Exploring safety impacts of pedestrian-crossing configurations at signalized junctions on urban roads with public transport routes

This study explored the impacts of pedestrian-crossing configurations and other design features, on accident occurrences at signalized junctions situated on central public transport routes (PTRs) of urban arterials. Statistical tests and negative-binomial regression models were applied to identify factors affecting accidents and to examine accident numbers of the PTR junctions as opposed to comparison-sites. At the PTR junctions, a consistent impact of pedestrian-crossing configurations on accidents was found, where a gradated-crossing with mixed-shifting is the least safe. Four-legged junctions tend to higher accident numbers relative to the three-legged junctions. PTR junctions are characterized by higher accident numbers, related to comparison-sites, when controlling for other design characteristics. The study findings may assist in selecting preferable design solutions while planning PTR.     

Binary choice and the supply of memory

In a binary choice experiment, the subject predicts on a series of trials whether a particular random event will or will not occur. The results of such experiments show systematic departures from expected value maximization, but to a degree that decreases as the reward for successful prediction increases. This paper proposes that the mechanism underlying these results involves the supply of memory. Subjects are influenced by the outcomes of recent trials, but tend to respond to the evidence in a larger number of trials as reward (and hence attention) are increased. Broader conceptual issues surrounding the notion of rational choice are also discussed.     

Market segmentation: A tactical approach

Segmentation “trees’ can be a useful way of analyzing markets for improved strategy. This article explains how, and shows some flaws in traditional segmentation methods.     

Attention allocation and input proportions

This paper presents an alternative to the standard microeconomic analysis of the effects of a change in relative input prices. Managers are portrayed as struggling to control costs. Because a rise in the price of a given input ‘promotes’ operations intensive in that input in the managerial attention priority list, it induces tighter control of such operations and thus a lower relative utilization of the input. The deterministic model analyzed is akin to stochastic models studied by Radner and Rothschild.     

On vertical control in monopolistic competition

This paper demonstrates that vertical restraints are profitably imposed by a manufacturer or wholesaler who has some market power and whose product is sold in a monopolistically competitive downstream market. Simple conditions are developed under which a price floor (resale price maintenance) or a price ceiling is profitable, and under which private incentive for a restraint is sufficient for its social desirability. Where demand elasticities are constant, observed vertical price floors are always welfare-improving but profitable price ceilings may decrease welfare. In the special case of the CES-aggregate-surplus specification with competitive conjectures, price ceilings are profitable and welfare-decreasing.     

RULE RATIONALITY

We study the strategic advantages of following rules of thumb that bundle different games together (called rule rationality) when this may be observed by one's opponent. We present a model in which the strategic environment determines which kind of rule rationality is adopted by the players. We apply the model to characterize the induced rules and outcomes in various interesting environments. Finally, we show the close relations between act rationality and “Stackelberg stability” (no player can earn from playing first).     

Commemoration of the Great War on the Somme: exploring personal connections

This study was undertaken at two sites on the Somme, France, one of the main battlefields of the Great War (1914–1918). It used a quantitative method and sought to explore the relative strength of two bases of personal connection (family and nation) to interests in visiting the area. The impact of attendance at a commemorative event on visitors' battlefield interests was also explored. The sample at the Thiepval memorial was dominated by British visitors and by Australians at Villers-Bretonneux. The analysis indicated that people with close family connections to the war had higher levels of interest in seeing sites of their family's war-time involvement, desire to pay their respects and historical interest. Attendance at a major national event (Anzac Day) appeared to increase national interest in people who did not have family connections.