THE ECOLOGICAL IMPACT OF TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Abstract There is a long-standing debate over whether new roads unavoidably lead to environmental damage, especially forest loss, but causal identification has been elusive. Using multiple causal identification strategies, we study the construction of new rural roads to over 100,000 villages and the upgrading of 10,000 kilometers of national highways in India. The new rural roads had precisely zero effect on local deforestation. In contrast, the highway upgrades caused substantial forest loss, which appears to be driven by increased timber demand along the transportation corridors. In terms of forests, last mile connectivity had a negligible environmental cost, while expansion of major corridors had important environmental impacts

Transportation infrastructure and the border economy

Trade ; Imports ; Exports ; Employment (Economic theory) ; North American Free Trade Agreement

Computer supported estimation of input data for transportation models

Control and management of transportation systems frequently rely on optimization or simulation methods based on a suitable model. Such a model uses optimization or simulation procedures and correct input data. The input data define transportation infrastructure and transportation flows. Data acquisition is a costly process and so an efficient approach is highly desirable. The infrastructure can be recognized from drawn maps using segmentation, thinning and vectorization. The accurate definition of network topology and nodes position is the crucial part of the process. Transportation flows can be analyzed as vehicle’s behavior based on video sequences of typical traffic situations. Resulting information consists of vehicle position, actual speed and acceleration along the road section. Data for individual vehicles are statistically processed and standard vehicle characteristics can be recommended for vehicle generator in simulation models

Analysis of Policy Issues Relating to Public Investment in Private Freight Infrastructure, MTI Report 99-03

The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) at San José State University conducted this study to review the issues and implications involved in the investment of public funds in private freight infrastructure. After thorough legal research, the project team reached the following conclusions: LEGAL ANALYSIS: The California legislature has the legal power to invest public funds in privately-owned freight infrastructure projects State Highway funds, excepting gas tax revenues, may be used for investment in freight infrastructure projects. Gas tax revenues are restricted to highway use by current interpretations of the California Constitution. A challenge to this interpretation is not recommended. Gas tax revenues may be invested in roadway segments of freight infrastructure projects. RECOMMENDATIONS An analytical system of guidelines should be developed to score and evaluate any proposed freight infrastructure project. Economic development must be included in these scoring guidelines. Public agencies should maintain political contacts in order to control the political short-circuits of the planning process. The California Department of Transportation should develop a Freight Improvement Priority System for the purpose of prioritizing all freight improvement projects

The impact of interregional and intraregional transportation costs on industrial location and efficient transport policies

Almost all models of the (New) Economic Geography have focused on interregional transportation costs to understand industrial location, considering regions as dots without intraregional transportation costs. We introduce a distinction between interregional and intraregional transportation costs. This allows assessing more precisely the effects of different types of transport policies. Focusing on two regions (a core and a periphery), we show that improving the quality of the interregional infrastructure, or of the intraregional infrastructure in the core region, leads to an increased concentration of activity in the core region. However, if we reduce intraregional transportation costs in the periphery, some firms transfer from the core to the periphery. From an efficiency point of view, we observe that, in absence of regulation, the concentration of firms is too high in the center. We show what set of policies improves the equilibrium.Economic geography ; Industrial location ; Transportation costs; Intraregional ; Interregional ; Concentration ; Transport Policies

The Gas Transportation Network as a ‘Lego’ Game: How to Play with It?

Gas transportation networks exhibit a quite substantial variety of technical and economical properties ranges roughly from an entrenched natural monopoly to near to an open competition platform. This empirical fact is widely known and accepted. However the corresponding frame of network analysis is lacking or quite fuzzy. As an infrastructure, can a gas network evolve or not from a natural monopoly (an essential facility) to an open infrastructure (a highway facility)? How can it be done with the same transportation infrastructure components within the same physical gas laws? Our paper provides a unified analytical frame for all types of gas transportation networks. It shows that gas transport networks are made of several components which can be combined in different ways. This very lego property of gas networks permits different designs with different economic properties while a certain infrastructural base and set of gas laws is common to all transportation networks. Therefore the notion of gas transportation network as a general and abstract concept does not have robust economic properties. The variety and modularity of gas networks come from the diversity of components, the variety of components combinations and the historical inclusion of components in the network. First, a gas network can combine different types of network components (primary or secondary ones). Second, the same components can be combined in different ways (notably regarding actual connections and flow paths). Third, as a capital-intensive infrastructure combining various specific assets, gas transportation networks show strong path dependency properties as they evolve slowly over time by moving from an already existing base. The heterogeneity of gas networks as sets of components comes firstly from the heterogeneity of the network components themselves, secondly from the different possibilities to combine these components and thirdly from the ‘path dependence’ character of gas network constructions. These three characteristics of gas networks explain the diversity of economic proprieties of the existent gas networks going from natural monopoly to competitive markets.

The influence of land use and mobility policy on travel behavior : a comparative case study of Flanders and the Netherlands

Numerous transportation studies have indicated that the local built environment can have an important effect on travel behavior; people living in suburban neighborhoods travel more by car than people living in urban neighborhoods. In this paper, however, we will analyze whether the regional land use has an important influence on travel behavior by comparing two regions with a varying land-use pattern: Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands. The different land-use pattern seems to have influenced travel behavior in both regions. An active spatial planning policy in the Netherlands, clustering activities in urban surroundings, appears to have realized a sustainable travel behavior, as a substantial share of residents frequently walk, cycle or use public transportation. The rather passive spatial planning in Flanders, resulting in urban sprawl, seems to stimulate car use. The applied mobility policy also has an impact on the travel behavior and land use of the Flemings and the Dutch. Infrastructure is concentrated in Dutch urban environments, whereas Flanders has a more widespread network of infrastructure and cheap public transportation, resulting in a further increase of suburbanization

Transportation for a New Era -- Growing More Sustainable Communities

Outlines policy recommendations to create a national vision recognizing the links between land use, infrastructure, and sustainable communities; support metropolitan areas; foster more compact development; and invest effectively in transportation

Legislative Alert: H.R. 4348

[Excerpt] On behalf of the AFL-CIO. I write in strong support of H.R. 4348, a bill to extend the surface transportation law until September 30, 2012. Time is running out to reauthorize the massive transportation infrastructure bill, which is currently operating on its ninth extension. Any further delay will render state and local governments unable to plan for the remainder of the construction season, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk

Active Transportation: Making the Link From Transportation to Physical Activity and Obesity

Highlights findings on how public transit use and walking or biking to school raise physical activity levels, lower obesity rates, and reduce costs and how transportation infrastructure investments and awareness programs promote physical activity