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Transport Infrastructure (transport + infrastructure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	66%

Selected Abstracts

Comparing Investments in New Transport Infrastructure: Roads versus Railways?

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2003
Luisa Affuso
Abstract This paper contributes to the debate on investment in transport infrastructure and the allocation of public funds between road and railway projects. We model the two options and provide a consistent framework to appraise investment in typical new inter,urban road and rail projects. Our results suggest that road improvements have substantially higher returns than railway schemes. These findings cast doubt on the rationale of the new transport policy for the UK, which proposes to allocate more public funds to the (private) railways than total new investment in strategic roads. [source]

The Anticipated Capitalisation Effect of a New Metro Line on Housing Prices,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2008
Claudio A. Agostini
H54; R21; R53 Abstract Housing units with closer access to public transportation enjoy a higher market value than those with similar characteristics but poorer access. This difference can be explained by the lower cost of transport to the main workplaces and shopping areas in town. For this reason, investments in public transport infrastructure, such as building a new metro line, are capitalised totally or partially into land and housing prices. This work empirically analyses the degree of capitalisation into housing prices of the benefits of the new Line 4 of the Santiago metro system, which began operating in December 2005. We focus on anticipated capitalisation into housing prices at the moment construction of Line 4 was announced and at the moment information on the basic engineering project was unveiled, identifying the location of the future stations. We use a unique database containing all home buying and selling transactions in the Greater Santiago area between December 2000 and March 2004. The results show that the average apartment price rose by between 4.2 per cent and 7.9 per cent after construction was announced and by between 3.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent after the location of the stations was identified. These increases were not distributed evenly, but depended on the distance from the apartment to the nearest station. An indirect effect of this kind of capitalization is that property tax collections will increase if property is reappraised following the price rise. This effect is not negligible in magnitude and could represent 11 to 17 per cent of investment in the new metro line. This raises and interesting discussion on how the metro network extension is financed. [source]

Comparing Investments in New Transport Infrastructure: Roads versus Railways?

Oil demand in transportation sector in Iran: an efficiency and income asymmetric modelling approach

OPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
Mohammad Mazraati
The transportation sector in Iran consumed about 52 per cent of oil demand in 2005. This high consumption rate of oil in the sector is fuelled by many factors including fiscal policies structural, as well as infrastructural factors. The vehicle ownership (intensity), efficiency of vehicles, public transportation, transport infrastructure, per capita income, cost of vehicle use, and fuel prices are among the factors which are shaping the trend of oil demand in this very important sector. Energy in Iran is heavily subsidized and in the transportation sector, the subsidy amounted to $3.59 billion in 1996, rising to $12.43 billion in 2005. Logistic model of vehicle ownership is estimated as a function of real per capita income, length of roads and other explanatory variables. Per capita income is a cumulative non-declining variable incorporating the idea of income asymmetric. Oil demand is estimated as a function of fuel efficiency, age of car fleet, per capita income and vehicle ownership per 1,000 inhabitants. Oil demand elasticities of vehicle ownership and fuel efficiency are 1.29 and 1.11, respectively, confirming that these variables have major impacts on oil demand in the transportation sector. It is concluded that rationing of fuel or upward price adjustment merely cannot curb the fast growth of oil demand in the sector. A policy package including mandatory fuel efficiency standards, scraping of old vehicles, upward fuel price, and development of public transportation could lead to better management of fuel consumption in this sector. [source]

User-Focused Public Space(M)UTOPIA in Denmark

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Issue 1 2008
Serban Cornea
Abstract The Danish practice MUTOPIA brings to public space a strong sense of delight and playfulness, while demonstrating an overriding concern with the end user. As Serban Cornea of MUTOPIA explains, a temporary plaza for the extensive development of Orestad Nord in Copenhagen aims ,to speed up the process of creating the area's own identity', while the practice's housing for Lyngby-Taarb'k, Hovedstaden, audaciously puts the ,garden' back into the ,garden suburb' by relocating the transport infrastructure to the rooftops. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Grasping at the routes of biological invasions: a framework for integrating pathways into policy

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
P. E. Hulme
Summary 1Pathways describe the processes that result in the introduction of alien species from one location to another. A framework is proposed to facilitate the comparative analysis of invasion pathways by a wide range of taxa in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Comparisons with a range of data helped identify existing gaps in current knowledge of pathways and highlight the limitations of existing legislation to manage introductions of alien species. The scheme aims for universality but uses the European Union as a case study for the regulatory perspectives. 2Alien species may arrive and enter a new region through three broad mechanisms: importation of a commodity, arrival of a transport vector, and/or natural spread from a neighbouring region where the species is itself alien. These three mechanisms result in six principal pathways: release, escape, contaminant, stowaway, corridor and unaided. 3Alien species transported as commodities may be introduced as a deliberate release or as an escape from captivity. Many species are not intentionally transported but arrive as a contaminant of a commodity, for example pathogens and pests. Stowaways are directly associated with human transport but arrive independently of a specific commodity, for example organisms transported in ballast water, cargo and airfreight. The corridor pathway highlights the role transport infrastructures play in the introduction of alien species. The unaided pathway describes situations where natural spread results in alien species arriving into a new region from a donor region where it is also alien. 4Vertebrate pathways tend to be characterized as deliberate releases, invertebrates as contaminants and plants as escapes. Pathogenic micro-organisms and fungi are generally introduced as contaminants of their hosts. The corridor and unaided pathways are often ignored in pathway assessments but warrant further detailed consideration. 5Synthesis and applications. Intentional releases and escapes should be straightforward to monitor and regulate but, in practice, developing legislation has proved difficult. New introductions continue to occur through contaminant, stowaway, corridor and unaided pathways. These pathways represent special challenges for management and legislation. The present framework should enable these trends to be monitored more clearly and hopefully lead to the development of appropriate regulations or codes of practice to stem the number of future introductions. [source]