bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Book Review Stead, D., Geerlings, H. and Meijers, E. (eds.) Policy integration in practice: The integration of land use planning, transport and environmental policy-making in Denmark, England and Germany
Authors: Wegener Michael
Published: November 2023

Policy integration, i.e. the co-ordination of policies by different levels of government and government departments, has received growing attention at a time of growing interdependency between countries and regions yet increasing fragmentation of responsibility, sharpening goal conflicts and diverging interests between countries, regions, government agencies and public, semi-public and private stakeholders and the emergence of new, over-arching policy challenges, such as climate change and energy scarcity. A book on the state and future prospects of policy integration in three critical areas of policy making, land use, transport and environment, is therefore more than welcome. The book reviewed here aims at exploring the necessary conditions for integration between the three policy fields and the mechanisms or tools that may support policy integration from a sustainability perspective. The book presents results of a study funded by the Netherlands Agency for Energy and the Environment as part of their Regional Transport Performance research programme. It is the work of an international team of researchers led by editors associated with the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies at Delft University of Technology and the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Transportation Security Framework for a Medium-Sized City
Authors: Fries Ryan , Chowdhury Mashrur , Dunning Anne
Published: November 2023

Terrorist attacks have made security preparedness unquestionably necessary in all cities. While major metropolitan areas have long recognized that their global visibility has required strong security operations, many medium-sized cities, specifically those of the U.S. and European Union, now face the need to establish transportation security frameworks for the first time. This paper assesses the resources available to help medium-sized cities begin the task of creating such systems. This assessment presents infrastructure risk assessment tools, identifies infrastructure and funding resources, and creates a process for developing a security framework to connect agencies responsible for transportation security in these metropolitan areas. Descriptions of transportation security framework practices at the national level had led to the preparation of a transportation security framework for Greenville, South Carolina, USA, to serve as a prototype that other medium-sized cities can emulate. This security framework can serve as either a checklist to ensure security coverage in existing asset management systems and intelligent transportation systems architectures such as those frequently used in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, or it can provide baseline structure for developing a new transportation security framework for cities in developing countries.
Assessing the Fitness-For-Purpose of strategic transport research in support of European transport policy
Authors: Tuominen Anu , Leonardi Jacques , Rizet Christophe
Published: November 2023

The transport policy environment is changing, because of increasing mobility of people and goods, world wide use of ICT, a rising importance of the knowledge economy, etc. Future methods for transport policy assessments will have to integrate these emerging trends, but above all, the new research knowledge produced needs to be taken better into use within the policy processes. To tackle the problem, the paper presents a generic fitness-for-purpose (FFP) Assessment method for research projects in support of transport policy. Based on the results of a case study, the paper argues that by linking a systematic FFP Analysis of transport research projects with researcher-civil servant network building, a method for accepting, elaborating and applying the produced European transport research knowledge can be provided. By doing this, the paper contributes to a more systematic and integrative assessment of transport research in policy support, and hopefully enhances the integration of transport research and policy making while at the same time, initiating a better based policy process. We see that FFP Assessments could offer an essential element for the policy relevant transport research knowledge production in the future.
Relationships between Urban Form and Travel Behaviour in Athens, Greece. A Comparison with Western European and North American Results
Authors: Milakis Dimitris , Vlastos Thanos , Barbopoulos Nikos
Published: November 2023

In Athens, a series of political events during the last two centuries influenced urban planning, resulting in a unique land use and transport system. In this paper, we examine their relationships in this uncommon system and compare them with those in Western European and North American cities. Data from Metro Development Study (1996) were employed in multiple regression models for Athens, while results from similar studies in Western cities were used as the basis for comparisons. The results for Athens show that residential density is a key factor influencing mainly modal split, whereas distance from city centre and the extent of road network mainly influence trip length and energy consumption by car. An interesting threshold of 200 persons/ha is identified, in which significant changes in travel behaviour occur. In contrast, “land use mix” appeared to have no effects on travel behaviour. The international comparisons revealed differences regarding the density threshold and the role of land use mix, while results concerning residential density, distance from city centre and socio-economic characteristics are in line with those from other European and American cities. The case of Athens adds to the notion that land use policies could constitute a tool for changing travel behaviour. However, urban form parameters, and their critical thresholds, may vary from country to country, especially among cities in Europe and America, which means that no universal standards can be adopted. Finally, it could be argued that in all cases, if more compact urban structures are adopted, more sustainable travel patterns will emerge.
Book Review: Burghouwt, G. (ed.) Airline Network Development in Europe and its Implications for Airport Planning
Authors: Neufville Richard De
Published: November 2023

This book is a remarkable achievement. Dr. Burghouwt deserves our congratulations and thanks for producing this text, especially so early in his career. The standard he has set promises well for future contributions the profession may expect from him. The text is clearly the current benchmark for analysis and description of air transport networks. Every researcher in the area ought to be familiar with it. Whether you agree with his approach and interpretations or not, it constitutes a ‘must-read’ reference. The text is full of interesting analyses that others may want to emulate. It offers a most interesting discussion of the recent historic evolution (from 1990 to 2003) of airline networks in Europe as they worked their way through the first decade of airline deregulation and intra-European “open skies”.
Editorial Special Issue: Rail Freight Interoperability in Europe: Lessons from the Reorient Project
Authors: Tavasszy Lóri
Published: November 2023

The outlook of a liberalised rail freight sector, which functions in a seamless way throughout Europe, is a promising one. A market which is open for competition for rail freight services will allow transportation to become faster, cheaper and more reliable, to the benefit of the EU economies. Moreover, it will strengthen the railways’ competitive position compared to road transport – another strategic objective of the EU transport policy. The task of re-organisation is a complex one however, as market liberalisation and international harmonisation processes interact. On the one hand, as rail only competes well with road transport over longer distances, the view towards liberalisation needs to be a truly international one. For the EU member states, this creates a dilemma: stimulate transport demand by actively promoting the development of internationally competing services, or protect domestic sectoral interests by passively resisting a competitive market? Fact is, the European railways system still struggles with very fragmented physical and management structures, due to national borders, rules and standards. In other words, national systems are not “interoperable”. If we want to be able to handle the expected growth of European freight flows, improvements in the European rail freight system, including its governance and management, are needed. This is the field of research we focus on in this special issue.
Assessing the Variation in Rail Interoperability in 11 European Countries, and Barriers to its Improvement
Authors: Walker Warren E. , Baarse Gerrit , Velzen Andre Van , Järvi Tuuli
Published: November 2023

Work conducted within REORIENT, a Sixth Framework project for the European Commission (EC), is described. One objective of REORIENT was to explain the status of transformation of the European railway sector into a functionally integrated, liberalized, interoperable system. The status of interoperability within and between eleven countries in a corridor stretching from Greece to the Nordic countries was assessed, and conditions in the countries that appear to be barriers to achieving the EC’s goals were identified. (Barriers were defined as shortcomings in conditions that would facilitate the implementation of requirements presumed by the EC to lead to seamless international freight transport (“implementation conditions”)). The primary data source for the analysis was a set of interviews with the major actors and stakeholders associated with each country’s rail freight system. The (qualitative) information from the interviews was translated into numeric scores, which were subjected to statistical analysis. The primary objective of the statistical analysis was to provide an assessment of the relationships between the requirements and the implementation conditions. The statistical analysis involved both the identification of relevant relationships and an assessment of the strength of these relationships. Overall, we found that there was considerable variation in interoperability status across the countries on practically all of the requirements. However, there was also considerable variation in the status of the implementation conditions across the countries. As a result, we found that most of the variability was able to be explained by relationships that were found to exist between the requirements and implementation conditions. A ‘Barrier Significance Score’ (BSS) was computed for each country and for each implementation condition. These scores were used to assess the relative importance of barriers across the countries, and to identify the most critical barriers to be removed in order to improve interoperability. Large differences in BSS’s were found among countries. In general there are fewer barriers in Nordic countries and more barriers in the south.
Experiences from Procurement of Integrated Bridge Maintenance in Sweden
Authors: Mattsson Hans-Åke , Lind Hans
Published: November 2023

The trend in many countries is to outsource maintenance with competitive tendering. The design of the tender is then a crucial issue. A new type of tendering contract, called "Integrated Bridge Maintenance", was introduced in one experimental area in Sweden. In this case bridge maintenance is separated out from the standard road maintenance contract. A pilot project has been running since 2004 for all bridges in Uppsala County with about 400 bridges. The experiences and lessons from this pilot project are presented here, and analysed from a transaction cost perspective. An important feature of the contract was that it contained a combination of measures that should be carried out and properties of the bridges that the contractor was responsible to maintain. This created a balance between predictability and flexibility for the contractor. The client was satisfied because of increased competence and a low price. The latter can partly be explained by the possibility for the specialised bridge crew to get additional work from other sectors. One problem was that some properties were difficult to measure, which led to some controversies. As information about old bridges always are incomplete a partnering structure need to be built into the contract. Experience has also shown that a conscious policy to maintain long run competition is important. The general conclusion is that the project was seen as successful and as creating more "value for money".
Enhancing Appraisal Methods to Support Sustainable Transport and Land Use Policies
Authors: Page Matthew , Kelly Charlotte , May Anthony , Jones Peter , Forrester John
Published: November 2023

This paper reports on the results of the part of the DISTILLATE programme which looked at the process of appraisal and how this affects UK local authorities. Initial surveys suggested that local authorities were concerned that formal appraisal methods represented a barrier to the implementation of more sustainable land use and transport schemes. Their concerns included some of the technical aspects of appraisal and the weight given to some elements, the applicability of techniques to small schemes and some types of measure as well as the ability to assess the distributional impacts of proposals. Responding to these concerns, the project looked in more detail at the reasons for these concerns and at the use of appraisal within the political process of decision making. It developed a simple, transparent technique for analysing small schemes and two methods for assessing the distributional impacts of proposals, both on individuals and agencies. Finally it developed guidance from first principles on the specification of appraisal processes.
A New Model of Random Regret Minimization
Authors: Chorus Caspar G.
Published: November 2023

A new choice model is derived, rooted in the framework of Random Regret Minimization (RRM). The proposed model postulates that when choosing, people anticipate and aim to minimize regret. Whereas previous regret-based discrete choice-models assume that regret is experienced with respect to only the best of foregone alternatives, the proposed model assumes that regret is potentially experienced with respect to each foregone alternative that performs well. In contrast with earlier regret-based discrete-choice approaches, this model can be estimated using readily available discrete-choice software packages. The proposed model is contrasted theoretically and empirically with its natural counterpart, Random Utility Maximization’s linearadditive MNL-model. Empirical comparisons on four revealed and stated travel choice datasets show a promising performance of the RRM-model.
Special Editorial Issue EJTIR
Authors: Haan Alexander R.C. De , Riet Odette A.W.T. Van De
Published: November 2023

Globalisation and economic growth have led to aviation’s deep incorporation into our society. People and goods can be transported almost anywhere on the globe in a relatively short time and at relatively low prices. The rate of growth in air traffic demand has for decades been higher than that of the world economy. As world population increases, economic growth and ongoing globalisation are expected to continue fuelling air traffic’s explosive growth (Walker et al, 2008). As a result the large aircraft manufacturers in the world, Airbus and Boeing, specify in their market forecast annual growth percentages of around 5 to 6%. Since late 2008, the economic crisis has significantly reduced the demand for aviation (IATA, 2008; 2009). However, most authors consider this slowdown to be but temporary. In many occasions in the past, aviation demand growth curbed but growth figures always relatively quickly recovered picking up the growth lines followed before the crisis. The latest occasion has been the recovery in 2004 from the period of stagnation following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City in 2001. In the majority of designed future scenarios for air traffic, the increasing demand for air traffic is expected to continue. This continuing growth will have some valuable effects, but also some drawbacks.
Why Do Open Rail Freight Markets Fail to Attract Competition? Analysis on Finnish Transport Policy
Authors: Mäkitalo Miika
Published: November 2023

Since the beginning of 2007, EU legislation has encouraged member states to deregulate their domestic rail freight markets. While many countries have benefited from the resultant liberalisation, in others, markets are changing fairly slowly. The incumbent railway undertaking has a total market share e.g. in Lithuania, Ireland, and Finland. This paper analyses Finnish transport policy as well as the question why deregulation has not brought competition to the rail freight transport market. The research material was collected by using the Delphi technique. This paper illustrates that competition is expected in Finland, and there is a need for structural changes. Market inequality is manifested in access to incumbent’s services, governmental inactivity on market entry as well as in competition in general, traffic control organisation, and personnel training. This paper suggests that governments and governmental authorities should have an active transport policy in order to create a level playing field which could be a basis for equal and stimulating competition.
Stochastic User Equilibrium and Value-of-time Analysis with Reference-dependent Route Choice
Authors: Site Paolo Delle , Filippi Francesco
Published: November 2023

Reference-dependent theory of riskless choice assumes that carriers of utility are gains and losses relative to a reference point and that individuals are loss averse, i.e. losses are valued more highly than gains. Reference-dependent money measures of the attributes in the utility functions are defined: the willingness to pay, the willingness to accept, the equivalent gain and the equivalent loss. Experimental evidence has been provided which supports reference-dependent theory for riskless route choice. A natural next development is the application of the theory to network analysis. This is an under-researched area. In the paper, the multi-class reference-dependent stochastic user equilibrium (RDSUE) problem under the status-quo assumption for the reference point is formulated. Conditions that guarantee the properties of existence and uniqueness of RDSUE are considered. The property of reflexivity of RDSUE is also considered to verify if the equilibrium is maintained when the reference point is updated to the new status quo. A methodology for the reference-dependent valuation of travel time changes over a network is provided. Data from a survey are used to estimate a reference-dependent route choice model and the attendant reference-dependent values of time. The estimation results are in agreement with econometric literature supporting loss aversion. The application to the case of a town bypass with toll illustrates the reference-dependent approach to network analysis and the implications of its use for policy making. It is shown that, if the interventions on the supply are phased, it is possible to exploit loss aversion and obtain advantages in terms of toll revenues and travel time spent.
Destination Branding in Relation to Airports: The Case of the City of Valencia
Authors: Vujicic Sanja , Wickelgren Mikael
Published: November 2023

This study investigates various factors that contribute to the success of destination branding efforts where success is defined as the increase in airplane passenger numbers to a destination and its linked air transportation. Drawing on in-depth interviews and snowball sampling, the study examines the roles of many of the key actors involved in the efforts to increase passenger numbers. Using the City of Valencia in Spain as a case study, the role of its airport is examined as a factor of particular interest. The study concludes that Valencia has positioned itself among neighbouring destinations on the Spanish Mediterranean coast by its focus on high profile events and cultural tourism. However, other actors have taken a more active role in the effort to increase the number of tourists than the Valencia Airport that has taken a more passive role. Another finding is that the persistence in seeking resources for the costly branding efforts was another influential factor that explains the increase in Valencia tourism.
Spatial Complex Network Analysis and Accessibility Indicators: the Case of Municipal Commuting in Sardinia, Italy
Authors: De Montis Andrea , Caschili Simone , Chessa Alessandro
Published: November 2023

In this paper a contribution is presented with respect to accessibility indicators modelling for commuters moving through the municipalities of Sardinia, in Italy. In this case, spatial complex network analysis is integrated into the construction of accessibility measures: one of the most relevant outcomes of the first tool –the detection of shortest road paths and distances- is adopted as an input for the second in modelling accessibility indicators. Instead of Euclidean distances often adopted in the literature, shortest road distances are chosen, as commuting implies movements that are usually repeated daily and very likely subjected, even unconsciously, to space and time minimization strategies. In particular, two commuter accessibility indicators are constructed according to approaches based on a travel cost and a spatial interaction model with impedance function calibrated in exponential and in power form. The accessibility indicators are confronted each other and with relevant socio-economic and infrastructure characteristics of Sardinia. In addition, they are described, with respect to their spatial distribution and their different implications, when adopted in decision-making and planning. The travel cost based accessibility indicator has a municipal spatial distribution strongly influenced by the main road infrastructure of the Island. By contrast, spatial interaction model based accessibility indicators are more reliable, with respect to their capacity to confirm a leading socio-economic role of the municipalities comprehended in the metropolitan area of the capital town Cagliari.
Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions during the Life Cycle Stages of a Road Tunnel - the Swedish Case Norra Länken
Authors: Miliutenko Sofiia , Åkerman Jonas , Björklund Anna
Published: November 2023

Inclusion of Life Cycle Assessment during the planning of transport infrastructure is rarely used in practice, but is becoming a widely discussed issue nowadays. This study sought to improve understanding of the life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of transport infrastructure, using the example of a road tunnel. Two levels of analysis were used: 1) detailed data inventory for the construction of rock tunnels; and 2) screening assessment for the life cycle phases of the whole tunnel infrastructure (including its main parts: concrete and rock tunnels). The first level of analysis showed that production of materials (i.e. concrete and asphalt) made the largest contribution to Cumulative Energy Demand and Global Warming Potential. The second level of analysis indicated that concrete tunnels had much higher Cumulative Energy Demand and Global Warming Potential per lane-metre than rock tunnels. Moreover, the operational phase of the tunnel was found to have the highest share of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions throughout the tunnel’s life cycle.
Flexibility in Port Planning and Design
Authors: Taneja P. , Ligteringen H. , Walker W.E.
Published: November 2023

Recently, flexibility has received much attention from port researchers, designers, and managers. This is because the stability of the competitive environment of the past has been replaced by increasing uncertainty. The current economic crisis and the recent trends in ports and shipping sectors are causing port planners to rethink their approach towards port planning, design, and project evaluation. Attributes such as flexibility and adaptability can provide a port infrastructure system with the capacity to be useful under changing requirements, making it robust in face of uncertainty, lengthening its economic lifetime, and thereby guaranteeing payback on investments. Due to the burgeoning research in the field, new measures, new evaluation methods, and new theories and approaches for incorporating flexibility in large-scale infrastructure design have appeared. Adaptive port planning methods are being advocated in place of traditional planning approaches. ‘Design for obsolescence’ is being suggested as an alternative for ‘building in redundancy’ in port infrastructure design. ‘Flexibility’ and ‘adaptability’ are being added to the list of life cycle properties. Real option methods are being advocated for project evaluation under uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to examine the present trends in the port sector and the current practices in port planning, design, and project evaluation. Having identified the inadequacy of these practices under uncertainty, the paper recommends integrating flexibility in designs and processes. It further suggests that Adaptive Port Planning methods, which include Real Options Analysis for valuing flexibility, are better suited in times of uncertainty than the traditional methods.
Unit-segment Analysis: A Space Syntax Approach to Capturing Vehicular Travel Behavior Emulating Configurational Properties of Roadway Structures
Authors: Paul Abhijit
Published: November 2023

One of the critical concerns of axial analysis, a space syntax approach to capturing vehicular travel behavior emulating configurational properties of roadway structures, is the absence of the time-cost consideration while dealing with route-choice problems encountered in grid-like urban textures. This study shows that the time-cost parameter of travel can also be introduced into the syntax approach to capturing the route-choice decisions for the purpose of modeling vehicular movement networks with greater accuracy. Assuming that roadway units are trip-origins and trip-destinations and that they also act as connecting route segments among each other, a theoretical foundation has been proposed showing how the mobility characteristics of these units, in terms of the time-cost of travel, influence their accessibility measures or syntax integrations. These new roadway units are the unit segments, and their integrations are found to be better indicators of vehicular trip-makers’ route-choice decisions than axial integrations. Conclusions suggest that the unit-segment analysis of an urban grid captures the general behavior of vehicular flow by substantiating the fact that trip-makers tend to pick a specific set of roadway units that not only comprise the close connection between a triporigin and a trip-destination but also consume less time for travel.
Cost Impacts of the Inclusion of Air Transport into the European Emissions Trading Scheme in the Time Period 2012-2020
Authors: Scheelhaase Janina , Schaefer Martin , Grimme Wolfgang , Maertens Sven
Published: November 2023

Since January 2012, international aviation has been included in the emissions trading scheme of the European Union (EU ETS), in accordance with EU Directive 2009/29 EC. From this year up to (at least) 2020, all flights starting from or landing at European airports are subject to the EU ETS, apart from a few exemptions. In 2012, the CO2 emission target for aviation is 97 per cent of the historical emissions of the years 2004-2006. From 2013 onwards, this reduction target will be lowered by another 2 per cent. In September 2010, the ICAO Assembly agreed to an exemption clause for market-based measures which could be applied to the EU ETS. Whether this should be the case is a controversial issue on the international political level. Model-based empirical estimations presented in this study indicate significant impacts of the EU ETS on airline costs, airfares and competition within the airline sector: in the year 2020, more than 50 per cent of the required allowances will have to be purchased by the airlines. Assuming an allowance price of 20 € per tonne of CO2, the resulting costs for the aviation sector will amount to about 20,502 million € in 2012-2020. In addition, competitive distortions can be expected if the ICAO exemption clause is introduced to the EU ETS.
Modelling the Development of a Regional Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles in Time and Space
Authors: Wirges Johannes , Linder Susanne , Kessler Alois
Published: November 2023

This article presents a dynamic spatial model of the development of a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the German metropolitan region of Stuttgart. The model consists of several sub-models whose functioning and interactions are explained in detail. The first sub-model simulates the time-spatial development of electric vehicle ownership. The output of this module is used by the second component that determines the resulting demand for charging stations. To quantify this demand, the necessary utilisation of charging stations to allow for the profitability of the infrastructure is calculated. A final processing step simulates the mobility of EVs throughout the Region Stuttgart, and thus allows allocating the need for charging stations in space. We used our model to generate several scenarios of the development of a charging infrastructure in the Region Stuttgart until 2020. The main finding of this work is that the number of public charging stations needed for the region in the long run is quite low. If too many charging stations are installed the infrastructure will be under-utilized and thus cannot be operated economically. The simulation runs show that the installation of public charging infrastructure should be focused on the few biggest urban centres of the region. The scenarios also show that publicly accessible charging stations form only a minor part of the overall number of charging stations. Additionally, it can be seen that the exponential growth of electric vehicle ownership, with very few vehicles at the beginning, but large gains after a few years, requires high flexibility from stakeholders involved in the implementation of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Timmermans’ Misleading Critique of Prospect Theory Actually Supports its Relevance for Travel Choice Modelling
Authors: Kaa Evert Jan Van De
Published: November 2023

For a special issue of this journal Timmermans (2010) was asked to make critical comments on the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel behaviour research. His article offers a comprehensive overview of all kinds of criticism that one might encounter in the social sciences. When browsing through it during the preparation of an article about the transferability of Prospect Theories’ assumptions I came across a citation of an alleged inferior explanatory performance of Prospect Theory with respect to people’s choices in the TV game ‘Deal or no Deal’. I curiously downloaded the cited working paper and found that the citation was fabricated. Successively I thoroughly reviewed the argumentations in the article and in several references that support them. This revealed more untruthful citations, inaccuracies in the references, fallacies and selective use of empirical evidence. Most remaining critical comments appeared personal opinions without solid theoretical or empirical support. In this paper I present an in-depth discussion of the foundations of the comments in T and a critical examination of the references advanced to support them. It leads me to the conclusion that Timmermans’ criticism is unjust and that the references that underlie it actually support the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel choice modelling. This article might also offer a guideline for a careful interpretation of conclusions as a contribution to an improved peer-review process aimed to block articles contaminated with bad scientific practice.
Rule versus Interaction Function: Evaluating Regional Aggregations of Commuting Flows in Sweden
Authors: Landré Martin , Håkansson Johan
Published: November 2023

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of two divergent methods for delineating commuting regions, also called labour market areas, in a situation that the base spatial units differ largely in size as a result of an irregular population distribution. Commuting patterns in Sweden have been analyzed with geographical information system technology by delineating commuting regions using two regionalization methods. One, a rule-based method, uses one-way commuting flows to delineate local labour market areas in a top-down procedure based on the selection of predefined employment centres. The other method, the interaction-based Intramax analysis, uses two-way flows in a bottom-up procedure based on numerical taxonomy principles. A comparison of these methods will expose a number of strengths and weaknesses. For both methods, the same data source has been used. The performance of both methods has been evaluated for the country as a whole using resident employed population, self-containment levels and job ratios for criteria. A more detailed evaluation has been done in the Göteborg metropolitan area by comparing regional patterns with the commuting fields of a number of urban centres in this area. It is concluded that both methods could benefit from the inclusion of additional control measures to identify improper allocations of municipalities.
Appraising Freight Tram Schemes: A Case Study of Barcelona
Authors: Regué Robert , Bristow Abigail L.
Published: November 2023

Urban goods distribution has gained in importance in recent years since its optimization not only has the potential to increase productivity and operational efficiency but also to achieve broader goals related to the reduction of externalities including congestion, accidents, noise, air pollution and CO2 emissions. The focus of this paper is to explore the costs and benefits related to freight trams and appraise, by means of a cost benefit analysis a hypothetical freight tram scheme in the centre of Barcelona, to identify the factors that critically influence the potential success or failure of such schemes and to examine through sensitivity testing ways of improving performance. Thus, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of the potential for freight trams to contribute to mitigating a range of transport externalities. Two freight tram scenarios were developed for detailed investigation: the first for retail deliveries and the second for domestic waste collection. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) was carried out based on the best available public domain information and with clearly specified assumptions. The waste tram scenario yields a high Net Present Value (NPV) and rapid return on investment due to the low set up costs and significant operating cost savings. On the other hand, in the initial specification, the retail delivery tram has a very negative NPV due to high initial investment costs and annual costs exceeding annual benefits. Sensitivity tests indicate that both the initial infrastructure costs and the costs and efficiency levels of the consolidation centres are critical to the performance of a freight tram.
Impact Analysis of a Flexible Air Transportation System
Authors: Atasoy Bilge , Salani Matteo , Bierlaire Michel , Leonardi Claudio
Published: November 2023

The paper provides analytical evidence of the added-value of flexibility for air transportation systems. More specifically, the impact of a new innovative modular aircraft on the operations of an airline is deeply analyzed. The impact analysis is carried out with an integrated schedule planning model which presents a combination of appropriate optimization and behavioral modeling methodologies. The results show that the flexible system uses the transportation capacity more efficiently by carrying more passengers with less overall capacity. Moreover, it is observed that the flexible system deals better with insufficient transportation capacity. Furthermore, the scheduling decisions are robust to the estimated cost figures of the new system. For the analyzed range of costs, it is always carrying more passengers with less allocated capacity compared to a standard system.
Parking Policy and Urban Mobility Level of Service – System Dynamics as a Modelling Tool for Decision Making
Authors: Bernardino João P. R. , Hoofd Maurits Van Der
Published: November 2023

Parking policy is still the most directly available instrument for managing traffic demand in many cities. But policy design is subject to difficulties resulting from the complexity of the urban mobility system. This article presents a model framework, based on a system dynamics approach, aimed at assessing the effectiveness of parking policy and quantitatively identifying optimal design at an aggregate spatial level under a level of service maximization objective. An application to a city is developed and the results are discussed in view of their qualitative outcomes and quantitative validity and robustness. It is argued that system dynamics addresses several needs of modellers and decision makers regarding urban parking policy assessment, particularly if parking is used as a traffic management tool. The qualitative results of the model coincide with the prescriptions that would come from the economic theory, even with an objective function based on level of service instead of a broader indicator of efficiency. At the quantitative level, the validation testing of the model application with the available data provided positive indications and no case to reject that a quantitative accurateness useful for policy prescription could be attained provided that some data gaps are fulfilled. The necessary data for calibration seems to be possible to obtain by feasible local empirical observations.
The airport business in a competitive environment
Authors: Jimenez Edgar , Claro João , De Sousa Jorge Pinho
Published: November 2023

The liberalisation of the European air transport market has introduced new dynamics in the airport industry. In recent decades, airports evolved from infrastructure providers in a monopolistic context, to commercially orientated enterprises in a competitive environment. Current studies of airport strategic management lack a comprehensive perspective that enables airport operators to best identify the opportunities created by such dynamics. This paper analyses an airport as a multi-service firm that interacts with a network of stakeholders – the airport business network – to deliver several service packages to different groups of customers. An integrated conceptual framework was developed to aid academics and practitioners in the appraisal and design of competitive strategies for airports. Such framework covers a clear gap in existing literature, partly due to the fact that current perspectives on airport management fail to address the complexity of the industry in the present competitive environment.
Pareto-improving toll and subsidy scheme on transportation networks
Authors: Xiao F. , Zhang H. M.
Published: November 2023

This paper presents an original study on the economics of a link-based Toll and Subsidy Scheme (TSS) on a general transportation network. Different from a traditional congestion pricing scheme, the combination of toll and subsidy is found to be able to serve more planning purposes simultaneously, such as efficiency, fairness, and public acceptance. We first demonstrate that on a one-origin or one-destination network, a pareto-improving, system-optimal and revenue-neutral TSS always exists and can be obtained by solving a set of linear equations. Recognizing that such a scheme may not always exist for a multi-origin network, we then define the maximum-revenue problem with pareto-improving constrains to find the maximum possible revenue collected by the toll and subsidy scheme with optimal arc flows and non-increasing origin-destination travel costs. We discover that the problem is actually the dual problem of a balanced transportation problem, which can thus be solved efficiently by existing algorithms. At the end of the paper, a numerical example with a small synthetic network is provided for the comparison of toll and subsidy scheme with other existing toll schemes in terms of OD travel disutilities.
Handling multiple objectives in optimization of externalities as objectives for dynamic traffic management
Authors: Wismans Luc , Berkum Eric Van , Bliemer Michiel
Published: November 2023

Dynamic traffic management (DTM) is acknowledged in various policy documents as an important instrument to improve network performance. This network performance is not only a matter of accessibility, since the externalities of traffic are becoming more and more important objectives as well. Optimization of network performance using DTM measures is a specific example of a network design problem (NDP) and incorporation of externality objectives results in a multi objective network design problem (MO NDP)). Solving this problem resorts in a Pareto optimal set of solutions. A framework is presented with the non-dominated sorting algorithm (NSGAII), the Streamline dynamic traffic assignment model and several externality models, that is used to solve this MO NDP. With a numerical experiment it is shown that the Pareto optimal set provides important information for the decision making process, which would not have been available if the optimization problem was simplified by incorporation of a compensation principle in advance. However, in the end a solution has to be chosen as the best compromise. Since the Pareto optimal set can be difficult to comprehend, ranking it may be necessary to assist the decision makers. Cost benefit analysis which uses the economic compensation principle is a method that is often used for ranking the alternatives. This research shows, that travel time costs are by far the most dominant objective. Therefore other ranking methods should be considered. Differences between these methods are explained and it is illustrated that the outcomes and therefore the eventual decisions taken can be different.
Efficiency of choice set generation methods for bicycle routes
Authors: Halldórsdóttir Katrín , Rieser-Schüssler Nadine , Axhausen Kay W. , Nielsen Otto A. , Prato Carlo G.
Published: November 2023

The current study analyses the efficiency of choice set generation methods for bicycle routes and proposes the extension of cost functions to bicycle-oriented factors not limited to distance and time. Three choice set generation methods for route choice were examined in their ability to generate relevant and heterogeneous routes: doubly stochastic generation function, breadth first search on link elimination, and branch & bound algorithm. Efficiency of the methods was evaluated for a high-resolution network by comparing the performances with four multiattribute cost functions accounting for scenic routes, dedicated cycle lanes, and road type. Data consisted of 778 bicycle trips traced by GPS and carried out by 139 persons living in the Greater Copenhagen Area, in Denmark. Results suggest that both the breadth first search on link elimination and the doubly stochastic generation function generated realistic routes, while the former outperformed in computation cost and the latter produced more heterogeneous routes.
Special issue: built environment and travel behaviour
Authors: Heinen Eva , Steiner Ruth L. , Geurs Karst T.
Published: November 2023

The current special issue has been inspired by a selection of papers presented at the World conference of transport research (WCTR), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July 2013. Selected papers focus on relations between the built environment and travel behaviour. The contributions complement each other as they come from different geographical origins, apply different methodological approaches and address travel behaviour with a focus on a variety in transportation modes. Together they address various interesting and subtle relationships between infrastructure and the built environment and the one hand and travel behaviour (mostly mode choice) on the other hand.
Improving project delivery; Programmes as the silver bullet?
Authors: Busscher Tim , Tillema Taede , Arts Jos
Published: November 2023

Transport and land use planning are in a state of flux. Projects face increased technical, social, financial, political and legal complexities while the conventional project planning approach is struggling to deal with these complexities. As a result, many projects fail to be completed in time and on budget. To deal with this issue, alternative planning approaches are developed in planning theory and literature. On the one hand, a more communicative project planning approach has been developed. On the other, a more programme-oriented planning approach has been suggested. While the former trend has inspired many empirical studies, the latter trend has received less research attention. Therefore, in this article, we focus on the trend towards a more programme-oriented planning approach. The objective of this article is to gain insight into how programmes impact project performance in light of project complexities. To this end, we conducted a case study research into how two different programmes – the Urgent Approach Programme and the National Collaboration Programme on Air Quality – impact the delivery of the national highway project A4 between Burgerveen-Leiden in the Netherlands. We used desk research and conducted 20 semi-structured interviews on project and programme level with various stakeholders. Our analysis reveals that programmes do not really influence technical and social complexities. These are predominantly affected by the introduction of a communicative project planning approach. Through restructuring project-specific political discussions and providing solutions to legal issues by explicitly connecting multiple projects to each other, programmes can be an effective means to deal with political and legal complexities.
Effects of Job Accessibility Improved by Public Transport System: Natural Experimental Evidence from the Copenhagen Metro
Authors: Pons Rotger Gabriel , Sick Nielsen Thomas
Published: November 2023

This study examines the effect of accessibility to urban jobs via a public transport system on individual earnings and commuting behaviour. The effect of improved public transport based accessibility on these outcomes is determined by exploiting the exogenous variation in access to a public rail and Metro system resulting from the construction of a new terminal Metro station connecting southern townships to Copenhagen city centre. The results show that public transport based job accessibility has a positive and permanent effect on individual earnings. The increase in earnings is associated with a change in commuting patterns as the improved access to public transport facilitates a shift from employment within the township to better paid jobs in the city centre, as well as in other suburbs of the Copenhagen Metropolitan area.