On the buses: a mixed-method evaluation of the impact of free bus travel for young people on the public health

Background In September 2005 London introduced a policy granting young people aged  60 years. An increase in assaults largely preceded the scheme. Qualitative data suggested that the scheme increased opportunities for independent travel, social inclusion, and a sense of belonging and that it ‘normalised’ bus travel. The monetised benefits of the scheme substantially outweighed the costs, providing what the Department for Transport (DfT) considers ‘high’ value for money. Conclusion The free bus travel scheme for young people appears to have encouraged their greater use of bus transport for short trips without significant impact on their overall active travel. There was qualitative evidence for benefits on social determinants of health, such as normalisation of bus travel, greater social inclusion and opportunities for independent travel. In the context of a good bus service, universal free bus travel for young people appears to be a cost-effective contributor to social inclusion and, potentially, to increasing sustainable transport in the long term. Further research is needed on the effects of both active and other travel modes on the determinants of health; the factors that influence maintenance of travel mode change; travel as ‘social practice’; the impact of driving license changes on injury rates for young adults and the value of a statistical life for young people

Introducing willingness-to-pay for noise changes into transport appraisal: an application of benefit transfer.

Numerous research studies have elicited willingness-to-pay values for transport-related noise, however, in many industrialised countries including the UK, noise costs and benefits are still not incorporated into appraisals for most transport projects and policy changes (Odgaard et al, 2005; Grant-Muller et al, 2001). This paper describes the actions recently taken in the UK to address this issue, comprising: primary research based on the city of Birmingham; an international review of willingness-to-pay evidence; development of values using benefit transfers over time and locations; and integration with appraisal methods. Amongst the main findings are: that the willingness-to-pay estimates derived for the UK are broadly comparable with those used in appraisal elsewhere in Europe; that there is a case for a lower threshold at 1 45dB(A)Leq,18hr1 rather than the more conventional 55dB(A); and that values per dB(A) increase with the noise level above this threshold. There are significant issues over the valuation of rail versus road noise, the neglect of non-residential noise and the valuation of high noise levels in different countries. Conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of noise valuation based on benefit transfers in the UK and elsewhere, and future research needs in this field are discussed

Political economy of transport investment, pricing and the use of resources

This thesis proposes that the theory underlying cost-benefit analysis (CBA) be strengthened in three respects - its treatment of social choice: quality of life and differentiated pricing. The summation across individuals in the Kaldor-Hicks test is argued to be a key weakness of CBA. Transport policymaking is reinterpreted as the resolution of co-ordination problems, and a set of three social choice criteria are developed based on the principles underpinning a mixed economy and democratic political system. These criteria include financial sustainability and consent, as well as a mean wellbeing-maximisation criterion which is close to the conventional NPV -maximisation criterion in CBA. A transport-related quality of life function is constructed, including a wide range of influences - e.g. inequality aversion and the built environment. The possibility of serious harm is recognised, and defined provisionally but quantitatively on the quality of life scale. The function is applied in an illustrative assessment of urban transport policy options. Demand-based price differentiation, sometimes regarded negatively as price discrimination, is defined and circumstances under which it is legal (a social choice) are explored. An approach is set out to assess price differentiation as a policy tool, within the theoretical framework. Application of the revised theory is found to be feasible and to change the ranking of some policy options compared with CBA. Road pricing is found to raise a consent issue, although the analysis suggests how the policy might be returned to overcome this. A metro investment, although expensive, is found to satisfy the criteria with careful use of mitigation and compensation. Differentiated pricing is found to be compatible with the criteria in an urban example, however in a non-urban example the level of prices and ‘unequal treatment' versus other localities are found to raise consent issues, which could have changed the recommendations, if included in the ex ante appraisal.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Sustainability Appraisal: The definition deficit

Much work has focused on the development of indicator sets to monitor changes in the sustainability of transport. Such indicator sets are however, often quite divorced from those used in decision-making and fail to include clear sustainability goals to work towards. This research describes the development of a sustainability appraisal framework in conjunction with a series of key decision-makers in England. A case study of a real set of strategy options tested in a metropolitan area is outlined and the results used to assess the extent to which current strategy development in the United Kingdom produces the information required to both assess and communicate progress towards sustainability. The results suggest that although sustainability exists as a concept, it is poorly defined. This definition deficit has serious implications for the types of strategies tested. First, information on some aspects of sustainability is not produced and so these aspects are marginalized. Secondly, the lack of policy goals and the dominant welfare economics assessment paradigm allow unsustainable strategies to be justified provided they perform better than an unsustainable ‘do-minimum’. The paper concludes with some recommendations for the policy and research communities to bridge the current gap in thinking

The likely impacts of target setting and performance rewards in local transport

All local transport authorities in England have, since 2000, been obliged to submit 5-year plans for local transport. The plans set out the overall strategy, key policies that will be implemented and how the strategy will be resourced. The central government now adjusts the funding allocations up or down by up to 25% based on the quality of the plans and, on an on-going basis, achievement against the targets proposed in these plans. This paper presents a theoretical and practical assessment of the impacts of these incentives on local authority performance. The research has employed a mixed-methods approach with interviews, questionnaires, the development of a game theoretic representation of the process and a laboratory experiment. The findings have been discussed with practitioners. The research suggests that the presence of performance rewards, in a scheme where authorities believe they have a reasonable chance of being rewarded, leads to authorities setting more ambitious targets. Whilst it is not certain that these targets will be met it appears that the absolute outcomes achieved are likely to be better than they otherwise would have been. Generic conclusions are drawn about the conditions under which target-based performance reward schemes will work best.Targets Performance Funding Game theory Incentives

The likely impacts of target setting and performance rewards in local transport

All local transport authorities in England have, since 2000, been obliged to submit 5-year plans for local transport. The plans set out the overall strategy, key policies that will be implemented and how the strategy will be resourced. The central government now adjusts the funding allocations up or down by up to 25% based on the quality of the plans and, on an on-going basis, achievement against the targets proposed in these plans. This paper presents a theoretical and practical assessment of the impacts of these incentives on local authority performance. The research has employed a mixed-methods approach with interviews, questionnaires, the development of a game theoretic representation of the process and a laboratory experiment. The findings have been discussed with practitioners. The research suggests that the presence of performance rewards, in a scheme where authorities believe they have a reasonable chance of being rewarded, leads to authorities setting more ambitious targets. Whilst it is not certain that these targets will be met it appears that the absolute outcomes achieved are likely to be better than they otherwise would have been. Generic conclusions are drawn about the conditions under which target-based performance reward schemes will work best

Evaluating measures to improve personal security and the value of their benefits

Recent national passenger surveys have shown that satisfaction associated with personal security on the railways in Great Britain has been consistently lower than the overall satisfaction level of rail passengers. To address these concerns, and to improve personal security on the railways, the industry has implemented various security measures and schemes. However, in the absence of a value or a set of values to robustly quantify such measures, making a case for investment becomes very difficult. The Rail Personal Security Group asked RSSB to address this knowledge gap. To this end, the project has evaluated the Secure Station and Park Mark schemes implemented by the industry to improve personal security. The aims of the research, which have been fulfilled, were to establish whether the schemes are fulfilling their objectives and to estimate the value of the benefits accrued from their introduction. The project has quantified the schemes’ benefits through increased patronage and crime reduction, as well as identifying wider social and economic benefits. Additionally, the research has delivered a well developed and informed framework to assess the societal and economic benefits of investing in personal security, as well as recommendations on the effectiveness of the schemes. The knowledge gained through this work may be used in the Passenger Demand Forecasting Handbook, the New Approach to Appraisal guidelines; and individual train operator and Network Rail business case frameworks. The outputs will help make better investment and deployment decisions associated with personal security on the railways

Evaluation of eco-driving systems : A European analysis with scenarios and micro simulation

In recent years, various field operational tests (FOTs) have been carried out in the EU to measure the real-world impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). A challenge arising from these FOTs is to scale up from the very localised effects measured in the tests to a much wider set of socio-economic impacts, for the purposes of policy evaluation. This can involve: projecting future take-up of the systems; scaling up to a wider geographical area – in some cases the whole EU; and estimating a range of economic, social and environmental impacts into the future. This article describes the evaluation conducted in the European project ‘ecoDriver’, which developed and tested a range of driver support systems for cars and commercial vehicles. The systems aimed to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption by encouraging the adoption of green driving behaviour. A novel approach to evaluation was adopted, which used scenario-building and micro-simulation to help scale up the results from field tests to the EU-28 level over a 20 year period, leading to a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) from both a societal and a stakeholder perspective. This article describes the method developed and used for the evaluation, and the main results for eco-driving systems, focusing on novel aspects, lessons learned and implications for policy and research. © 2018 World Conference on Transport Research SocietyFunding details: 288611, FP7, Seventh Framework Programme; Funding details: FP7-ICT-2011-7, FP7, Seventh Framework Programme; Funding details: EC, European Commission; Funding text: This research was part of the ecoDriver project which was supported by funding of the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ICT-2011-7) under grant agreement no. 288611 . The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Commission for their funding. </p

Network effects and total economic impact in transport appraisal

It is sometimes claimed that transport infrastructure projects have network effects, which are not taken into account in the appraisal of these projects. This paper reviews the concept of network effects, relates this to transport appraisal practice, and links to the concept of 'total economic impact'. The limitations of transport modelling and appraisal in estimating total economic impact are reviewed. Good quality appraisals should be capable of picking up relevant network effects in the transport market, but the state of the art remains limited on the linkages between transport and the wider economy.

Health impacts of free bus travel for young people: evaluation of a natural experiment in London.

BACKGROUND: We used the introduction of free bus travel for young people in London in 2005 as a natural experiment with which to assess its effects on active travel, car use, road traffic injuries, assaults, and on one measure of social inclusion, total number of trips made. METHODS: A controlled before-after analysis was conducted. We estimated trips by mode and distances travelled in the preintroduction and postintroduction periods using data from London Travel Demand Surveys. We estimated rates of road traffic injury and assault in each period using STATS19 data and Hospital Episode Statistics, respectively. We estimated the ratio of change in the target age group (12-17 years) to the change in adults (ages 25-59 years), with 95% CIs. RESULTS: The proportion of short trips travelled by bus by young people increased postintroduction. There was no evidence for an increase in the total number of bus trips or distance travelled by bus by young people attributable to the intervention. The proportion of short trips by walking decreased, but there was no evidence for any change to total distance walked. Car trips declined in both age groups, although distance travelled by car decreased more in young people. Road casualty rates declined, but the pre-post ratio of change was greater in young people than adults (ratio of ratios 0.84; 95% CI 0.82 to 0.87). Assaults increased and the ratio of change was greater in young people (1.20; 1.13 to 1.27). The frequency of all trips by young people was unchanged, both in absolute terms and relative to adults. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of free bus travel for young people had little impact on active travel overall and shifted some travel from car to buses that could help broader environmental objectives