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Investigating observed and unobserved variation in the probability of ‘not travel’ as a behavioural response to restrictive policies
No full textBesides technological improvements, restrictive car policies are likely to be the most effective measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from local passenger transport. Restrictive policies may lead some individuals to choose to not travel to otherwise useful or enjoyable activities. This paper therefore explores what factors drive the probability of ‘not travel’ as a behavioural response to restrictive policies. Using stated choice data among car owners in the 10 largest cities in Norway, we investigate observed and unobserved taste variation for ‘not travel’ given different (hypothetical) policies. The empirical evidence suggests that the likelihood of ‘not travel’ (a) is lower for work-related trips; (b) is higher where respondents state they have no decent alternatives; (c) increases with trip distance; and (d) increases with the intensity of the policy. We perform Monte-Carlo simulations illustrating different predicted choice behaviour for car users and public transport users under different types of stylized policies (travel time changes versus travel cost changes).publishedVersio
Subsidising urban and sub-urban transport – distributional impacts
Get PDFBackground and methods
This paper studies distributional effects of public transport (PT) subsidies focusing on the Greater Oslo region. We identify how different PT markets enjoy different levels of subsidies. We describe how subsidies are distributed along PT modes and their respective patronage. This is done by document studies and travel surveys, supplemented by expert inquiries.
Results
We find that high-income groups, served by regional trains and high-speed crafts, receive large per passenger and per passenger-kilometre subsidy, while lower-income areas, typically served by local and regional buses, metros and local trains, receive lower subsidies per passenger. Peak traffic receives higher subsidies than off-peak traffic. The overall distributional profile is, however, found to be moderately progressive, in particular because of the socio-economic profile of the average PT passenger relative to the population as a whole.publishedVersio
Speed preferences in work zones: the combined effect of visible roadwork activity, personality traits, attitudes, risk perception and driving style
No full textacceptedVersio
Addressing the Linkages between Gender and Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Get PDFThe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) specifies gender equality and sustainable development as their two central priorities. An area of critical importance for sustainable and gender-fair development is mobility and transport, which has so far been neglected and downplayed in research and policy making both at the national and global levels. Rooted in the history of the topic and the emerging ideas on smart, green and integrated transport, this paper presents a literature review of on gender and transport in the low- and middle-income countries. The paper presents a host of cross-cutting topics with a concentrated focus on spatial and transport planning. The paper further identifies existing research gaps and comments on the new conceptualizations on smart cities and smart mobilities in the Global South. Due attention is paid to intersections and synergies that can be created between different development sectors, emerging transport modes, data and modeling exercises, gender equality and sustainability.publishedVersio
The effects of transportation priority congruence for political legitimacy
No full textCongruence, defined as how closely the opinions of politicians match the policy preferences of voters, is a crucial aspect with respect to political legitimacy since a fundamental objective of democracy is to provide citizens with the policies they want. Yet there are not many studies that have analyzed the extent citizens and politicians are congruent when it comes to the field of transport. By studying transportation policy priorities of politicians and citizens concerning the use of (i) restrictive instruments and (ii) public transport instruments, this article contributes to the literature in at least three ways. First, the results illustrate how the priority of transportation policies varies between politicians and citizens. Politicians tend to prioritize restrictive measures more so than citizens whereas citizens tend to prioritize a reduction of public transport fares higher than politicians. Second, the article shows how the priority given transportation policy instruments is highly dependent on political ideology. Politicians representing parties to the center or left tend to prioritize the use of restrictive measures higher than politicians representing conservative parties. Third, the article explores whether there is a relationship between transportation policy congruence and political legitimacy. The article shows that lack of congruence is associated with a reduced level of trust towards local politicians and citizens being less likely to support local regime principles. These are important findings inasmuch as the literature suggests that lack of political support potentially make citizens more likely to call for radical changes, demonstrate and even abstain from the political process altogether.publishedVersio
Effects of urban road capacity expansions – Experiences from two Norwegian cases
Get PDFThis article presents nuanced and context-related empirical research on the traffic-inducing effects of urban road capacity expansion two Norwegian cities. It focusses on the indirect and longterm land-use effects and on land-use planning and policies, that are not well covered in existing literature. Unsurprisingly, results show traffic-inducing land-use development in the period after the road capacity expansions. Differences in planning policy and practices affected how traffic inducing the land-use development was. The traffic growth was stronger in the affected road corridors than expected, and as compared with Norway. No or only short-term congestion relief was found. It is concluded that the road capacity expansions were necessary conditions for the land-use sprawl, and consequently, contributing causes for the traffic growth. Ex-ante analyses seem not to have included the land-use effects, and this is understood as part of the explanation for the discrepancies between ex-ante expectations and actual development. In both cases, municipal and regional authorities currently attempt to steer land use development in directions contributing to stop traffic growth, in accordance with national policies. Meanwhile, road authorities plan for new capacity expansions in the investigated corridors. Land use effects of the capacity expansions seem, again, not to be included in the assessments.publishedVersio
Self-reported deterrence effects of the Norwegian driver's licence penalty point system
Get PDFNorway’s penalty point system implies that traffic infractions are penalised with two or three points for full-licence drivers and four or six points for probationary-licence drivers, and when a total of eight points is reached within a three-year period the licence is revoked for a duration of six months. A web-based questionnaire was administered to four different driver samples based on number of acquired penalty points: (a) drivers with no points (n = 1206), (b) full-licence drivers with two or three points (n = 190), (c) full-licence drivers with four points or more (n = 172), and (d) probationary-licence drivers with four points or more (n = 193). Drivers with penalty points had better knowledge about the penalty points than those without penalty points. Drivers with four points or more, which means that they are close to the disqualification limit, to a greater extent replied that they have become more law-abiding, compared to those with few or no points. Also drivers without points reported that their driving was influenced by fear of penalty points. Thus, the penalty point system seems to have both a specific perceived deterrence effect on drivers who are at a high risk of losing their licence, and a general perceived deterrence effect on drivers without penalty points.acceptedVersio
The role of life events and context in type of car share uptake: Comparing users of peer-to-peer and cooperative programs in Oslo, Norway
Get PDFThis paper builds on a survey of existing users of two car sharing schemes in Oslo, namely Nabobil (peer-to-peer scheme P2P) and Bilkollektivet (cooperative scheme Coop), to understand how the following factors lead to active (or passive) car sharing – i. key life-events; ii. adoption/retention challenges; iii. acceptability; and iv. infrastructural needs. The conceptual framework of this study is informed by mobility biographies and social practice theory. A web-based questionnaire was distributed by the two service providers to their members, and approximately 1,724 users of P2P and 1,117 users of Coop participated in the survey. The survey collected information on travel behaviour, preferences, life-stages, mobility biography of the household, and life-events possibly leading to car sharing. Results highlight that using P2P scheme emerged as statistically significant for students moving to Oslo and for employees starting in new jobs. For the Coop members, the birth of first or later children were statistically significant events in households’ decision to start with car sharing. Along with differences in meanings, skills, materiality and practices of carsharing, users of the two schemes varied with respect to spatial details as well – proximity to transit-stops, access to high-frequency public transport services, walking/cycling infrastructure and, parking facilities. Further, for carsharing to become popular, ample institutional trust, capable of off-setting any lack of trust that users may have, needs to be built.acceptedVersio
How to trade safety against cost, time and other impacts of road safety measures
Get PDFPublic policy, including road safety policy, involves balancing competing values against each other. Several techniques of policy analysis, most prominently cost-benefit analysis, have been developed to help policy makers prioritize between different values. Valuation studies have not produced credible monetary values of life and limb. Cost-benefit analysis therefore cannot tell when the “right” balance has been struck between road safety and other objectives of transport policy. All formal tools of policy analysis are likely to reflect analyst values to a major extent, not the values of policy makers only. It is argued that policy choices and tradeoffs can be informed simply by providing factual information about impacts and not attempting to impose any value judgements. A widely applicable metric is to state impacts as changes in human longevity and health state.How to trade safety against cost, time and other impacts of road safety measuresacceptedVersio
Safety culture among bus drivers in Norway and Greece
No full textThe aims of the present paper are to: (1) Examine the influence of national safety culture, sector safety focus and organizational safety culture on the safety behaviours of profes-sional drivers, compared with other explanatory variables (e.g. age, type of transport, working conditions), and to (2) Examine the influence of safety behaviours and other fac-tors (e.g. age, mileage, type of transport) on self-reported crash involvement. A survey was conducted, including 215 bus drivers in Norway and Greece. Our study provides four main results. First, more bus drivers in Greece than in Norway report being involved in more aggressive violations in traffic (e.g. become angered by other drivers and indicate hostility, sound their horn). Second, aggressive violations were predicted by national road safety cul-ture, specified as descriptive norms (‘‘violations”) and values/attitudes (individual freedom to take risk in traffic). Third, Greek bus drivers’ aggressive violations in traffic predicted their self-reported crash involvement, although reports on ‘‘work related variables” (e.g. experi-enced work pressure) were more strongly correlated with their crash involvement than their self-reported aggressive violations. Fourth, organizational safety culture contributed nega-tively to aggressive road safety behaviours, meaning that a positive organizational safety cul-ture may reduce (the negative impact of national road safety culture on) aggressive violations in traffic. Although more research is needed, our study indicates a relationship between national road safety culture, road safety behaviour and crash involvement, that could be developed further to help explain differences in national road safety records.submittedVersio