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Perspectives on Norway's supercharged electric vehicle policy
Get PDFNorway has achieved an unprecedented breakthrough for battery electric vehicles. The market share reached 17.1% in 2015, and the total fleet passed 2.7%, some 70000 vehicles. The multilevel perspective framework demonstrate how Norwegian incentives and policies gradually developed over a 25 year period through interactions between the international landscape, national governance networks, regimes and niches. Actors have been able to utilize windows of opportunities leading to the potential establishment of a BEV regime assimilated into the ICE regime from 2016. BEV incentives, some of which have been in place since 1990, did not yield results until the traditional vehicle manufacturers manufactured BEVs based on Li-Ion batteries from 2010. Norwegian purchase incentives are large enough to make electric vehicles a competitively priced alternative for vehicle buyers. Increased selection of models, improved technology, reduced vehicle prices, and extensive marketing have spurred further sales.publishedVersio
Windmill Noise Annoyance, Visual Aesthetics, and Attitudes towards Renewable Energy Sources
Get PDFA small focused socio-acoustic after-study of annoyance from a windmill park was undertaken after local health officials demanded a health impact study to look into neighborhood complaints. The windmill park consists of 31 turbines and is located in the South of Norway where it affects 179 dwellings. Simple exposure-effect relationships indicate stronger reactions to windmills and wind turbine noise than shown internationally, with the caveat that the sample size is small (n = 90) and responses are colored by the existing local conflict. Pulsating swishing sounds and turbine engine hum are the main causes of noise annoyance. About 60 per cent of those who participated in the survey were of the opinion that windmills degrade the landscape aesthetically, and were far from convinced that land-based windmills are desirable as a renewable energy source (hydropower is an important alternative source of renewables in Norway). Attitudes play an important role in addition to visual aesthetics in determining the acceptance of windmills and the resulting noise annoyance. To compare results from different wind turbine noise studies it seems necessary to assess the impact of important modifying factors.publishedVersio
Project selection with sets of mutually exclusive alternatives
Get PDFWe study the problem to maximise the net economic benefit of an investment plan by selecting from a portfolio of candidate projects within a given budget constraint. As is well known, with independent projects the economic efficiency of the entire investment plan is maximised if projects are selected according to their benefit-cost ratio until the budget is exhausted. Often, however, the planning of a project involves a stage where a set of alternative concepts or designs are considered. A best alternative is chosen, and the plan is composed from the pool of all such best alternatives. This procedure violates the assumptions underlying the benefit-cost ratio criterion. In this paper, we set out the correct criterion to use. A real-life example from Norwegian transport planning is provided to show how the global setting into which the project is going to compete, matters for the selection criterion to be used.acceptedVersio
Human reaction to vibrations from blasting activity - Norwegian exposure-effect relationships
No full textRonny Klæboe, Astrid H. Amundsen, Christian Madshus, Karin M. Norén-Cosgriff, Iiris Turunen-Rindel, Human reaction to vibrations from blasting activity – Norwegian exposure–effect relationships, Applied Acoustics, Volume 111, 2016, Pages 49-57, ISSN 0003-682X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.03.021.Rock blasting may cause disturbances, fear, and annoyance in residential and community areas affected by such activities. These community reactions can be quite strong, even when the blasting activities and the resulting vibrations are unlikely to cause physical damage to building foundations or buildings. A socio-vibrational survey was undertaken to assess residential reactions to blasting activities. Vibration velocities were obtained for 520 respondent dwellings located in seven study areas, and compared to the residents’ assessments of environment quality. Even at low vibration values, many people report annoyance. Exposure–effect relationships with acceptable statistical error bands were obtained. The level of annoyance from long-term blasting activities (quarry blasting) was not higher than from finite periods of more intense blasting activities (road and rail tunnels). Providing information in advance of the blasting activities, can reduce community reactions. Self-reported sensitivity to vibrations was associated with significantly increased annoyance. Sensitivity to vibrations was uncorrelated with exposure to vibrations. Sensitivity to noise and sensitivity to vibration were moderately correlated.Human reaction to vibrations from blasting activity - Norwegian exposure-effect relationshipsacceptedVersio
Parking facilities and the built environment: Impacts on travel behaviour
Get PDFCar ownership and car use depend on numerous factors, among which are parking availability at destination and at home. While the former has attracted considerable research efforts for decades the latter, home parking, has recently become subject to increasing research interest. We use evidence from the 2013/14 Norwegian National Travel Survey, and combine this with additional geographical context data. In this way, we analyse the impact of parking availability at home and at destination on car use, while controlling for different urban contexts like housing and job density, and population density. The analysis is divided into three. The first part links car use to availability and payment arrangements of workplace parking. The second is concerned with the impact of home parking accessibility and car use. The third set of regressions looks at the combined effect of parking at trip start and the trip end on car use. Reduced access to free workplace parking stands out as one of the most effective ways of reducing car use on work trips. Maximum parking standards are therefore important parts of an urban planner’s toolbox. Workplace parking fees can be effective when parking capacity is abundant and especially so if payment is made on a daily basis. Car use is in fact almost doubled where employees can pay monthly instead of daily. Limited access to parking at home also affects car use. The decision to drive decreases with increasing walking distance to the car park, especially in densely built-up areas. Restricted parking both at home and at the trip destination add up to very low odds of car use. Parking restrictions will have the greatest effect in compact cities.publishedVersio
A CO2-fund for the transport industry: The case of Norway
Get PDFEmissions from heavy trucks constitute a large and increasing share of Norwegian CO2-emissions. The Norwegian Green Tax Commission recently presented recommendations for emission reductions, largely confined to ‘sticks’, in the form of taxes and levies. Another way to reduce emissions and to force the phase-in of alternative propulsion systems on heavy trucks, is the use of more positive measures for the industry. In Norway, establishment of a CO2-fund for the industry, modeled after the existing Norwegian NOx-fund, has been proposed. Rather than paying a levy on every litre fuel consumed, participants to the fund will pay a (lower) participation fee in exchange for committing to emission reducing measures. The fund's proceeds will then be used on (partial) subsidies towards the additional investment costs for renewable-based rolling stock and infrastructure. The analysis in this study shows that it is most cost-effective to direct the fund's subsidies towards biodiesel alternatives, but that the availability of sustainable fuel might become a challenge. A fund should therefore also consider subsidizing more expensive renewable technologies based on biogas, electricity, or hydrogen. Although some of these alternative technologies still face several techno-economic barriers, a CO2-fund can contribute to increasing market demand and to achieving critical masses.acceptedVersio
Why is it so difficult to explain the decline in traffic fatalities?
No full textIn many highly motorised countries, the number of traffic fatalities has gone down by about 80 percent since the peak number, which was reached around 1970. What explains this decline? Is it principally the result of road safety policy, or have other factors made a larger contribution? This paper argues that it is difficult to give a scientifically rigorous explanation of the decline in traffic fatalities. There are five main problems: (1) There are very many potentially relevant explanatory variables. (2) Some of the relevant explanatory variables change slowly at an almost constant rate. (3) Data are incomplete or missing about many potentially relevant variables. (4) Some variables are affected by measurement errors or discontinuities in time series. (5) Many of the explanatory variables are very highly correlated with each other and with time. These problems are illustrated using Norway as an example. It is shown that the problems listed above can result in models that are non-sensical although they pass formal tests of model quality. The lesson is that one should never judge how good a model is merely in terms of formal criteria. Some strategies for developing more meaningful models are discussed
Gradual change towards re-integration: Insights from local public transport in Norway
Get PDFOrganisational arrangements with increased autonomy from politicians have become common in public service provision in Western countries. Agency deficiencies have been related to accountability and lack of trust, and a debate on re-municipalisation or re-integration of public services is emerging. In this article, we explore what caused the displacement of a local public transport agency in Norway by re-integrating agency tasks in to the public administration. We find two points are particularly especially important in explaining the displacement of the agency. First, powerful veto players that benefit from change, such as new political coalitions and local bus companies, are one driver for change. Second, weak administrative capacity and lack of competence in the county administration open opportunities for change agents who oppose to existing rules. The study also reflects the importance of seeing trust in an institutional context when studying public administration.acceptedVersio
Safety in numbers for cyclists – conclusions from a multidisciplinary study of seasonal change in interplay and conflicts
No full textIn many European countries, it is a political goal that future growth in local travel should be absorbed by sustainable transport modes. Concerns that increased walking and cycling produce more accidents have been countered by the “safety in numbers” (SiN) argument. According to SiN, the more walkers/cyclists there are in a population, the lower their risk. SiN has been demonstrated in cross sectional and longitudinal studies, but the mechanisms behind the effect have yet to be proven. Previous studies have mostly relied on register data. The current study, carried out in 2013 and 2014 tests the existence of this effect in a more controlled manner. This is achieved through the use of three data sets: (1) roadside survey data with cyclists, pedestrians and car drivers from Oslo carried out at three time points in the cycling season (2) a panel study covering the same time period, and (3) video observations at four different locations in Oslo. By exploiting the natural seasonal variation in cycling frequency, and by using a repeated measures design we can further control for other factors suggested to lie behind the SiN mechanism, such as differences in infrastructure and traffic culture. The results suggest that bicyclists experience a short term Safety in Numbers effect through the season. Each individual cyclist experiences fewer occasions of being overlooked by cars and fewer safety critical situations (near-misses). Video observation data confirm this pattern. However, the SiN effect seems to be countered by another mechanism taking place at the same time: the influx of inexperienced and risk-taking cyclists through the season. Thus car drivers and pedestrians also report to find themselves being surprised by cyclists in traffic late in the season.publishedVersio
Comparing Deliveries to On-street Consignees and Consignees Located at Shopping Centers
Get PDFThe main contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, it maps the delivery structure for on-street consignees and consignees located at shopping centers. In general, micro-data regarding urban freight is sparse, thus this survey greatly contributes to the general knowledge about number of deliveries and number of freight vehicles in Oslo. This information is important to take into account for bottom-up calculations of traffic impacts. This includes private costs of freight, but also socio-economic external costs related to local and global emissions, noise, increased congestion and increased chances of traffic accidents.
Second, through surveys amongst employees and drivers, car counts and GPS data, we have identified and quantified an important cost difference between on-street consignees and consignees at shopping centers, namely the increased cost due to lower capacity for on-street consignees. The expected additional cost per vehicle related to low capacity is estimated to be NOK 49 (the additional cost per delivery will obviously depend on number of deliveries per vehicle). This is important information from a policy perspective, and suggests that both (1) increasing capacity for on-street deliveries in the city center and (2) facilitating for shopping centers with dedicated unloading spaces will reduce both private costs for transport operators and consignees, and external costs related to emissions and congestion.
Third, we give recommendations for mitigating the problem of space restrictions for on-street deliveries in the city center. This approach consist of two elements: (1) deliveries before or after stores’ opening hours and (2) deliveries to a buffer storage location with a dedicated unloading space.publishedVersio