Cost functions for multiple transportation modes in the presence of congestion

This paper introduces an alternative way of specifying the social cost function for transportation services. This paper formulates the transportation cost function as a social cost minimization problem in the presence of congestion phenomena. This social cost function has an advantage in terms of assessing the cost structure of various transportation modes in a unified manner. In addition, the social cost function has a structure that can yield precise information about the structures of other cost functions such as a marginal social cost function and a marginal supplier cost function. This paper illustrates those advantages with the analysis to derive the specific expressions of the various cost functions for highway uses, and for public transit services. Especially, this analysis pinpoints on identifying the difference in the structures of cost functions for the two modes. Received: February 2001/Accepted: December 2001     

Financing road infrastructure by savings in congestion costs: A CGE analysis

Division of labor, outsourcing in manufacturing and just-in-time production require the provision of a good and sufficient road infrastructure system. The society is used to mobility, preference for it even increases, and the full benefit of competition can only be realized if special distances can be overcome at low cost of transportation. Since the 1970's, however, the negative aspects of an intensive extension of road infrastructure has dominated the political decision process in Germany.  The objective of this paper is to model the aspects of bottlenecks in road infrastructure, of congestion costs and of the effect of investment in infrastructure in a computable general equilibrium framework. A long-run “business as usual” simulation will show how congestion and its cost will develop over time. The increasing costs of congestion indicate a necessity to act. We will therefore raise the fuel tax to partly finance infrastructure investment. We will then compare the cost of the addition in infrastructure with the savings in congestion costs in order to see whether this policy measure is self-financing. Received: April 2000/Accepted: August 2001     

Spatial pricing, optimal location and social welfare with consumer arbitrage

This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the optimal location, output and welfare of spatial discriminatory pricing by integrating consumer arbitrage into the Hwang and Mai (Am Econ Rev 80:567–575, 1990) model. It shows that the presence of arbitrage creates a significant influence on a firm’s locational choice and thus generates different welfare implications. When the discrepancy between the two markets is small, the optimal location and the resulting social welfare level under discriminatory pricing and mill pricing policies remain the same; however, when the discrepancy between the two markets is large, the two pricing policies yield different optimal locations which make the welfare under discriminatory pricing higher than that under mill pricing, hence reversing the support for anti-trust legislation.     

Subsidies and welfare maximization tradeoffs in bus transit systems

Under a maximum welfare objective, a fixed route bus system and a flexible route bus system are optimized subject to various financial constraints. For each bus system, the decision variables including fare, headway, route spacing, and service zone area are optimally solved to analyze unconstrained, break-even and subsidy cases. Numerical results and sensitivity analysis are presented in the paper. From the numerical evaluation, it is shown that the effects of subsidies on welfare are quite different for a fixed route bus system versus a flexible route bus system. For the fixed route bus system, the optimal welfare curve is very flat over a wide range of subsidies. However, for the flexible route bus system, the break-even constraint causes a large loss in the social welfare. Thus, with the welfare maximization objective, the break-even policy or low transit subsidy policy may be preferable for the fixed route bus system, but not for the flexible route bus system. The results derived from this study can support effective decision-making on bus transit systems in areas that may experience significant shifts in residential density, as well as geographic or physical changes in their street networks. This paper was presented at the 46th annual meeting of Western Regional Science Association in Newport Beach, California, 21–24 February 2007.     

Spatial economic networks with multicriteria producers and consumers: Statics and dynamics

In this paper, we develop a framework for the formulation, analysis, and computation of solutions to spatial network problems in which the firms are multicriteria decision-makers and the consumers are as well. In particular, the firms, which are involved in the production of a homogeneous commodity, are spatially separated and weight the two criteria of profit maximization and total output maximization in distinct fashion. They are faced with the selection of modes/routes (which are modeled in an aggregated manner) to transport the commodity to the demand markets where consumers, consisting of different classes, consider the price charged by the producers and weight the transportation cost and the transportation time of the product on the links in an individual manner. We derive the governing equilibrium conditions and present the variational inequality formulation. We provide qualitative properties of the equilibrium commodity shipment and generalized price pattern and then propose a tatonnement process, which we formulate as a projected dynamical system. We give an algorithm for computational purposes and apply it to several numerical examples for illustration purposes. This paper is the first to integrate multicriteria decision-making on the production side and on the consumption side in a basic network context. Received: February 2001/Accepted: August 2001     

Optimal time for implementing cordon toll pricing scheme in a monocentric city

This paper proposes an analytical model to address the timing issue of cordon toll pricing in a monocentric city. The proposed model allows an explicit consideration of the interactions among three types of agents in the urban system: (i) the local authority who aims to jointly determine the optimal time for introducing cordon toll pricing scheme, cordon toll location and toll level to maximize social welfare of the urban system; (ii) property developers who seek to determine the intensity of their capital investment in the land market to maximize their own net profit generated from the housing supply; and (iii) households who choose residential locations that maximize their own utility within a budget constraint. The effects of the cordon toll pricing scheme on household's residential location choice and housing market structure in terms of housing price and space are explicitly considered. A comparison of the toll pricing schemes with a fixed and a mobile cordon location over time and the no toll case is carried out. The proposed model is also illustrated in several Chinese cities. Insightful findings are reported on the interactions among cordon toll pricing scheme, urban population size, household income level, toll collection cost, and urban development.     

Incentive consistency and the choice of a spatial pricing mode

This paper extends Gronberg and Meyer’s results (1981 21:541–549) and studies the problem that occurs when transportation costs are different between a firm and consumers: The firm (based on a profit-maximizing consideration) may adopt discriminatory pricing with an inefficient transport mode. This inefficient pricing behavior may not be consistent with the social optimum, whereby the problem of incentive inconsistency thus occurs. When dealing with endogenous pricing modes having asymmetric transportation costs, one should pay more attention to the distortion caused by the inconsistency problem.

National and regional corporate spatial structure

Much is known about the macro-impacts of business activities on national and regional economies; however, comparatively little is known at the micro level about the impact spatial agglomeration of corporate wealth and performance has on urban systems. This paper reports on a collaborative research project between the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and Dun and Bradstreet, an international financial credit agency, to analyse the spatial implications of corporate structure in metropolitan regions. This paper analyses spatial patterns of medium to large businesses in three Australian State capital cities at the postcode level in order to assess the agglomeration of corporate capital, sales, and performance. The research indicates that ratio analysis can provide a useful insight into the competitiveness of metropolitan regions and the control corporate headquarters have over decision making and investment processes. The findings of this research are of special interest to capital markets, business and urban researchers in the Asia Pacific Region. Received: September 1997/Accepted: September 2001     

Joint development in urban transportation: a practical approach to modern growth management

Accelerated population growth in general and an increasing expanse and intensity of metropolitan development throughout the world have focused attention on urban transportation and growth management. The high cost of urban highways and mass transit systems, coupled with the necessity of guiding private use of land toward acceptable levels of rational development, have resulted in various urban investment strategies. Among these, the concept of joint development of transportation facilities and high activity nodes has emerged as a promising solution to problems of overcrowding and congestion in major cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Such integrated public and private investment not only tends to maximize the cost effectiveness of required facilities, but offers opportunities for substantial value capture for the benefit of the public at large and as an incentive for risk capital investment.A comprehensive study was undertaken by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of Texas A&M University to examine the requisites of effective joint development in selected metropolitan areas, including Toronto and Montreal, Canada; Washington, DC, San Francisco and Atlanta in the USA; and Paris, France. In all instances, it was found that fixed guideway rapid transit had a discernible, positive impact on urban growth and intra-urban transportation, provided opportunities for imaginative growth management and was, indeed, a major inducement for private investment. Conversely, it was confirmed that effective application of this strategy required the pre-existence of economic viability in general, and in the specific transportation corridor selected in particular.Given these requisites, several determinants can be identified that stand out consistently as preconditions to success or failure where they are absent. They include integrated public-private planning and construction; pedestrian flow orientation with respect to station entrances and exists; complete control of land ownership; attractive terms and conditions for lease and related arrangement; zoning stability; availability of infrastructure when needed; trade area conditions; an aesthetically pleasing environment with appropriate architectural and landscape architectural treatment of all facilities and grounds; a cooperative, constructive attitude by all parties. Under these conditions, multi-modal transportation systems and high-intensity land development have an excellent chance to succeed. Conversely, joint development as such will not create economic strength, but channel and focus urban growth.     

Optimal microgrid programming based on an energy storage system,price-based demand response,and distributed renewable energy resources

Microgrids (MGs) in distribution systems can be operated in far regions at lower investment costs using renewable distributed energy resources (DERs). The present paper introduces a stochastic model for optimal energy-heat programming and the daily storage of an MG. Bi-level stochastic programming is presented for integrated energy-heat scheduling and storage in the presence of an energy storage system (ESS) and demand response (DR) based on social welfare maximization. Out of the incentive-based DR programs, the tender and redemption and the ancillary services market programs were selected and applied to the given model. Besides, the time of use (TOU) -based DR and real-time pricing (RTP) were considered as the price-based demand response (PBDR) programs in optimal programming. The PBDR programs have been included in the objective function using a linear function based on consumer benefits. The proposed bi-level stochastic model was solved using a developed metaheuristic optimization algorithm called the lightning search algorithm (LSA) in the present work. The Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) and KMEANS methods were used to produce and reduce the scenario. The proposed framework was investigated in a 33-bus test model. The obtained simulation results were evaluated from different aspects. The TOU and RTP effects and ESS are shown in obtained numerical analysis by considering the operating cost, total social welfare, and the client's utility function.     

Transmission pricing and investment incentives

The allocation of limited transmission resources has considerable impact on investment incentives in electricity markets. We study the long–term effects of two common network congestion management regimes on investment in production and transmission facilities. We compare locational marginal pricing, where transmission constraints are directly taken into account by spot–market prices, with a regime of uniform prices, where transmission constraints are taken into account by subsequent congestion measures. We propose an analytically tractable framework to show that, as compared to locational marginal pricing, uniform pricing can lead to overinvestment in transmission facilities and total production capacities.     

道路拥挤收费在小城市的成功应用——以英国杜伦为例

本文介绍了中文文献较少提及的道路拥挤收费在小城市中应用的实例。本文对英国第一个将拥挤收费付诸实施的城市——杜伦进行案例研究,分析了杜伦拥挤收费方案出台的历史背景、具体实施方案、相关配套措施以及实施后取得的效果。研究发现,杜伦在实施拥挤收费后,道路拥挤状况得到明显改善,公众对拥挤收费方案的支持率也显著提高。当前我国大城市由于种种原因,试行拥挤收费举步维艰,本文指出可在初期选择小城市的拥挤街道进行政策试点,减少政策风险,同时进行很好的经验积累。     

Incentives for transmission investment in the PJM electricity market: FTRs or regulation (or both?)

This paper presents an application of a mechanism that provides incentives to promote transmission network expansion in the area of the US electric system known as PJM. The applied mechanism combines the merchant and regulatory approaches to attract investment into transmission grids. It is based on rebalancing a two-part tariff in the framework of a wholesale electricity market with locational pricing. The expansion of the network is carried out through the sale of financial transmission rights for the congested lines. The mechanism is tested for 14-node and 17-node geographical coverage areas of PJM. Under Laspeyres weights, it is shown that prices converge to the marginal cost of generation, the congestion rent decreases, and the total social welfare increases. The mechanism is shown to adjust prices effectively given either non-peak or peak demand.     

考虑建设质量决策的交通类 BOT 项目合同设计研究

假设政府部门和私营企业以BOT（Build-Operate-Transfer,建设-运营-移交）模式合作建设一个新的交通项目,建立一个多阶段博弈模型研究了交通类BOT 项目合同设计问题,考虑了4 个重要的决策变量:特许经营期长度、服务价格、建设质量和项目能力（或容量）。通过逆向求解法得到了BOT 项目合同设计的最优解,分析了特许期的长度对私营企业和政府部门的最优收费价格及交通项目最优建设质量的影响。分别从社会福利最大化和私营企业利润最大化的角度得出了最优的特许期长度,并对模型进行了拓展,研究了交通拥堵状况对交通类BOT 项目合同设计的影响。     

贯彻《交通强国建设纲要》,推进城市交通高质量发展

推动创新建设现代化城市与《交通强国建设纲要》实施融合,是推进城市交通高质量发展的基础。首先,本文通过学习《交通强国建设纲要》,对重要概念及其相关关系进行了梳理。提出城市交通是提升城市竞争力和国家竞争力的重要支撑,城市交通的本质是服务于人的需求,组织城市的可持续运行。城市交通问题是工程技术与社会问题的综合。其次,总结提出了新时代对城市和城市交通发展的要求。认为城市交通应从关注建成区拓展到关注都市圈、城市群的发展,从研究交通流、交通设施转向交通服务和复合交通网络,从关注自身顺畅运行转向高质量组织城市可持续运行。应重视信息技术为城市交通体系重构提供的机遇。最后,提出了推进城市交通高质量发展应关注的3个重点,包括完善城市交通基础理论(城市交通学)、城市公共交通可持续发展,以及推进城市交通治理能力现代化。     

Solving a nonlinear bilevel programming model of the equilibrium network design problem for Korea

A network design problem solves for link improvements or additions to an existing transportation network provided that a certain objective function such as social welfare is maximised. In addition, an equilibrium network design problem specifically requires each link to have user equilibrium flows.In this paper, two equilibrium transportation network design problems are formulated in a nonlinear bilevel programming framework; one with a budget constraint and one without. A bilevel programming formulation allows explicit consideration of the interaction between the public sector which supplies transportation facilities and the private sector which uses the given facilities. This paper presents a descent-type algorithm to solve an equilibrium network design problem formulated in the nonlinear bilevel programming model for Korea. Numerical analysis using network data for a simplified Korean highway system is reported.     

Infrastructure access pricing and lumpy investments

In some industries infrastructure capacity cannot be increased continuously because of indivisibilities. Output growth results in increasing congestion until additional capacity is installed. Pricing-relevant marginal costs therefore rise until capacity is increased and then fall. Thus the problem arises of reconciling marginal cost pricing with the remuneration of investment in new capacity. The nature of congestion costs in airports, railways and electricity transmission and the lumpiness of infrastructure additions are described. The problem of paying for investment is then analysed, first using some simple static models and then addressing important complications ignored in them. Some possible solutions to the problem are proposed.     

Internalizing airport congestion

The problem of airport congestion is treated in the literature analogously to road congestion. However, the phenomenon is different, because entry at airports is not random. Flight delays are a consequence of system overload, even though airport systems operate on carefully planned schedules. Besides uncontrolled for events (e.g. bad weather), airport congestion is a result of decisions of airports’ managers and airlines. These agents are interested in using airport infrastructure too close to its maximum capacity, ignoring the negative impacts caused on passengers. Another characteristic of airport congestion is that it exhibits a cascade-type of effect not present in road congestion: one single delay may generate an impact which accumulates over the next hours. Therefore, congestion pricing should not be identified with peak-pricing as a solution for the problem experienced at airports. In this paper, a theoretical model shows that airport congestion pricing should pursue the internalization of externalities generated by agents’ decisions. Congestion fees charged on airports and airlines should reflect the external costs imposed on each other and on passengers, when they respectively decide the number of slots offered and the tightness of flight schedules.     

An indirect approach to estimating congestion tolls for recreation facilities

This paper examines the appropriate welfare maximizing solution to the problem of congestion at recreation sites. We show that a toll can be found which will equate the private and social costs of a recreation trip. The toll for any park may differ because of the characteristics of the park, the alternatives available, and the type of user. A system of tolls is found based on a recreation demand function estimated using the traditional travel cost approach. Estimating this demand function across individuals and parks and describing parks by their different characteristics provides the opportunity for estimating congestion tolls.