Spatial competition between parking garages and downtown parking policy

This paper looks at optimal parking policy in dense urban districts (“downtown”), where spatial competition between parking garages is a key feature, from the perspective of economic theory. The paper has four parts. The first looks at the “parking garage operator's problem”. The second derives equilibrium in the parking garage market when there is no on-street parking, compares the equilibrium to the social optimum, and examines optimal parking policy in this context. Since parking garage operators have market power, the spatial competition equilibrium is generally inefficient, and parking policy can be used to mitigate the distortion. The third adds on-street parking and considers how its underpricing affects second-best parking policy. The fourth adds mass transit, and considers how economies of scale in mass transit interact with minimum and maximum off-street parking standards.Preliminary draft: Please do not cite or quote without the permission of the author.     

Evaluating the effects of parking policy measures in nature areas

Parking policy measures are widely used to manage cars in nature areas. Only with data from long-term monitoring projects is it possible to separate “normal” fluctuation in the number of cars from fluctuation caused by trends or caused by the effects of these measures. An evaluation of measures implemented in two dune areas in the Netherlands shows that parking policy measures affect the number of cars. While the number and location of parking places can be used to manage the number of cars and their spatial distribution in the area, the implementation of parking charges only brings about a temporary effect.     

UK airport employee car parking: The role of a charge?

Airports employ significant numbers of workers who favour using the private car for the journey to work because of the location of many facilities and the times they need to travel. At the same time official policies for congestion and environmental reasons seek to limit car use. This can pose parking problems for the airports. This note looks at some of the particular issues confronting UK airport management when trying to conform to official policies while at the same time meeting the needs of their workers and the role charging may play in the solution.     

Changing trip behavior in a higher education institution: The role of parking fees

Higher education institutions are major trip-generating locations and the transportation to and from them has negative environmental influences. To discourage car owners from solo driving and encourage them to use more environmentally friendly travel modes, it is important to understand what factors influence their travel mode choice. Using a discrete choice model, we examined the motivations to leave the car at home, with and without parking fee. Besides parking fees, we examined the effects of other variables known to predict commuting choice, such as time and social discomfort, pro-environmental attitudes, reduced vehicle maintenance expenses and awareness of alternative commuting options. Results show that adding a parking fee not only increased the tendency to leave the car at home, it also influenced the relative weight given to the considerations that determine to leave the car at home. Specifically, after the introduction of a parking fee, the previously significant impacts of pro-environmental attitudes and social discomfort on leaving the car at home became non-significant, and the impacts of other, more instrumental factors (e.g., time discomfort, costs related to car ownership and maintenance, time wasted searching for a parking space and in traffic jams) which were insignificant beforehand, became the significant predictors. Parking fees were found to be effective and can change to accommodate different policies (revenue collection, pollution reduction, and students’ discomfort). The implications of such a study are the trade-off between monetary (parking fee) and non-monetary variables to accommodate more sustainable traffic management.     

Emerging cycling policy in Moscow,Russia: The role of international policy transfer

Over the past four decades, commuter cycling has become a planning issue in cities that did not have established cycling cultures. This category includes post-Socialist cities with recent and strong automobility systems and limited cycling planning experiences. This article seeks to demonstrate how transfer of policy ideas from other contexts has contributed to the emergence of cycling policies in the largest post-Socialist city, Moscow, Russia, in the mid 2000s - 2016. Policy transfer means the diverse processes of acquiring policy ideas from other planning contexts and adapting this knowledge to shape local policies. The article is based on the results of a study that combined policy transfer questions with policy ethnography methodology that entailed prolonged field work and interviews with diverse policy actors and beneficiaries. This article aims to answer a question: How did policy learning, transfer and translation contribute to the emergence of Moscow's cycling policy? The article concludes that policy transfer facilitated cycling planning in Moscow by providing fast solutions, informing and legitimizing policy decisions, and temporarily leveraging cyclists' advocacy efforts. However, policy learning and transfer do not guarantee acceptance or successful implementation of policies. Integration of cycling into transport policies depends on an interplay of local institutional, political, and socio-spatial factors that influence decision-making. Constraints to implementing cycling policies include a peculiar car-culture, technocratic planning with a significant role of state actors and other elite groups, and insufficient opportunities for Moscow's cycling community to influence policy-making. These findings contribute to the transport policy and geography literature by exploring the role of policy transfer in cycling planning and by focusing on a less known transport policy context: post-Socialist cities outside the European Union.     

Transit market research using structural equation modeling and attitudinal market segmentation

This paper presents a comprehensive approach for identifying potential transit markets and for developing strategies to increase public transport ridership. The approach uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify simultaneously travelers’ attitudes, travel behavior, and the causal relationships between a traveler's socioeconomic profile and his/her attitude toward travel. Travel attitudes are also used to identify distinct market segments and to develop plans that best serve the needs of each segment and increase transit ridership. The approach is demonstrated with a case study from the Utah Transit Authority.     

Attitudes to traffic-related issues in urban areas of the UK and the role of workplace parking charges

In the UK the Government currently perceives a levy on workplace parking to be a key ingredient of a package of measures designed to deal with congestion and traffic-related pollution in urban areas. Clearly a number of issues will require careful consideration before such a levy can be successfully introduced. This paper presents a summary of the findings of a national survey undertaken with respect to workplace parking charges. How seriously do the decision-makers and opinion formers perceive traffic-related issues (and in particular the health effects of road traffic) to be in the urban areas of the UK? and, how effective and acceptable is a levy on workplace parking likely to be when compared with other policy options as a means of dealing with traffic-related pollution? Ring fencing the revenue raised from workplace parking charge would appear to be an important issue, alongside the allocation of that revenue as a means of increasing acceptance. The paper considers the size of the levy to be charged in order to achieve a significant reduction in current workplace parking provision, and the case for exempting certain categories of user.     

The role of quantitative and qualitative research in industrial studies of tourism

Many areas of research in tourism concentrate on quantitative or qualitative studies. Some even discuss the complementarity between the two types of studies. Hardly considered are the possibilities for combining such works within an integrated framework that also considers the business environment in which tourism operates. The purpose of this paper is to return to long neglected possibilities by reinvestigating areas of methodology and epistemology concerned with the generation of a framework that embraces both quantitative and qualitative research. A hypothetical example, in terms of industrial organisation and strategic decision making, is introduced discussing the possibilities for the triangulation of methods and paradigms and the role of the business environment. The conclusion is that an improved understanding of the tourism business requires a broader research methodology than presently exists. Both types of research and the dynamic context of tourism are important and need to be combined within an integrated framework. It has been concerned with the construction of integrating frameworks that embrace an alternative logic of inference and the context of the tourism business environment. This requires refinements of existing approaches together with a broader research methodology. Only by establishing such frameworks will an improved understanding of the tourism industry be achieved. The suggested framework presented here, with particular reference to industrial organisation and strategic decision making by tourism suppliers, is not offered as a panacea. For future work, the validity and choice of framework rest squarely on how the world and ‘truth’ are viewed. However, within this, the contribution of triangulated quantitative and qualitative research should help understanding by studying phenomena in their natural setting and in terms of the meanings people have of them. This should lead to a ‘truer analysis’ of business behaviour and hence a more purposeful investigation of hotels, tour operators, travel agents and the business of tourism in general. It is in seeking to produce this ‘truer analysis’ that future research activities need to concentrate. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Triggering competition in the Spanish airline market: The role of airport capacity and low-cost carriers

We analyze the influence of increases in airport capacity and the entry of low-cost carriers on airline competition. We use parametric and non-parametric techniques to analyze a sample of Spanish routes. We find that capacity increases in large airports produce more competitive airline conduct only in routes departing from non-hub airports. Also, we find that the natural monopoly threshold decreases with time. Finally, low-cost carriers have a moderate but still significant effect on prices and increase alternatives even in low-density routes.     

Land use and transport: research and policy challenges

In the debate on the impacts of land use on transport two questions are of particular importance: (1) does land use affect travel behaviour and (2) if land use affects travel behaviour, should land-use policies be partly based on (expected or assumed) transport impacts? There is enough evidence to conclude that land use can influence travel behaviour. However, this does not mean that policy-makers should choose land-use alternatives with the lowest level of car use. Possible future land-use and transport plans should be evaluated according to a broad range of factors. Several challenges for research and policy-making related to these aspects are presented here.     

The Airbus 380 and Boeing 787: A role in the recovery of the airline transport market

This paper focuses on the potential role of the new A380 and B787 aircraft in the evolving air transport market. It looks at the way these aircraft can fit into the overall operations of global market. It considers the alternative ways in which these aircraft designed primarily for super-long-range services may be deployed in other ways within a network context.     

The economic impact of aviation: A review on the role of market access

In recent decades, advancements in telecommunications and (air) transportation have driven globalisation processes. Consequently, policymakers and scholars view access to transportation as an essential prerequisite for economic development. For aviation, existing empirical studies have attempted to estimate the wider economic impacts from regional, country-level and global perspectives. However, no theoretical framework has yet been presented that comprehensively captures the full set of mechanisms by which aviation can contribute to economic development. Such a framework would cover both positive and negative regional impacts, as well as the mechanisms and spatial distribution behind them. In this paper, we use a New Economic Geography approach to comprehensively describe the impact mechanisms. We then apply this theoretical framework to an empirical study of metrics of air transport supply, which policymakers and researchers can use to assess how well airports and their surrounding regions are connected by means of the air transport network. The results of our analysis can inform scholars and policymakers on how air transport can shape economic geography and the productivity of economic systems. The results might also provide guidance for future empirical work on the wider economic impacts of air transportation.     

Multinational hotel development in developing countries: an exploratory analysis of critical policy issues

Multinational hotel companies, often integrated with tour operators, travel agencies and other businesses in tourist‐generating or tourist‐receiving countries, play a key role in the development and continuity of an international tourism industry in developing countries. In order to take advantage of benefits and minimise the unwanted adverse effects from multinational hotel involvement, developing countries need the planning, implementation and evaluation of carefully designed policies linked to their particular objectives. This paper reviews the potential benefits and costs of multinational hotel companies and brings together previously scattered critical policy issues in relation to them, while suggesting possible options for developing countries to follow. Seven critical policy areas are identified: establishment of the need for foreign investment; deciding on forms of involvement; deciding on the scale of hotel development; supporting sectoral linkages; supporting indigenous employment/training; monitoring business practices; and determining foreign investment incentives and regulations. It is argued that policies should be worked out in these areas and co‐ordinated in order to achieve a balance between the benefits and costs of multinational hotel involvement in developing countries. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transport policy and environmental impacts: The importance of multi-instrumentality in policy integration

Despite the introduction of many instruments in the transport system, they failed to reach their target since gains in global environmental efficiency have not been enough to cope with the consequences of transport growth. The ultimate environmental challenge for transport policy makers is to improve the effectiveness of implementation of policy instruments. This paper explores the concept of multi-instrumentality as a systematic approach for transport policy integration and implementation. Based on extensive literature review, we assess a set of 14 transport policy instruments (weaknesses, strengths and barriers to implementation) and perform a pair-wise analysis of potential synergies in their integrated implementation. Conclusions are drawn on the potential success of multi-instrumentality.     

Designing optimal urban transport strategies: The role of individual policy instruments and the impact of financial constraints

This paper presents a methodology for the design of optimal transport strategies and the case study results of the methodology for the City of Edinburgh, using the two multi-modal transport/land-use models MARS and TPM. First, a range of policy instruments are optimised in turn and their relative impacts explored. Second, optimisations with and without financial constraints are performed and compared. Although both models produce similar optimal policies, the relative contribution of the instruments differs between models as does the impact on outcome indicators. It is also shown that by careful design it is possible to identify a strategy which costs no more than the do-minimum but which can generate substantial additional benefits. The optimisation methodology is found to be robust, and is able to be used with different transport models, and with and without financial constraints.     

International arrivals to Australia: Determinants and the role of air transport policy

Air transport policy, national income, bilateral trade volume, distance, common language and immigration are significant determinants of international arrivals to Australia. The close link between aviation policy and the number of international travellers might suggest that Australia has benefited from the liberalisation of the airline industry globally in recent decades.     

Frequency and aircraft size dynamics in a concentrated growth market: The case of the Chinese domestic market

Despite the explosive growth of the Chinese aviation sector and the major industry reforms undertaken in recent decades, the Chinese domestic market remains highly concentrated with a significant element of regulation and governmental control in areas such as market entry and airline fleet planning. In this study, we investigate the frequency strategies and aircraft choices of airlines operating in this concentrated growth market. Our empirical investigation suggests that airlines mainly accommodate rapid traffic growth by flying more frequently, although increased aircraft size also contributes to market expansion. We also find a negative relationship between market concentration and flight frequency. Due to the more balanced market structure resulting from mergers among leading airlines since 2002, there has been a moderate reduction in market concentration at route level, contributing to a 3.7% increase in traffic volume from 2002 to 2008. The results of our study suggest that Chinese travelers have yet to fully enjoy the benefits of market liberalization, and airports should prioritize increasing capacity related to aircraft movements over the accommodation of larger aircraft.     

The impact of airport parking fees on the tourist's airport/airline choice behavior

This paper analyzes the airport/airline choice behavior of tourists for Saxony/Germany. We employ flexible parametric choice methods (mixed logit) in order to test the effect of standard attributes on the choice probability. In addition we extend existing literature with the introduction of parking charges in the choice experiment. Our results show a significant and negative impact of parking charges on airport choice probability. Thus, we can compute high elasticities of parking charges for tourists. These results suggest, that airport managers have in form of parking policies a powerful policy instrument as they can directly affect the size of the airport catchment area.     

The political economy of post-transition transportation policy in Hungary

This paper reviews transportation system trends in Hungary since the transition in 1989. It documents the continuation of rapid increases in private motor vehicle ownership and use despite a major economic downturn. Sharp increases in new highway investments are contrasted with a growing backlog of unmet maintenance and rehabilitation needs in the road, rail and public transit sectors. It then reviews recent political struggles over these policies, and the effectiveness of these policies in promoting employment, regional development, and a sustainable environment. It suggests that the dynamics of the post-industrial economy may have reduced the importance of highway sector investments relative to investments into human capital.