TØI Vitenarkiv
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Costs related to serious road injuries: a European perspective
Get PDFIntroduction: Costs related to road crashes represent an important societal burden. Additionally they constitute an essential input variable to assess the cost efficiency of road safety measures. While most attention is usually spent on costs related to fatal crashes, this paper focuses on costs related to serious injuries. Method: A review of these costs is presented based on different data sets and methods. Results: A survey collecting crash cost estimates in European countries shows considerable variation in the costs related to serious injuries. The reported cost per serious injury varies between €28,205 and €975,074 and the total costs related to serious injuries vary between 0.04% and 2.7% of a country’s GDP. The applied methodology to estimate human costs appears to have a large influence. Other potential explanations are the applied definition for seriously injured victims, the registration procedure of crashes with serious injuries and the cost components that are included. Detailed analyses of medical costs and production loss that are based on country-specific datasets show the importance of assessing medical costs on the long term and taking into account the variation of these costs for different subgroups of traffic victims. A comparison of approaches to estimate monetary values for human costs shows that most countries use the Willingness To Pay method. While having a sound theoretical background, this method is rather limited in the specification of injuries. The use of Quality Adjusted Life Years gives the possibility to provide values for a larger diversity of injury types.publishedVersio
Use of public information for road-capacity reductions: a study of mediating strategies during tunnel rehabilitations in Oslo
Get PDFIn this paper, two public information campaigns were analysed. These were related to capacity reductions, caused by maintenance work, in two main road tunnels—at Smestad and Bryn in Oslo. The paper analyses the campaigns’ characteristics and their goal fulfilment. The usage of social media to inform and communicate with travelers and inhabitants is highlighted. We find a high level of outreach of the campaigns and satisfaction among travelers with the information received. However, there are substantial differences between the information campaigns. The Smestad campaign had clear elements of mass-media scaremongering. Here, it is reasonable to attribute the traffic reduction in the first days after the capacity reduction to the massive media headings in advance about possible congestion and chaos. In contrast, the Bryn campaign was more multi-faced and lasted longer. Through massive neighbourhood information and use of social media, this campaign extensively encouraged and advised travelers on how congestion could be avoided if people travelled less by cars during the rehabilitation phase. Further, the Bryn campaign directed social media posts and digital advertising towards specific groups at specific times, and by doing so exemplifying audience targeting and the use of information campaigns to legitimate public interventions. While traditional media provided a strong basis for mass information in the early stages of both tunnel rehabilitations, social media had a clear mediating role at Bryn. Last, while describing management of deviant traffic situations, the paper also feeds into discussions of how to facilitate urban-transport change towards reduced car usage.publishedVersio
Do people who buy e-bikes cycle more?
No full textPrevious research shows that e-bike owners use private cars less than other transport user groups, and also report to have changed from motorised to non-motorised transport. A challenge with many studies is that they are either retrospective or cross-sectional, thus giving little control over confounding factors.
We followed up a short term trial where quite large mode change had been observed among participants. In the present study we conducted a before after-study with a customer group who bought an e-bike (N = 39) and a comparison group wanting to buy one (N = 142) using a survey with a travel diary to capture changes in travel behaviour. We also used a broader comparison group (N = 767) to test the robustness of the results from a policy perspective. The measurement period lasted up to six months.
We found that people who purchased an e-bike increased their bicycle use from 2.1 to 9.2 km per day on average, representing a change in bike as share of all transport from 17 to 49 percent. The comparison group had negligible changes in cycling during the same time period, and the choice of comparison group had a very marginal effect on the results. The results show that the large change in cycling we previously found of a trial scheme with e-bikes is replicated with actual customers. The change in cycling share is somewhat larger than it was for the short-term users, showing that mode change from e-bikes is not just a novelty effect.publishedVersio
Fairness Preferences in a Bilateral Trade Experiment
Get PDFIs the willingness to make trades influenced by how the total gains from trade are split between the trading partners? We present results from a bilateral trade game (n = 128) where all participants were price-takers and trading pairs faced one of three exogenously imposed trading prices. The fixed prices divided the gains either symmetrically in the reference treatment or asymmetrically in treatments favoring either the buyer or seller. Price treatments generating asymmetric gains from trade reduced desired transaction levels on both sides of the market, but more strongly by the disfavored party. The data weakly indicated a larger reduction when the disfavored party was a seller.publishedVersio
Safety Culture Among Car Drivers and Motorcycle Riders in Norway and Greece: Examining the Influence of Nationality, Region, and Transport Mode
Get PDFThe aims of the study are to (1) compare the road safety behaviors among car drivers and motorcyclists in five different regions in Norway and Greece, (2) examine the factors influencing the road safety behaviors in these groups, and (3) examine the relationship between road safety behaviors and accident involvement. The study is based on survey answers from car drivers and motorcycle riders in two Greek and three Norwegian regions (N = 1,212). Road safety culture (RSC) is defined as shared patterns of behavior and shared expectations to other road users. The results indicate shared national RSC among Norwegian riders and drivers in the three Norwegian regions. The results from the Greek sample indicate the importance of the regional level for RSC and a unique RSC on the studied Greek island. The data do not indicate that transport mode is important for road safety behaviors or RSC. Our analyses indicate that RSC is important as it is closely related to road safety behaviors, which in turn is related to accident involvement. This suggests that accidents may be reduced by influencing the RSC. To contribute to such efforts, we discuss how and where RSC is created and how it influences road safety behavior, based on our results.publishedVersio
Vehicle choices and urban transport externalities. Are Norwegian policy makers getting it right?
No full textNorway has the world’s highest share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in its passenger car fleet, thanks to a set of policies that has included high purchase taxes for fossil fueled cars, and no tolls, no VAT, and free parking for BEVs. This paper uses a very stylized transport model for the greater Oslo area to give insights into the effects of different transport policies. With this model we go beyond the market penetration studies for EVs, as it brings together both car choice and transport patterns with mode choice for a set of heterogeneous representative model agents. We illustrate the possible effects of current policies on congestion, CO2 emissions and other urban transport externalities, public transport use and crowding, tax revenues and welfare. On this basis, we explore other road toll, public transport fare and tax policies that can lead to better outcomes for the Oslo transport market while still respecting the CO2-cap that reflects the goals of Norwegian policy makers.publishedVersio
Is there enough trust for the smart city? exploring acceptance for use of mobile phone data in oslo and tallinn
No full textThere are high hopes that a development towards smarter urban environments, backed up by various big data sources, can help solve many of the challenges facing today's large cities related to providing security, mitigating environmental damages, improving services and upscaling innovative and entrepreneurial activities. This study explores the acceptance of use of mobile phone data (MPD) in different areas, and how it is related to different types of trust. Based on a representative survey of citizens in the two smart cities, Oslo and Tallinn, four similar trust cultures are located. The acceptance of use of MPD differed significantly between the trust cultures and, as expected, was significantly stronger in groups with higher levels of trust, either generally or in terms of reliance on technologies. The acceptance of use of MPD for commercial product development was low for all groups. Findings suggest that future users of MPD need to be aware of the significant scepticism toward and rejection of the use of such data in large parts of the population. Unless visions of the smart city are grounded in the needs and wants of citizens, such plans are not likely to succeed, and negative understandings and images of a panoptic state may take stronger hold. As for now, however, there seems to be insufficient social trust to exploit this on a wider scale without creating even more scepticism and distrust.publishedVersio
The integration of active travel and public transport in Norwegian policy packages: A study on ‘access, egress and transfer’ and their positioning in two multilevel contractual agreements
Get PDFMulti-modality has become a key mantra of transport planning and yet, how people access, egress and transfer (hereafter AET) remains under-investigated. We argue that integrating active travel and public transport is an absolute essential. Multilevelpolicy packages for land-use and transport-system development in the larger Norwegian urban regions, called Urban growth agreements (hereafter UGA), provides the bouncing pad for this study. We highlight the extent to which AET can be strengthened through the UGAs. Methodologically, we apply document studies and qualitative interviews with key actors and our analysis is framed to address the following three rationales identified for policy packages: to facilitate implementation, to create synergies and to improve cooperation. While the UGAs provide opportunities to finance new, large-scale public-transport projects, being partly toll-road financed results in cuts reducing AET-qualities. Even though the UGAs provide several synergies between walking, bicycling and public transport, we identified missed opportunities related to shared mobility. Finally, AET may benefit from horizontal and vertical integration of policy actors, specially concerning multilevel cooperation on designing public transport hubs. To conclude, though there are elements in the UGAs benefiting AET, the overall lack of integration between public transport and active travel needs immediate attention to achieve multi-modality.publishedVersio
Car sharing and transformations in households travel patterns: Insights from emerging proto-practices in Norway
No full textOver the last decades car sharing has been recognized as a socio-technical innovation that can help to reduce or replace the use of fossil-fueled private cars in urban regions. To understand how car sharing may be used in the future, and its potential role as a driver of a more sustainable mobility system, studies of early user practices represent an important source of knowledge. Based on a combination of inductive statistical techniques and qualitative investigations of car-sharing households in Oslo, this study explores emerging practices of car sharing. A survey of 1,136 active car sharers is combined with 36 in-depth interviews with households using three different car-sharing schemes. The results suggest that car sharing is developing as three different proto-practices, labeled as active green, local flexible and long-distance holiday. These three practice forms relate to variations in car-sharing schemes, type of travel, and length/frequency of trips, as well as to affiliated motives and meanings. The study contributes a deeper understanding of how current car-sharing practices are emerging in households and the potential implications for sustainable urban mobility and policy developments.acceptedVersio
Exploring the relationship between the built environment, trip chain complexity, and auto mode choice, applying a large national data set
No full textIn the completion of transport-based activities, some people save time by chaining trips with different purposes. Several studies have found that trip chaining encourages car use, while others find that features of the built environment can enable complex trip chains without the use of the car. Relatively few studies have presented analyses of trip chains and mode choice that also include built environment variables, although it is well established that urban density and urban structure influence on the transport mode distribution. In this paper we explore the relationship between the built environment, trip chaining, and auto mode choice in Norway. We apply national travel survey data, deriving commuting and non-commuting home-to-home trip chains, terming trip chains with more than two legs “complex”. We add built-environment measures, including the density of inhabitants plus employments, and their balance, the number of public parking lots and transit stops/stations, as well as the distance to the nearest urban centre. We run models splitting the travel survey data into two subsets, one more urban and the other more rural. We find that higher minimum density at destinations is consistently associated with lower odds of a complex trip chain and of auto mode choice. Longer distance from the residence to the nearest centre increases the odds of car use, and reduces the odds of a complex trip chain. The association with other built-environment characteristics depends on area type and whether it is commuting or not. A higher maximum distance from a destination to an urban centre increases the odds of a complex trip chain and auto mode choice in the more urban subset of the data, but in the more rural subset of the data such association is only found for commuting trip chains. The job-population balance in the home area shows negative association with auto mode choice; and in the more urban subset also a negative association with complex commuting trip chains. The more urban subset comprised municipalities with registered numbers of public parking lots; a higher minimum parking lot number at destinations in the trip chain was associated with lower odds of a complex trip chain, as well as higher odds of choosing the car as the main mode in non-commuting trip chains.publishedVersio