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Port efficiency and emissions from ships at berth: application to the Norwegian port sector
Get PDFThis paper explores how port efficiency affects the time that ships spend in port and therefore their atmospheric emissions whilst berthed. While the literature on port productivity and efficiency measurement largely ignores this aspect, we explore the biases in the measurement of productivity when resources spent on providing swift cargo-handling are ignored. A distinction is made between ports’ technical and scale efficiencies. Their impacts on environmental productivity (i.e., units of cargo handled per unit of ship emissions) are examined using data envelopment analysis on a unique dataset containing information about the duration of cargo-handling operations in the 25 largest ports in Norway. The results show that adopting best practices can significantly improve environmental productivities: if all ports under consideration become technically productive, the environmental productivity of the entire sample could be 80% higher. Technical efficiency alone would increase average environmental port productivity by 30%. Enhancing traditional port productivity can also substantially improve environmental productivity.acceptedVersio
Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: a case study of activities in Fjord Norway
No full textMany global tourist destinations have experienced growth in arrivals. This has triggered various conflicts in destinations and sparked debates as to how to deal with what is increasingly referred to as ‘overtourism’. Most destination marketing organisations (DMOs) pursue strategies to stimulate arrivals even further. Pro-growth discourses are reinforced by lead bodies such as the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). However, maximisation strategies based on higher numbers of tourists increasingly cause conflicts with local residents, whereas simultaneously undermining climate change mitigation pledges as negotiated in the Paris Agreement. New approaches to destination management based on optimisation are therefore warranted. Drawing on a survey of international tourists (N=5249) in south-western Norway, this article discusses whether ‘activities’, i.e. the development of local, small-scale and ideally more sustainable experiences, can contribute to economic growth without necessarily increasing numbers of arrivals. Results confirm that destinations should seek to better understand their markets, including length of stay, spending, and/or activity intention, to identify profitable markets. Ultimately, such knowledge may help addressing overtourism conflicts while building tourism systems that are more economically, socially, and environmentally resilient.publishedVersio
Developing a tool for assessing park-and-ride facilities in a sustainable mobility perspective
Get PDFThis article presents results from context-related empirical case-studies of the traffic-reducing effects of 12 existing Norwegian park-and-ride facilities (P&R), in a sustainable mobility perspective. It further presents results from studies of planning processes related to construction or expansion of P&Rs. Main findings are that introduction or expansion of P&R normally cannot be expected to contribute to traffic reductions, if understood in a strategic, long-term and system-wide perspective. Further, that Norwegian planning processes are weak with respect to evidence-based ex-ante assessments of the traffic-reducing effects of P&R. The results and experiences from these studies were used in developing an easy-to-use tool for ex-ante assessments of traffic-reducing effects of P&R, taking properties of the facilities and the context of their location into consideration. The tool also includes suggestions of alternative measures to introducing or expanding P&Rs. As cities and urban regions in many countries struggle to curb traffic-growth and achieve more sustainable mobility patterns, we believe the empirical results, as well as the suggested assessment tool, will be useful also beyond the Norwegian context.publishedVersio
Does Regular School Transport Influence the Provision of Public Transport Services? Evidence From Norway
Get PDFBasic education and public transport services are often provided by local or regional governments. In Norway, they fall within the remit of two different tiers of government, with public transport being the responsibility of regional government (fylke), while basic education (primary and secondary schools) is the responsibility of local government (kommune). Current efforts to consolidate and reorganize the school structure have yielded mixed results. On the one hand, such changes can help reduce public spending by exploiting economies of scale in the provision of education, for instance by having fewer and larger schools. On the other hand, they are likely to lead to cost increases by expanding the geographic coverage of school transport. Furthermore, transporting schoolchildren during peak commuting hours may exacerbate cost increases for regional governments. Our paper examines the cost effect of changing the school structure with respect to transport provision. Applying econometric analysis to panel datasets at the municipal and regional levels, we seek to identify the impact of the number of pupils and school size on the costs of providing school transport. We combine these data with data on transport provision to look at the effects of school-related transport on costs and competitive tendering in public transport. We show that a school closure can increase the cost of providing public transportation both by increasing the cost of maintaining the current level of public transport services and by necessitating the expansion of the supply. The empirical results indicate that municipalities’ economic gains from school consolidation generally outweigh the corresponding cost increases related to the provision of public transport.Does Regular School Transport Influence the Provision of Public Transport Services? Evidence From NorwaypublishedVersio
A Transport Policy Whose Injury Impacts May Go Unnoticed: More Walking, Cycling and Use of Public Transport
Get PDFIt is an objective of transport policy in many countries and cities to promote walking, cycling and the use of public transport. This policy seeks to improve public health and reduce emissions contributing to global warming. It is, however, very likely that more walking, cycling and use of public transport will be associated with an increase in traffic injury. Moreover, it is likely that most of this increase will go unnoticed and not be recorded in official road accident statistics. Official statistics on traffic injury are known to be very incomplete as far as injuries to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport passengers are concerned. This incompleteness is a problem when assessing health impacts of more walking, cycling and travel by public transport. In this paper, studies made in the city of Oslo, Norway (population 700,000) are used to develop numerical examples showing how the estimated real and recorded number of injuries may change when 10% of person km of travel performed by car are transferred to walking, cycling or public transport. It is shown that not more than about 2% of the estimated change in the actual number of injured road users will be recorded by official statistics on traffic injury.publishedVersio
National goals and tools to fulfil them: A study of opportunities and pitfalls in Norwegian metagovernance of urban mobility
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From cars to bikes - the effect of an intervention providing access to different bike types: A randomized controlled trial
Get PDFIntroduction
We aimed to investigate whether providing parents with children in kindergarten with access to different bicycle types could influence (i) travel behavior and cycling amount, and (ii) intrinsic motivation for cycling and psychological constructs related to car use.
Methods
A randomized, controlled trial was conducted in Southern Norway from September 2017 to June 2018. In total 36 parents were recruited and randomly drawn into an intervention (n = 18) or control group (n = 18). The intervention group was in random order equipped with an e-bike with trailer (n = 6), a cargo (longtail) bike (n = 6) and a traditional bike with trailer (n = 6).
Results
At follow-up, more participants from the intervention group (vs. the control group) were classified as cyclists to the workplace (n = 7 (38.9%) vs. n = 1 (5.9%), p = 0.04), but not to the kindergarten (n = 6 (33.3%) vs. n = 2 (11.8%), p = 0.23) or to the grocery store (n = 2 (11.1%) vs. n = 0 (0%), p = 0.49). A significant (p = ≤0.05) increase in cycling frequency (0.1 to 2.0 days/week) from baseline to follow-up was found in the intervention group for all destinations and seasons, except to the grocery store during winter (p = 0.16). A decrease in frequency of car driving (-0.2 to -1.7 days/week) was found to be apparent in terms of travelling to the workplace and the kindergarten for all seasons, yet not to the grocery store for any season (p = 0.15–0.49). The intervention group (vs. the control group) reported significantly higher “intrinsic regulation” for cycling (p = 0.01) at follow-up.
Conclusion
Access to different bike types for parents with children attending kindergarten resulted in overall increased cycling, decreased car use and higher intrinsic motivation for cycling. E-bikes obtained the greatest cycling amount in total, with the smallest sample variability. Hence, providing parents with children in kindergarten with access to e-bikes might result in increased and sustained cycling, also during the winter season.publishedVersio
Exploring ways of measuring walkability
No full textThis article describes and evaluates a three-step methodology for measuring walkability at neighbourhood-scale, aimed at also being usable for planning practitioners. The methodology was developed as part of a larger study on whether densification in public transport nodes outside city centres in Norwegian cities is a good strategy for reducing traffic in cities, what can be done to increase the traffic-reducing effects, and how improved walkability can be part of this. We define walkability as to what extent the surroundings are nice to walk in, as well as pleasant and interesting, and inviting walking. Criteria for assessing walkability are divided into three categories: Infrastructure and traffic, Urbanity, and Surroundings and activities, with specified attributes attached. Data were collected from existing data sources, fieldwork, and interviews. We used the data to assess degree of walkability for each node on a scale from highly walkable to not walkable and found that walkability of the four investigated nodes varied from not walkable to walkable. The car-driver shares on travels related to the nodes were rather high, and we argue that they could be lowered by among others reducing car accessibility and improving walkability. We experienced that our methodology worked as intended at the neighbourhood-scale. If used at a larger scale, the approach could be supplemented by GIS tools. Interviews indicate that our perceptions as researchers are not necessarily in accordance of those of users of the streets. Use of Public Participation GIS tools could give a better understanding of these differences, and how this might be dealt with. Making cities more walkable is increasingly understood as a necessary part of sustainable urban development. By sharing experiences from using our methodology, we hope to contribute with relevant input to the ongoing discussions in cities across the world on how to measure walkability and how to develop cities and areas to become more walkable.publishedVersio
The more (sharp) curves, the lower the risk
Get PDFThe risk of accident in horizontal curves is a complex function of at least the following characteristics of the curve: the radius of the curve; the length of the curve (and the resultant deflection angle); the presence of a spiral transition curve; the super-elevation of the curve; the distance to adjacent curves; and whether the curve is on a flat road, a straight gradient or a vertical curve. The interactions between these characteristics in determining accident risk in horizontal curves is only beginning to be understood. This paper summarises the results of studies that have investigated the interaction between the radius of a horizontal curve and the distance to adjacent curves. The shorter the mean distance between curves, the lower is the increase in risk for a given curve radius. The sharper neighbouring curves are, the lower is the increase in risk for a given curve radius. Thus, overall risk may not be higher on a road consisting mostly of sharp curves than on a road consisting mostly of straight sections with a few curves located far apart from each other.acceptedVersio