Modeling cross-national differences in automated vehicle acceptance

The technology that allows fully automated driving already exists and it may gradually enter the market over the forthcoming decades. Technology assimilation and automated vehicle acceptance in different countries is of high interest to many scholars, manufacturers, and policymakers worldwide. We model the mode choice between automated vehicles and conventional cars using a mixed multinomial logit heteroskedastic error component type model. Specifically, we capture preference heterogeneity assuming a continuous distribution across individuals. Different choice scenarios, based on respondents’ reported trip, were presented to respondents from six European countries: Cyprus, Hungary, Iceland, Montenegro, Slovenia, and the UK. We found that large reservations towards automated vehicles exist in all countries with 70% conventional private car choices, and 30% automated vehicles choices. We found that men, under the age of 60, with a high income who currently use private car, are more likely to be early adopters of automated vehicles. We found significant differences in automated vehicles acceptance in different countries. Individuals from Slovenia and Cyprus show higher automated vehicles acceptance while individuals from wealthier countries, UK, and Iceland, show more reservations towards them. Nontrading mode choice behaviors, value of travel time, and differences in model parameters among the different countries are discussed

Paying for parking : improving stated-preference surveys

This article describes an experiment which introduced random ranges into the variables used for the design of a stated preference survey and its effects on willingness to pay for parking. User behaviour at the time of parking was modelled to determine their willingness to pay in order to get to their final destination more quickly. Calculating willingness to pay is fundamental during the social and economic assessment of projects. It is important to correctly model how car parks and their users interact in order to get values which represent reality as closely as possible. Willingness to pay is calculated using a stated preference survey and by calibrating multinomial logit models, taking variable tastes into account. It is shown that a value with a low variability can be obtained for willingness to pay by correctly establishing the context of the choice and randomly changing the variables around an average value

Welfare Effects of Distortionary Tax Incentives Under Preference Heterogeneity: An Application to Employer-Provided Electric Cars

This paper presents an approach for the estimation of welfare effects of tax policy changes under heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The approach is applied to evaluate the welfare effects of current tax advantages for electric vehicles supplied as fringe benefits by employers. Drawing on stated preferences of Dutch company car drivers, we assess the short-run welfare effects of changes in the taxation of the private use of these vehicles. We find that the welfare gain of a marginal increase in the taxation of electric company cars is substantial and even outweighs the marginal tax revenue raised

Sustainable transport planning using GIS and remote sensing: An integrated approach

The main advantage of using GIS is its ability to access and analyze spatially distributed data. The applications of GIS to transportation can be viewed as involving either on data retrieval; data integrator; or data analysis. The use of remote sensing can assist the retrieval of land use changes. Indeed, the integration of GIS and remote sensing will be used to fill the gap in the smart transport planning. A four step research is going to be done in order to try to integrate the usage of GIS and remote sensing to sustainable transport planning. The proposed research will be held in the city of Limassol, Cyprus. The data that are going to be used are data that are going to be collected through questionnaires, and other available data from the Cyprus Public Works Department and from the Remote Sensing Laboratory and Geo-Environment Research Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology. Overall, statistical analysis and market segmentation of data will be done, the land usage will be examined, and a scenario building on mode choice will be held. This paper presents an overview of the methodology that will be adopted

Past, Present and Future of Transit-Oriented Development in three European Capital City-Regions

The concept of Transit-Oriented Development—development near, and/or oriented to, mass transit facilities—has generated much interest in Europe over the last decade. Coined in the United States in the 1990s, the term “TOD” is frequently assumed to be a recent American import and a reaction to the consequences of mass motorization and sprawl. However, TOD is based on much older ideas of rail-based urban development that took place in many European cities during the 19th and 20th centuries. Arguably, the modern reincarnation of TOD is more focused on urban aesthetics. Other tenets, such as accessibility, density, and mixed-use, have remained more or less unchanged.This article examines how planning policies in three European capital city-regions—Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna—have been shaped by the ideas and principles underlying TOD. The three case studies were selected because all are located in European countries with mature systems of spatial planning: the Netherlands (Western Europe), Sweden (Northern Europe), and Austria (Central Europe). The article examines the extent to which planning policies from the mid-20th century to the present have reflected TOD principles. The analysis is based on secondary sources (articles, books, and planning reports), and the focus of the study is on policy rather than measurements and metrics. The last three decades are explored more in depth as material is more readily available.The first part of the analysis summarizes the development of spatial planning in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria since WWII, with an eye to highlighting policies that could be considered to be, or might affect, TOD. The second part deals with the implications of these policies in terms of past, present, and future TOD planning and practice in the respective capital city-regions: Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna