Impacts of fuel consumption taxes on mobility patterns and CO2 emissions using a system dynamic approach

Current transport behaviour leads to increasing congestion of the infrastructure, growing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing energy demand, and growing CO2 emissions. Policies based principally on increasing system speed and in particular car speeds will lead to greater urban sprawl with increases in average trip lengths. Time saved by speed increases are traded for more distance. This trend is not sustainable in the longer term. Transport policies based just on time savings for citizens may not be the basis for our city planning strategy. The same happens with transport cost. With underpriced transport, the market undervalues land use location, which again may lead city to sprawl and could induce greater trip lengths. In this study, the efficiency of a fuel consumption or CO2 tax policy is analysed as a policy to internalise externalities of transport in a fair travel cost. Based on system dynamics theory, an integrated land use and transport model is proposed in order to assess the effects and impacts of such policy in the short, medium and long term. Different scenarios related to clean vehicles are incorporated. This model is applied to three cities Madrid, Vienna and Leeds and compares their results

Study on behavioral impedance for route planning techniques from the pedestrian's perspective: Part I - Theoretical contextualization and taxonomy

The interest of researchers for analyzing of best routes and shortest paths allows a continuous technological advance in topological analysis techniques used in the geographic information systems for transportation. One of the topological analysis techniques is the route planning, in which the constraint management must be considered. There have been few studies where the constraint domain for pedestrian in an urban transportation system was clearly stated. Consequently, more studies need to be carried out. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical contextualization on identification and management of constraints to ascertain the behavioral impedance domain from the pedestrian perspective. In this part of the research the grounded theory was the research method used to develop the proposed theory. A meta-model was used to (1) define the behavioral domain structure, (2) hold the behavioral data collection and (3) verify the design of the proposed taxonomic tree. The main contribution of this article is the behavioral domain taxonomy from the pedestrian perspective, which will be used to implement a module responsible for the constraint management of an experimental application, named Router. Within this context, the proposed taxonomy could be used to model cost functions more precisely.Postprint (published version

Spatial accessibility and social inclusion: The impact of Portugal's last health reform

Health policies seek to promote access to health care and should provide appropriate geographical accessibility to each demographical functional group. The dispersal demand of health‐careservices and the provision for such services atfixed locations contribute to the growth of inequality intheir access. Therefore, the optimal distribution of health facilities over the space/area can lead toaccessibility improvements and to the mitigation of the social exclusion of the groups considered mostvulnerable. Requiring for such, the use of planning practices joined with accessibility measures. However,the capacities of Geographic Information Systems in determining and evaluating spatial accessibility inhealth system planning have not yet been fully exploited. This paper focuses on health‐care services planningbased on accessibility measures grounded on the network analysis. The case study hinges on mainlandPortugal. Different scenarios were developed to measure and compare impact on the population'saccessibility. It distinguishes itself from other studies of accessibility measures by integrating network data ina spatial accessibility measure: the enhanced two‐stepfloating catchment area. The convenient location forhealth‐care facilities can increase the accessibility standards of the population and consequently reducethe economic and social costs incurred. Recently, the Portuguese government implemented a reform thataimed to improve, namely, the access and equity in meeting with the most urgent patients. It envisaged,in terms of equity, the allocation of 89 emergency network points that ensured more than 90% of thepopulation be within 30 min from any one point in the network. Consequently, several emergency serviceswere closed, namely, in rural areas. This reform highlighted the need to improve the quality of the emergencycare, accessibility to each care facility, and equity in their access. Hence, accessibility measures becomean efficient decision‐making tool, despite its absence in effective practice planning. According to anapplication of this type of measure, it was possible to verify which levels of accessibility were decreased,including the most disadvantaged people, with a larger time of dislocation of 12 min between 2001 and 2011

Transport as a location factor: new start-ups and relocations in Portugal

This paper analyses the spatial pattern of manufacturing plant location and relocation using municipality data in Portugal from 1986 to 1997. Over this period most of the Portuguese motorways have been constructed extending the network from just about 200 kilometres at the beginning of the 1980s to over 1,300 kilometres by 1998. This is an interesting development that offers opportunities to explore the role of road infrastructure and its improvements as a location factor. In addition to location determinants widely used in the literature, fine measures of motorway access and road accessibility calculated with GIS methodology are included in panel data estimations. Because plant birth and plant relocation result from two different spatial decision processes in the firm they are treated separately. The present study puts these two events in a dynamic context of the plant life cycle and finds evidence that fits with notions of business dynamics. Plant start-ups are positively influenced by the existence of a local pool of potential entrepreneurs, lower wage costs and a more diversified economic environment. Relocations, on the other hand, prefer areas with a greater availability of producer services and an already larger industrial share. These findings suggest that plant relocations, which are at a later stage of the plant life cycle, add to concentration and geographic specialisation, whilst first locations are primarily influenced by the availability of general inputs and cheap factors of production. A key finding of this paper is that road infrastructure matters for both, but more so for plant relocations. Relocations show a considerably larger attraction towards the new road transport corridors. This indicates that as firms grow, their spatial requirements change to accommodate a greater need for high-quality transport infrastructure to sell output over, and get inputs from, a wider geographic area.

Methodological and empirical challenges in modelling residential location choices

The modelling of residential locations is a key element in land use and transport planning. There are significant empirical and methodological challenges inherent in such modelling, however, despite recent advances both in the availability of spatial datasets and in computational and choice modelling techniques. One of the most important of these challenges concerns spatial aggregation. The housing market is characterised by the fact that it offers spatially and functionally heterogeneous products; as a result, if residential alternatives are represented as aggregated spatial units (as in conventional residential location models), the variability of dwelling attributes is lost, which may limit the predictive ability and policy sensitivity of the model. This thesis presents a modelling framework for residential location choice that addresses three key challenges: (i) the development of models at the dwelling-unit level, (ii) the treatment of spatial structure effects in such dwelling-unit level models, and (iii) problems associated with estimation in such modelling frameworks in the absence of disaggregated dwelling unit supply data. The proposed framework is applied to the residential location choice context in London. Another important challenge in the modelling of residential locations is the choice set formation problem. Most models of residential location choices have been developed based on the assumption that households consider all available alternatives when they are making location choices. Due the high search costs associated with the housing market, however, and the limited capacity of households to process information, the validity of this assumption has been an on-going debate among researchers. There have been some attempts in the literature to incorporate the cognitive capacities of households within discrete choice models of residential location: for instance, by modelling households’ choice sets exogenously based on simplifying assumptions regarding their spatial search behaviour (e.g., an anchor-based search strategy) and their characteristics. By undertaking an empirical comparison of alternative models within the context of residential location choice in the Greater London area this thesis investigates the feasibility and practicality of applying deterministic choice set formation approaches to capture the underlying search process of households. The thesis also investigates the uncertainty of choice sets in residential location choice modelling and proposes a simplified probabilistic choice set formation approach to model choice sets and choices simultaneously. The dwelling-level modelling framework proposed in this research is practice-ready and can be used to estimate residential location choice models at the level of dwelling units without requiring independent and disaggregated dwelling supply data. The empirical comparison of alternative exogenous choice set formation approaches provides a guideline for modellers and land use planners to avoid inappropriate choice set formation approaches in practice. Finally, the proposed simplified choice set formation model can be applied to model the behaviour of households in online real estate environments.Open Acces

A Multiple Criteria Framework to Evaluate Bank Branch Potential Attractiveness

Remarkable progress has occurred over the years in the performance evaluation of bank branches. Even though financial measures are usually considered the most important in assessing branch viability, we posit that insufficient attention has been given to other factors that affect the branches’ potential profitability and attractiveness. Based on the integrated used of cognitive maps and MCDA techniques, we propose a framework that adds value to the way that potential attractiveness criteria to assess bank branches are selected and to the way that the trade-offs between those criteria are obtained. This framework is the result of a process involving several directors from the five largest banks operating in Portugal, and follows a constructivist approach. Our findings suggest that the use of cognitive maps systematically identifies previously omitted criteria that may assess potential attractiveness. The use of MCDA techniques may clarify and add transparency to the way trade-offs are dealt with. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed framework are also discussed.

On Analysing Changes in Urban Form ? Some Theoretical and Methodological Issues

The urban structure is a result of human actions and affects its users in a cyclic relationship. The political systems on different levels put attention to the urban structure and its relationship to the ecological and sociological and economical systems. This attention is expressed on the European level, for instance, in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) where a spatial structure according to the polycentric urban system principle is recommended. The first aim of this study is to discuss spatial location factors for the temporal and geographical development of urban residential structures. The second aim of the study is to investigate the relative importance of the discussed location factors using a segment of a Swedish county as a test case. The basic question is whether the location of new residential areas is determined through market forces or political decisions. Thus, the paper addresses the fundamental question of the efficiency of land-use planning decisions. By geo-coding existing geographical real estate tax databases and combining the information with existing digital maps and satellite images the spatial development over time will be analysed in a geographic information system. By non-parametric statistical tests and multiple regression analyses the importance of individual factors relative to one another will be determined. The analysis is performed at as low a geographical level as possible. If the urban development exhibits some regularity, and hence is not totally random with the regards to the explanatory factors in question, then is it possible to investigate the development as a system of spatial causalities. The study is based on earlier investigations by, among others, Rietveld & Wagtendonk (2000), Filion, Bunting & Warriner (1999) and de la Barra (1989). However, the current investigation will use disaggregated geographical data on micro level with a high spatial resolution. The case study is performed in an area affected by high speed commuting train from the middle of the analysis period 1980-2000, which calls for also a detailed representation of the transport system. References: Rietveld P & Wagtendonk AJ (2000), The location of new residential areas in the Netherlands: A statistical analysis for the period between 1980 and 1995, Paper presented to the 40th congress of the European Regional Science Association (2000), Barcelona, Spain. Filion P., Bunting T. och Warriner K. (1999). The entrenchment of urban dispersion: Residental preferences and location patterns in the dispersed city. Urban Studies, 36, (8), 1317-1347. de la Barra T. (1989). Integrated land use and transport modelling: decision chains and hierarchies. New York. Cambridge university press.

Land-Use Transport Interaction: State of the Art

This paper investigates innovative approaches to the integration of land-use and transport planning in urban regions. Engineering, economic and social-science based theories and empirical studies are analyzed regarding their ability to explain the interaction between land use and transport - that land use determines traffic flows and that transport infrastructure changes land-use patterns. In addition, this paper provides an overview of the state of the art of computer models for the simulation of land use and transport. Based on these theories and models the effectiveness of policies to influence land use and transport in urban regions is assessed.Urban location theory, transportation research, land use- transport interaction, urban simulation modeling, location choice

Competitiveness of Slovenia as a Tourist Destination

In an increasingly saturated market the fundamental task for the destination management, is understanding how tourism destination competitiveness can be enhanced and sustained. Competitiveness of a tourist destination is an important factor that positively influences the growth of the market share. Therefore tourism managers have to identify and explore competitive advantages and analyse the actual competitive position. There exist different approaches that model the competitiveness (Ritchie and Crouch 1993; Evans and Johnson 1995; Hassan 2000; Kozak 2001; De Keyser and Vanhove 1994; Dwyer, Livaic and Mellor 2003). Among all we follow the framework (Dwyer, Livaic and Mellor 2003), which was developed in a collaborative effort by researchers in Korea and Australia and presented in Sydney in 2001, and conduct an empirical analysis on Slovenia as a tourist destination. The aim of this paper is to present the model of destination competitiveness. The paper presents the results of a survey, based on indicators associated with the model, to determine the competitiveness of Slovenia as a tourist destination.previous visitation, Slovenia