Public Transport Investment Research Articles

Bilevel Programming Model of Private Capital Investment in Urban Public Transportation: Case Study of Jinan City

Increasing public transportation subsidies have created fiscal pressures for governments. To ease this financial pressure, Chinese government strongly encourages private capital investment in public transportation. However, previous private capital investments in public transportation operations have largely failed, mainly due to low ticket fares that cannot support sustainable operations. To address this issue, several previous research projects have developed methods to facilitate private capital investment. The majority of the research focuses on qualitative analysis and value for money analysis. Our research proposed a new method of private capital investment in public transportation operations based on the concept of “passenger value.” The feasibility of the proposed method of private investment was analyzed quantitatively by constructing a bilevel programming model. The model was verified based on a sample analysis of Jinan city traffic. Results showed that effective private capital investment increases the total societal benefit from the public transportation system and additionally that the investment method considering “passenger value” is superior to the traditional one. A quantitative tool was provided by the model to evaluate private capital investment effects, design investment policies, and develop further research.

The challenges of automobile-dependent urban transport strategy

The fundamental aims of sustainable urban development and the pro-automobile oriented economic development are on a collision course. It is obvious that automobile-dependent urban development is under heavy/powerful influence of the automobile lobby (automobile and oil industries, along with construction). In this domain famous land-use-transportation studies (or ?grand transportation studies?) are, unfortunately, still prevailing - a vicious circle of self-fulfilling prophecy of congestion, road building, sprawl, congestion and more road building. Until recently, it was commonly thought that investment in public transport was not economically sustainable and that focusing on the development of the automobile industry and financing the construction of roadways stimulated economic growth. In this paper we clearly show that automobile industry is now overcapitalized, less profitable than many other industries (and may become even less profitable in the future), that transport market is characterized with huge distortions (more than a third of motor-vehicle use can be explained by underpriced driving), while new road investment does not have a major impact on economic growth (especially in a region with an already well-developed infrastructure), and that pro-automobile transport strategy inexorably incurs harmful global, regional and local ecological consequences.

Identifying preferences for public transport investments under a constrained budget

As urban areas face increasing demands for new transport infrastructure to promote a sustainable future with an increasing reality of constrained government budgets, the debate on whether we should focus on rail or bus-based investments continues unabated in many jurisdictions. Associated with the debate is an emotional (or ideological) bias by communities in favour of one mode, especially rail, which carries much sway at the political level as if there is no budget constraint. This paper presents a stated choice experiment to investigate this context as two unlabelled options described by 20 potential drivers of community preferences for improved public transport, where each choice scenario is conditioned on an estimated construction cost and a total annual transport infrastructure budget for the relevant geographical jurisdiction. This is followed by a labelling of each alternative to reveal whether the option is bus rapid transit (BRT) or light rail (LRT) and to establish whether this additional information influences preference revision. Data is collected in all eight capital cities of Australia in mid 2014. Mixed logit models with heteroscedastic conditioning in terms of the cost of the project infrastructure and whether the alternative is labelled BRT or LRT, provide new evidence on the nature and extent of community modal bias in a budget-constrained choice setting. The conclusions are twofold. On the one hand, if a fully compensatory choice rule is assumed (as is common in all previous modal comparison studies), LRT is predominantly preferred over BRT despite budgetary constraints, similarities in quality of service attributes and the opportunity to choose a greater network coverage for a given construction cost. However, when we allow for attribute non-attendance (a semi-compensatory choice rule), the modal bias is no longer a significant driver of preferences.

The relationship between gasoline price and patterns of motorcycle fatalities and injuries

ObjectiveEconomic factors such as rising gasoline prices may contribute to the crash trends by shaping individuals’ choices of transportation modalities. This study examines the relationship of gasoline prices with fatal...

Investigating the impact of recession on transportation cost capitalization: a spatial analysis

The unprecedented economic crisis experienced by Greece is fertile ground for research at myriad levels. In this paper, the authors aim to investigate the effects of the crisis on real estate prices by measuring the impact of transportation infrastructure location. For the purposes of this research, on-line real estate data collected in 2011, when the consequences of the crisis were still uncertain, and in 2013, when a significant decline had been observed, are combined.The analysis is based on various spatial statistical methods. In order to identify potential common price patterns, G spatial clustering is first performed. Spatial error models (SEM) are then developed to parameterize the real estate prices. The results show that, overall, purchase prices have been reduced by 18.2% and rents by 15.2%. More specifically, the positive impact of metro station locations (<500m) has declined 42.5% for purchase prices and 62.5% for rents. Moreover, dwellings located in the Inner Ring are still more expensive than others; however, the impact of the crisis has been reduced by 30.3% for purchases and 50.7% for rents. On the other hand, the negative impact of ISAP station locations (<500m) has declined by 53.5% for purchase prices.The findings of this paper could be of great interest to the transportation policy research community and could be used to better predict the benefits and costs of public transport investment under extremely uncertain conditions, such as a long-lasting recession.

Optimal Strategy of Public Transport Investment Allocation on Lanchester Competition Model

Optimal Strategy of Public Transport Investment Allocation on Lanchester Competition Model

Public transport investment and local regeneration: A comparison of London׳s Jubilee Line Extension and the Madrid Metrosur

Despite a long-standing tradition within transport studies research, capturing and assessing the long-term impacts of major transport investment projects is still problematic. This is partly due to the relative paucity of empirical data, as well as the considerable research effort involved in undertaking appropriate data collection for detailed longitudinal evaluations. Past studies suggest that economic impacts can vary significantly depending on the type of interventions, the locations and geographical areas served, pre-existing market conditions and other policy and planning factors. However, another issue for evaluation is the extent to which the different studies that are available are comparable in terms of their methodologies, which makes the synthesis of research findings across different case studies extremely difficult.Whilst we are not able to overcome all of these methodological issues in the context of this paper, our main objective is to construct a typology of the ‘success’ factors for securing economic uplift from such projects. The main aim of our research and this paper is to make key gaps in the evidence-base concerning the economic and development impacts of major transport infrastructure impact investments more transparent. This will allow policymakers and other investors to be better informed about the likely success of these investments for the regeneration of local areas under different pre-existing conditions. It also helps to identify where there are current gaps in the knowledge base and where a lack of adequate data prevents the potential to identify economic uplifts and regeneration outcomes. An important finding of the research is that in the case of the Jubilee Line Extension and the Madrid Metrosur positive economic benefits occurred most frequently around the stations where there were already enforceable land use plans and complementary policies in place to increase urban densities and encourage mixed land uses, alongside restricted car and good walking access to stations.

Correlation between Land Use and Urban Public Transport: Case Study of Zagreb

Investment in the transport system with the aim of fostering attractiveness and land use in urban structures is of great interest for planners and investors. Investment in urban public transport would especially contribute to revitalising distinct city areas. The samples of high population density and diversified area use are organised around accessible means of urban public transport.The main objective of this case study was to find an adequate model for the solution of urban public transport on the location Novi Jelkovec in Zagreb after the construction of a new urban settlement, with the aim to revitalise the peripheral parts of the city. The theoretical assumption on the influence of better organised transport on land use is hereby researched through the example of correction of timetables and reduction of travelling time between nodes on the line in the Novi Jelkovec settlement. In preparing this paper the following methods were used: analysis and synthesis, mathematical and statistical methods, methods of interviewing. The theory of correlation of land use and urban public transport is based on models that develop the “compact city”. The obtained research results confirm the significance of the correlation between urban land use and urban public transport. It can be concluded that this paper proves the influence of the correlation between land use and urban public transport on the concrete example of Novi Jelkovec. Its implementation could result in solving the concrete traffic problem and along with it a faster urbanisation of the new settlement.

Multidimensional Indicator Analysis for Transport Policy Evaluation

The need for forecasting the direct and indirect effects of land use and transport policies on society, the environment, and the local economy has led to the development of integrated land use and transport (LUTI) models. The land use and transport policy evaluation is based on point estimators of economic sustainability indicators, usually computed at an aggregate level (e.g., social welfare) despite the fact that the models and simulation are based on the individual. A methodology based on the strength of microsimulation in three dimensions (space, time, and agents) is presented. By multiple simulation runs of the LUTI model UrbanSim, the distributions of inequality and accessibility indicators in space and time were generated, and their variance was measured. The methodology was first applied in a base case scenario (in which the then current trend existed) of the Limmattal region including Zurich, Switzerland, and then on a public transport investment scenario. The results of the two scenarios were then compared on the basis of actual distributions rather than the mean point values of the indicators. The proposed methodology differed from the point-based policy evaluation frameworks in terms of details and insightfulness that could better support the process of informed decision making.

Animating the Future Seamless Public Transport Journey

This paper considers the possibilities for the development of the future seamless public transport journey in 2030, drawing on the SYNAPTIC project (Synergy of New Advanced Public Transport Solutions Improving Connectivity in North West Europe), funded by the EU INTERREG IVB programme. Investment in public transport and other transport modes tends to be based largely on travel as an instrumental experience, i.e. we seek to speed travel up, make it more convenient, or influence the cost of travel. Using a survey of international and regional public transport journeys, we see that the quality of the journey, particularly the affective factors (such as the enjoyment or productivity of travel, happiness, 'stress' and wider experiential factors), are poorly understood, and overlooked in the design, and initial appraisal, of public transport links and interchanges. The enhancement of the journey experience is critical to the future public transport journey, particularly if viewed from the user perspective. An animated journey from Preston (UK) to Delft (the Netherlands) is presented and discussed to illustrate the future public transport possibilities in 2030.

Accessibility and Residential Land Value Uplift: Identifying Spatial Variations in the Accessibility Impacts of a Bus Transitway

New public transport investment can improve accessibility for existing and new users of the urban transport network and this can lead to land value uplift with uplift benefits being distributed in relation to the proximity of the location of the property to the infrastructure. This paper quantifies land value uplift and its spatial distribution for accessibility to different destinations for residential properties around a new-build Liverpool Parramatta transitway for buses in a suburban area of south-west Sydney, Australia. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is used to take account of spatial dependency in the estimation process with the results being presented in map form. Results indicate that property prices are mainly determined by the property’s internal features and the neighbourhood effects, but accessibility by car and accessibility to employment along the transitway also contribute non-marginally. The GWR local model shows that accessibility varies significantly over geographical space demonstrating the advantages of this approach.

The acceptability of road pricing in Vienna: the preference patterns of car drivers

The acceptability of road pricing has attracted considerable attention among researchers over the last decade, as is evident in the amount of literature about transport and environmental economics. The general conclusion from these studies has been that there is low acceptability for road pricing among car users. In this paper, we add more knowledge to the existing literature by conducting an acceptability study of road pricing in Vienna, where such a study has never been conducted before. We used a replication study approach where a previous approach used in the EU research project AFFORD (acceptability of fiscal and financial measures and organisational requirements for demand management) was replicated for Vienna and further supplemented with a conjoint analysis. In order to examining whether the Vienna study confirms previous findings. We investigated the acceptability of two concrete policy packages factors influencing this acceptability, and preference patterns that can be used in designing a road pricing policy for Vienna. The survey reveals a higher acceptability if road pricing schemes lead to perceived personal benefits. According to the multivariate analyses, the “personal outcome expectations”, “social norm” and “perceived effectiveness” variables account for more than 50 % of the criterion variance and therefore these are the most influential factors. Road pricing schemes can be an effective transport management instrument for a city particularly if they are associated with direct investment in public transport and public infrastructure. Thus, personal benefits can be perceived more easily and direct effects can be expected.

Using data envelopment analysis as a public transport project appraisal tool

The provision of a fast, frequent and modern public transport service operating from Dublin city centre to the airport has been a topic of great interest in recent times, in Ireland. Due to Ireland's poor financial situation, the choice of infrastructure investment has become more important than ever and hence, large expensive projects such as an underground Metro line called Metro North have been widely criticised. The main objective of this research is to investigate and identify the most efficient transport solution for the Dublin city centre-airport route. The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) (over ground heavy rail) spur and Metro North are explored along with a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route and a Luas (tram) line. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was employed to identify the most efficient solution for the city centre-airport route and to establish the reasons for inefficiency.The findings of this research indicate that, when costs are included in the analysis, the BRT Airport is the most efficient option for the airport route providing the greatest value for money. Metro North and Luas Airport, at present, do not provide enough transportation benefits to justify their excessive cost over the BRT solution. The DART Spur is found to be the cheapest rail option but also the one with the fewest benefits. The findings and methods used in this research could be used in other public transport investment cases to ascertain the best case for investment and could be used in conjunction to cost benefit analysis. This research adds to the field of implementing DEA in the field of public transport investment analysis. While DEA has been applied to other areas of transport analysis few have compared different investment and mode options on one route.

Fiscal federalism and prospects for metropolitan transportation authorities in Portugal

Fiscal federalism refers to the attribution of public finance functions among different levels of government. We examine Portugal's metropolitan transportation sector through the fiscal federalist lens, in light of the country's decentralization efforts and new relevant legislation. We clarify basic principles of fiscal federalism and adapt them to the finance of metropolitan transportation systems – typically characterized by multiple jurisdictions, numerous externalities and equity concerns – showing the inadequacy of general practice. Portugal's overall public finance system partially adheres to fiscal federalist principles; the transportation sector less so. Metropolitan transportation faces particular troubles, with few direct user fees, prices inadequately reflecting costs, and heavy reliance on central government subsidies for public transportation investments and operations. A new law creating metropolitan transportation authorities is only modestly consistent with fiscal federalist principles, since it inadequately details financial responsibilities and remains under heavy central government control. Absent additional reforms, the new metropolitan authorities should aim to make the transportation finance system explicit and test incentive grants to induce inter-municipal cooperation.

Estimating Crowding Costs in Public Transport

Preferences for transport activities are often considered only in terms of time and money. Whilst congestion in automobile traffic increases costs by raising trip durations, the same is less obvious in public transport (PT), especially rail-based. This has lead many economic analyses to conclude that there exists a free lunch by reducing the attractiveness of automobile transport at no (or little) cost for PT users. This article argues that congestion in PT - crowding - is also costly. Using survey data from the Paris metro we estimate the degree to which users value comfort in terms of less crowding. Using a contingent valuation method (CVM) we describe marginal willingness to pay over different parts of the distribution of in-vehicle crowding and consider moderating factors. We conclude that the total welfare cost for a trip rises from e2.42 for a seated passenger to e3.69 under the most congested conditions. We apply our results to the cost-benefit analysis of a recent investment in PT in Paris and consider broader implications for transport policy. In particular, we highlight that PT congestion is a first-order urban externality.

Do public transport investments promote urban economic development? Evidence from bus rapid transit in Bogotá, Colombia

In 2000, the city of Bogota, Colombia embarked on a grand land use and transportation system experiment. The transformation of Bogota included building the TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, a city-wide system that offers speed and convenience similar to that of an underground metro. TransMilenio is widely regarded as a success, and cities around the world are planning or building similar systems. In this paper, we use a repeated cross-section labor market dataset to assess whether access to the new BRT system affects the incomes of those who live in station area neighborhoods. Our results indicate that the opening of the TransMilenio system was associated with increased income for those living near—but not immediately adjacent to—trunk line stations. This relationship is strongest in the lower and middle-income range. There are at least two possible explanations for this result: 1. existing residents earn higher wages, or 2. higher income workers move to the neighborhood. Our data do not allow us to distinguish clearly between them, but available evidence suggests that much of the effect is likely due to relocation. Our results stand in contrast to prior work, which has largely suggested that improvements in public transit will tend to reduce wages in station areas.

Evaluation Methodology of Public Transport Operators’ Management &amp; Service in China

Till now, China is still short of science-based indicator system and methodology to evaluate the management and service of public transport operators. Because of this, public transport authorities and operators have no principles to follow when executing the public transport priority strategy. As a result, this paper builds up a set of evaluation indicator system in compliance with the national conditions of China, which can be used to evaluate the management of the public transport operators, to locate the problems and shortcomings of the urban public transport operators in their operations, and to help them improve their service quality. Furthermore, the evaluation indicator system can also provide basis for the government to make public transport investment decisions and allocate subsidies, balance the public transport capacity and volume, reform the make-up of the urban public transport vehicles, strengthen the supervising capacity and adopt the incentive/penalty policy for the public transport operators.

A TWO-PHASED FUZZY MULTICRITERIA SELECTION AMONG PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INVESTMENTS FOR POLICY-MAKING AND RISK GOVERNANCE

Public transportation can be viewed as a key determinant and consequence of the social and spatial formation and development of contemporary cities and regions. Transportation policy generally combines four categories of instruments, i.e., investment, pricing, regulation and subsidy, to generate viable alternatives. Capital investment in public transportation supports the purchase of equipment and facilities including rolling stock, tracks, control equipment, and the construction of terminals, stations, parking lots, maintenance facilities and power generating facilities. Risk governance for public transportation investments looks at how risk-related decision-making unfolds when a range of actors is involved, requiring co-ordination and possibly reconciliation between a profusion of roles, perspectives, goals and activities. In this paper, a two-phased multicriteria methodology is proposed to select the best investment alternative for public transportation with respect to the predetermined criteria. In the first phase, a selection among transportation types is made, and in the second phase, a selection among transportation modes of the selected transportation type is made. A case study for Istanbul is given in the application section.

Evaluation of the air quality benefits of the subway system in São Paulo, Brazil

Air pollution is a severe problem in major urban areas due to increasing numbers of vehicles, reduced road capacity and few investments in public transportation, especially in developing countries. Public transportation has a special role in avoiding congestion and consequent environmental and health impacts but is considered expensive. The objective of this paper was to analyze the benefits of the São Paulo subway in terms of the air pollution in the city through strikes events, analyzing both the health outcomes and the related economic burden. For the strike events, increases in air pollutant concentrations during the strike day was observed when compared to a similar day in terms of day of the week and meteorological conditions. Increases in mortality were also observed and the associated economic burden calculated. Despite the elevated construction and operation costs of the subway, when environment and social values are considered, cost-benefit analysis results would indicate a worthwhile investment. The consideration of these aspects is essential to sustainable transportation analyses, and in the case of the São Paulo subway, our analysis clearly demonstrated the important role of this system in the city's environmental, social and economic attributes.

Transport accessibility and social inequities: a tool for identification of mobility needs and evaluation of transport investments

Although the concept of social equity seems to be ubiquitous in most mobility plans of major Latin American cities, when evaluating transport projects for financing and prioritisation there are no specific or solid indicators to measure how they can contribute to promoting better access to opportunities, particularly for the most vulnerable segments of the population. In response, we designed a methodology that uses the concepts of accessibility and affordability as a complementary means for evaluating public transport investment, and identifying transport disadvantages and priorities for project generation. This is based on the calculation of accessibility levels to the labour market for different zones of a given city, by introducing a function of impedance composed by travel time budget and the percentage of income spent on transportation.The characteristics of time and percentage of income spent for accessing work obtained from transportation surveys define the “real accessibility” to employment for all the zones of a city. Then, a stated preference survey was applied in order to determine the desired expenditure in both variables, and the accessibility to jobs in this new situation was subsequently calculated. We calculated a third type of accessibility, using “standard” values of travel time and expenditure budget.This methodology is therefore used to evaluate different policies in Bogota, corresponding to changes in the fare structure of the existing public transport system, by proposing the development of cross subsidies, and carrying out an appraised on the impact of the development of a new Bus Rapid Transit line. The results show that depending on the population, its location and purchasing power, the impact of a redistributive fare with respect to accessibility to the labour market can be greater than the expansion and improvement of the public transport network.