Innovations in Transportation: research and policy lessons of recent successful cases

To reduce environmental impact of transport and congestion several kinds innovations can play an important role. Many examples of incremental innovations exist, but the transport sector does not have a good record of more radical innovations. In the literature on innovations it has been concluded often that a traditional top-down, vertical process might often be less successful than a more horizontal, systemic approach, in which many actors are involved. This paper focuses on successful innovations in transport that have been realised. Seven cases studies were carried out, focusing on the goals, the role of actors, the role of research, and the instruments used. The main conclusions of the research are firstly that the services described can certainly result in local improvements in nuisance from parked and driven vehicles, noise and air pollution. Secondly, the local municipalities have played an important role in the introduction of the new services. Thirdly, in some cases the role of only one person (or a few persons) had a huge impact in the introduction of the services. Fourthly, in several cases the solution was not as much in expensive, high-tech measures, but in very simple but creative ways of using existing possibilities, e.g. the park-and-ride service for shopping in Utrecht using an existing parking lot. The service itself does not involve much more than offering a parking place and a bus to the centre. Fifthly, the role of research differs considerably among the innovations, sometimes being of crucial importance, but sometimes hardly relevant. Sixth, all functions that play a crucial role in the management of present-day innovation processes, as presented by Smits and Kuhlmann (2002), appear in some cases, though not in all cases. The management of interfaces brought actors together. The organising systems often did not exist before. Learning and experimenting plaid an important role in several cases. The demand articulation was very important in some of the cases: the services were organised starting from the perspective of the users. The role of providing an infrastructure for strategic intelligence in the cases has been limited.

Discussing equity and social exclusion in accessibility evaluations

Ex ante evaluations of transport policy options (including infrastructure plans) are generally based on cost-benefit analyses (CBA). Accessibility changes are included in such analyses indirectly, via a utilitarian perspective. But accessibility is broader than is assumed by this perspective and also incorporates equity and related distribution effects as well as social exclusion. This paper aims to give an overview of the relevance of distribution effects and equity, and social exclusion for accessibility, based on the literature. The most important conclusions of our paper is that the two subjects are poorly addressed in transport appraisal in general, and in CBA in particular. Additional ethical theories could add value to the utilitarian perspective, egalitarian theories being a major competitor. Equity analysis is however complex because there are several types of equity, various ways to categorize people for equity analysis, numerous impacts to consider, and various ways of measuring these impacts. And such analysis requires normative judgements, in addition to simply presenting distribution effects. Several options are available to express distribution effects. Important choices to be made if such effects need to be reported relate to the unit of comparison (e.g. the household versus the individual), the indicator to be used, and the value of each unit to be compared (e.g. accessibility) for all units of comparison (e.g. households). We also conclude that CBA is not suitable for evaluating social exclusion policies. Based on this overview we propose an agenda for potential future research in the area of ethics and accessibility

EJTIR Discussion notes & replies

Starting with this issue, EJTIR plans to complement its regular content with so-called discussion notes & replies. A discussion note can be sent to us by either scholars or practitioners. The approximately sixpage document comments on particular trends, issues or visions in the field of transportation. Such a discussion note, rather than being sent out for review, is forwarded to a number of experts on the topic discussed, with the request to react by means of a brief reply. After having received all replies, the author of the initial discussion note is provided with the opportunity to respond. Subsequently, all documents are published in an EJTIR-issue under the heading discussion notes & replies. We trust that, by extending our content towards including these discussions, we are able to further increase our relevance for scholars and practitioners in the field of transportation: in our view, many of the important transportation challenges ahead of us could benefit from a discussion among experts as sketched above

Prospect Theory and Travel Behaviour: a Personal Reflection Based on a Seminar

This paper is the final paper of a special issue on Prospect Theory (PT) and its applications in travel behaviour research. It is largely (but not exclusively) based on discussions held during a seminar that took place on the 8th of October 2009. The paper presents some personal reflections based on the discussion subjects on the use of PT in the area of travel behaviour research, clustered by the position of PT as a theory, applications of PT, future research, and relevance for policy making. The most important conclusion of the papers are firstly that PT, in addition to other theories like Utility Theory (UT), can help to improve our understanding of choices in the area of travel behaviour. The concepts of loss aversion and reference points are especially useful. A second important conclusion is that PT is not the only theory challenging UT. For example Regret Theory and the concept of Bounded Rationality also challenge PT. In addition, some of the premises of PT, at least the importance of some reference points, are not exclusively the domain of PT, but also that of other theories, including UT. Thirdly, it is important to realize that critics of Utility Theory (UT) as it is used in specific studies related to travel behaviour are not necessarily critics of UT in general. Fourth, it seems better to focus on the distinguishing premises of PT than on the theory as a fully fledged alternative to UT. A fifth outcome is that PT can be used both to increase our understanding of travel behaviour, as well as for the evaluation of the outcomes of models. A final outcome is that there is no need to choose a theory before collecting the data

Book Review Button, K.J. and Hensher, D.A. (eds.) Handbook of transport strategy, policy and institutions

They’ve done it again! Elsevier recently published the 6th Handbook for Transport, edited by Ken Button and David Hensher, the Handbook of Transport Strategy, Policy and Institutions. The handbook contains 834 pages, pleasantly split into 46 chapters of some 15-20 pages each (the perfect size for a train commuter with one hour in-vehicle time per one-way trip), and is organized into sections covering: • Institutional settings and markets • Planning perspectives • Asset management and funding • Regulatory issues • Evaluation frameworks • National studies Reviewing books is one of those jobs academics now and then do because it is more or less a moral task. It is very time consuming and does not result in any academic credits. The board of the European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) was keen to publish a book review of this handbook. Unfortunately the first three persons we requested to do the job kindly suggested asking someone else, so I finally decided to do it myself, with, to be honest, a bit of hesitation

High-speed rail’s impact on the location of office employment within the Dutch Randstad area

With the upcoming implementation of high-speed railway infrastructure in the Netherlands, interest has arisen in the spatial-economic effects this might have. Experiences with high-speed rail outside the Netherlands have shown that effects at a local or regional level can be important, due to relocation of employment within regions and cities. This paper focuses on this issue by presenting the results of discrete choice models for office location choice. Both stated choice data and revealed choice data are used. The discrete location choice models give information on to what extent the introduction of high-speed rail in the Netherlands can change the attractiveness of individual cities within the Randstad area on the one hand and of places within these cities on the other hand. As accessibility is an important concept in this topic, attention is given to the specification of accessibility indicators. Hereby, distinction is made between centrality and connectivity. Centrality refers to the position of a location within the transport network and relative to possible origins and destinations. Potential accessibility indicators based on a spatial interaction model are used to represent centrality. Connectivity refers to how well a location is connected to a transport network. Indicators for connectivity are for example the distance to the nearest railway station or motorway access ramp and also the level-of-service provided, such as the train frequency at a station. Furthermore, the paper focuses on a segmentation of employment that reflects this paper’s purpose of studying the influence of (high-speed) rail on location choices. Whereas accessibility by car is relevant for location choices of all types of office employment, accessibility by rail in general and accessibility by high-speed rail in particular seem important to more distinct groups of office employment.

Road pricing and (re)location decisions households

Road pricing policies are, after a cooling down period of a couple of years, again prominently back on the political agenda in the Netherlands. But also in the period of less political interest, research in the field of (road) pricing policies continued in other countries as well as in the Netherlands. Most research literature focuses on the economic and acceptability aspects of pricing policies. The geographical aspects of transport pricing however have received much less attention so far. This paper focuses on possible influences of road pricing policies on residential and work location choice of households. The paper starts with analyzing the importance of transport and location related variables in residential location decisions, when the choice to relocate itself has been made. For this analysis data from a stated choice experiment is used. Choice screens within the experiment consisted of two alternatives. In total, per respondent nine choice screens were shown. Transport related variables within the experiment were commuting travel time, fuel cost and toll cost. The location related variables consisted of the residential environment, the number of bedrooms and the monthly housing costs. Analysis of the results gives insight into the importance of for example toll costs on the final location choice when a decision to relocate itself has already been made. However this type of analysis does not give insight into the number of people who are actually considering changing location when a form of road pricing is introduced. Therefore the second part of the paper continues with analyzing the extent to which people are likely to relocate due to road pricing. The effect of different types of pricing measures and pricing levels on this inclination to relocate are examined. For the analysis, data from a stated preference questionnaire is used. The paper finally concludes with an examination of important explaining variables for moving house or changing job due to road pricing. Some important findings are for example that older people (above 40 years of age), people with a higher income and persons getting a travel cost compensation from their employer are less willing to move due to a pricing measure. People with a higher education level however are more willing to relocate.

Road pricing from a geographical perspective: a literature review and implications for research into accessibility

Road pricing policies have been a subject of research for many decades. Even though until now examples of actual implication in the real world are limited, many different road-pricing measures have been considered, both in literature as well as in the political debate in several countries. However, most literature focuses on economic aspects, more or less ignoring spatial consequences. In this paper we will concentrate on the spatial effects of pricing policy and introduce the typical geographic concept of accessibility into the discussion about pricing policy. The paper firstly gives some backgrounds of pricing policies. Some objectives of road pricing in general are given. Furthermore some examples of already implemented pricing measures in countries all over the world are mentioned. General literature concerning pricing policies aims specifically on economic effects. This is mainly because of the typical economic aspects, which can be found in the theory of pricing policy such as the pricing of a scarce good as infrastructure capacity, related to time aspects. Also studies concerning acceptability of road pricing policies are discussed, because acceptance plays an important role in the implementation of pricing policies. The paper shortly addresses some of the economic and acceptability related literature. But the literature review of the paper focuses specifically on the geographical aspects of pricing policies. These geographical aspects have received much less attention so far although road-pricing measures may cause important spatial effects. Therefore the second part of the paper focuses on these geographical aspects. A specific research field in geography is accessibility. Accessibility is a concept that connects infrastructure and land-use. The research fields of accessibility and pricing policies in isolation are well elaborated. However, the link between road pricing policies and accessibility (measures) forms a new research field. The paper explains the importance of the concept of accessibility. In practice accessibility can be computed with accessibility measures. These measures form quantifications of accessibility. Different types of accessibility measures exist differing in concept as well as complexity. All these measures have in common that transport costs are not included at all or at least not in a realistic way. After explaining the concept of accessibility different categories of accessibility measures are explained and their general advantages and disadvantages are given. Furthermore possibilities to adapt or improve accessibility measures are discussed. After this discussion the actual link between road pricing policies and accessibility measures is explained. The discussion begins with the presentation of a conceptual model of the accessibility (and spatial) effects of road pricing. Subsequently an observation is made where current measures fall short to include pricing policy costs in a realistic way. This observation will lead to the determination of directions for improvement. Besides the general possibilities to adjust different accessibility measures, each measure is specifically evaluated on the ability to improve the way of describing accessibility effects of road pricing.