rail rapid transit has much higher full costs than express bus for suburban CBD commuters. Rail's much higher capital and operating costs buy virtually identical user time costs for the entire commuter trip.