The Economics of Urban Transportation

by Kenneth A. Small, Erik T. Verhoef, Robin Lindsey

Overview

This timely new edition of Kenneth A. Small’s seminal textbook Urban Transportation Economics, co-authored with Erik T. Verhoef, has been fully updated, covering new areas such as parking policies, reliability of travel times, and the privatization of transportation services, as well as updated treatments of congestion modelling, environmental costs, and transit subsidies.

Rigorous in approach and making use of real-world data and econometric techniques, it contains case studies from a range of countries including congestion charging in Norway, Singapore and the UK, light rail in the Netherlands and freeway tolls in the US.

Small and Verhoef cover all basic topics needed for any application of economics to transportation:

• forecasting the demand for transportation services under alternative policies
• measuring all the costs including those incurred by users
• setting prices under practical constraints
• choosing and evaluating investments in basic facilities
• designing ways in which the private and public sectors interact to provide services.

This book will be of great interest to students with basic calculus and some knowledge of economic theory who are engaged with transportation economics, planning and, or engineering, travel demand analysis, and many related fields. It will also be essential reading for researchers in any aspect of urban transportation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032706696
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/10/2024
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kenneth A. Small is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California at Irvine, USA.

Erik T. Verhoef is Professor of Spatial Economics at VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Robin Lindsey is Professor in the Operations and Logistics Division at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Table of Contents

List of tables     ix
List of figures     x
Acknowledgments     xii
Selected symbols and abbreviations     xiii
Introduction     1
Travel demand     4
Aggregate tabulations and models     5
Aggregate demand models     6
Cross-sectional studies of metropolitan areas     8
Cross-sectional studies within a metropolitan area     9
Studies using time-series data     10
Summary of key results of aggregate studies     11
Transportation and land use     12
Disaggregate models: methods     15
Basic discrete-choice models     15
Estimation     17
Interpreting coefficient estimates     19
Data     21
Randomness, scale of utility, and measures of benefit     23
Aggregation and forecasting     25
Specification     26
Ordered and rank-ordered models     27
Disaggregate models: examples     28
Mode choice     28
Trip-scheduling choice     29
Choice of free or express lanes     31
Advanced discrete-choice modeling     33
Generalized extreme value models     33
Combined discrete and continuous choice     36
Disaggregate panel data     38
Random parameters and mixed logit     39
Endogenous prices     41
Activity patterns and trip chaining     43
Value of time and reliability     44
Value of time: basic theory     45
Empirical specifications     46
Extensions     47
Value of reliability: theory     49
Empirical results     52
Conclusions     54
Costs     56
The nature of cost functions     56
Cost functions for public transit     61
Accounting cost studies     62
Engineering cost studies     64
Statistical cost studies     65
Cost functions including user inputs     67
Highway travel: congestion technology     69
Fundamentals of congestion     69
Empirical speed-flow relationships     72
Dynamic congestion models     78
Congestion modeling: a conclusion     83
Highway travel: short-run cost functions and equilibrium     83
Stationary-state congestion on a homogeneous road     84
Time-averaged models      86
Dynamic models with endogenous scheduling     88
Network equilibrium     93
Parking search     96
Empirical evidence on short-run variable costs     97
Highway travel: long-run cost functions     105
Analytic long-run cost functions     106
The role of information technology     109
Empirical evidence on capital costs     111
Is highway travel subsidized?     114
Intermodal cost comparisons     115
Conclusions     117
Pricing     119
First-best congestion pricing of highways     120
Static congestion     121
Dynamic congestion     127
Second-best pricing     137
Network aspects     139
Time-of-day aspects     143
User heterogeneity     145
Stochastic congestion and information     146
Interactions with other distorted markets     146
Second-best pricing: a conclusion     147
Congestion pricing in practice     148
Singapore     148
Norwegian toll rings     149
Value pricing in the US     149
London congestion charging     150
Other applications     151
Technology of road pricing     151
Pricing of parking     153
Pricing of public transit     155
Fare level     155
Fare structure     159
Incentive effects of subsidies     159
Political considerations     160
Conclusions     161
Investment     163
Capacity choice for highways     163
Basic results: capacity choice with first-best pricing and static congestion     164
Self-financing in more complex settings     167
Second-best highway capacity     172
Naive investment rules     178
Cost-benefit analysis     181
Willingness to pay     181
Demand and cost forecasts     184
Discounting future costs and benefits     185
Shifting of costs and benefits     187
External benefits and network effects     187
Conclusion: the use and misuse of cost-benefit analysis     189
Conclusions     189
Industrial organization of transportation providers     191
Private highways     192
Single road with static congestion     192
Single road with dynamic congestion      194
Heterogeneous users     196
Private toll lanes: the two-route problem revisited     196
Competition in networks     198
Regulation and franchising of private roads     201
Privately provided transit services     203
Forms of privatization     204
Market structure and competitive practices     205
Efficiency of public and private providers     208
Experience with privatization and deregulation     209
Paratransit     212
Conventional taxi service     213
Conclusions     214
Conclusion     215
Emerging themes     215
Implications for transportation research     219
Notes     221
References     237
Index     269

Editorial Reviews

This text should appear on the shelf of everyone practising transportation economics, and is likely to become the standard in the field - David Levinson, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher