References and Further Reading
Contents of this page below.........
Further reading
The best source of reading is the extensive work done by Philip Laird
Road and Rail Freight Infrastructure Pricing, and
Competitive Neutrality - a few references. A full discussion is beyond the scope of this site.
Road access pricing now is based on a flat fee: registration and fuel levy. Once the fee is paid users can travel as much as they like. Although frequent users will still pay more than infrequent users thus the latter subsidise the former. A user pays system would be much fairer.
For an accessible explanation of the issues involved with competition and pricing see
Road Pricing and Provision edited by M de Percy and John Wanna, ANU press 2018 Free PDF here
see also:
https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/freight/report/freight.pdf
Pigouvian taxes - content coming
Contestability - content coming
What happens elswhere?
How does Austria deal with road congestion in (environmentally) sensitive areas?
It places bans on trucks on certain days and during certain times of the day on specific roads.[1] [2] [3]. A list of driving restrictions in Austria can be found at TrackerInfo.[4]
Congested motorways and toll avoidance have exacerbated congestion on the Innsbruck to Brenner route between Austria and Italy. A new rail tunnel – the Brenner Base Tunnel - is under construction to alleviate this congestion.
Currently more than 75% of the freight task on the Brenner route is performed by truck. The Tyrol regional government wants to have the majority of freight taken by rail by 2035. This modal shift from road to rail will make the undesirable options less attractive (road) and increase the attractiveness of the alternative (rail). This strategy is supported by the EU Commission and Member States in Europe.
This mode shift will be achieved by measures imposed on road freight with the aim of discouraging its use (e.g. road user charges and tolls) and regulation (e.g. driving bans), as well as increasing the attractiveness of rail freight (increasing service reliability, asset improvment and reducing shipping costs).
Modal shift will be enhanced by the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel between Innsbruck and Fortezza (due to be completed by 2028).
This mode shift from road to rail will “guarantee an external cost saving of approximately €262 million [ $AU 450 million] ”, by 2035 according to research done by the European Transport Research Review.[5] This refers to all types of pollution as well as congestion but not the infrastructure itself. Specific significant emissions reductions have been calculated and are detailed at Rail Cargo Operator.[6]
“One rola train per hour on the Brenner axis
Austria‘s extended sectorial traffic ban came into effect at the beginning of 2020, introducing further restrictions for truck traffic in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The transit trucks affected by the ban can now cross the Brenner Pass only by train.
The Austrian railways ÖBB made preparations well in advance to meet increased demand for rolling motorway services. Specifically, ÖBB have been offering such services for 250,000 trucks per year on the Brenner Pass since the beginning of 2020 and plan to extend these capacities to 400,000 trucks per annum over the course of this year. When implemented, the total extension of this service will run one rola train per hour in each direction on the Brenner axis.”
Brenner tunnel general infor
https://www.bbt-se.com/en/tunnel/project-overview/
Drive on / off in Brenner tunnel
https://www.transportjournal.com/en/home/news/artikeldetail/one-rola-train-per-hour-on-the-brenner-axis.html
How can the Brenner Base Tunnel be afforded?
The justify the expense of the BBT governments will rely on a high level of patronage: hundreds of trains per day.
"It will thus help the EU in tackling the environmental issues of the Alpine zone. It is projected that the number of trains travelling on the Lower Inn Valley Railway Line will increase to 600 by the time of completion of the Brenner Base Tunnel." Source
What is happening in Switzerland?
“One thing is certain: There will be fewer heavy goods vehicles on the road. This is the major planning criteria of logistics experts. We support a stronger linkage of truck and rail traffic, especially on highly frequented and thus overloaded routes,… Using Switzerland as an example, the important contribution made by the transition from road to rail with regard to a better distribution of heavy goods traffic becomes evident. Since 2010, road transit there has dropped by 21 percent. The rail transport quota, on the other hand, has risen to more than 71 percent. …The truck as a means of transportation is clearly on the defensive and will be more heavily regulated. (emphasis added).”[7]
Owing to increasing congestion on European roads there are bans on different times of vehicles (both cars and trucks) from time to time ranging over day, time of day and location.
[1] https://trans.info/en/tyrol-temporarily-lengthens-driving-ban-for-trucks-during-weekend-120927
[2] https://www.asfinag.at/traffic/hgv-bus/lorry-driving-bans/
[3] “The country imposes a stricter ban on truck euro class driving on the motorway between Kufstein / Langkampfen and Zirl” https://www.tirol.gv.at/meldungen/meldung/artikel/lh-platter-lkw-transitverkehr-wird-weiter-eingeschraenkt/ (in German)
[4] http://www.en.trackerinfo.eu/driving-ban/id-austria
[5] https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12544-018-0323-7
[6] https://rola.railcargo.com/file_source/railcargo/rola/Downloads/Allgemein/CO2-Ersparnis_en.pdf
[7] https://dhl-freight-connections.com/en/alpine-transit-keeping-them-rolling/
Induced demand references
Evidence Review
LATEST EVIDENCE ON INDUCED TRAVEL DEMAND: AN EVIDENCE REVIEW An Evidence Review (UK Department of Transport, 2018)
"Induced demand continues to occur and may be significant in some situations.
There is very little evidence on the composition of induced traffic in the short or long run. This is an important issue for transport appraisal, where induced road traffic may come from other modes or result from economic growth due to land-use development associated with the transport investment. There may also be additional traffic resulting from changes in land use such that residences or business locations have transferred from other areas. Determining how best to measure this effect is itself an area for research. The geographical scale for measurement and appraisal becomes important in determining whether these are included as induced traffic."
Please note: most of these studies have an urban focus but the principle of induced demand would apply in part to peri-urban areas as well.
Traffic congestion reconsidered The Conversation June 2019 "It is clear that developing attractive, affordable, comfortable and reliable alternatives to driving are indispensable."
HIGHWAY BOONDOGGLES 5 Big Projects. Bigger Price Tags. Limited Benefits.
Highway expansions are expensive and saddle states with debt.
Highway expansion doesn’t solve congestion.
Highway expansion damages the envi- ronment and our communities.
Productivity Commission "Funding and investment for better roads ", 2017 "survey evidence on people’s perception of transport and congestion issues suggests a strong prima facie argument that over time, and in many congested areas, new capacity has tended only to create induced demand, eroding any observed improvement in congestion.
Generated Traffic and Induced Travel Implications for Transport Planning 2016 Todd Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Traffic congestion: is there a miracle cure? (Hint: it’s not roads) "Once a new road opens, people switch back to cars and congestion increases back to a steady-state point of gridlock. For lasting effectiveness, policy needs to include congestion charges and better rail services."
Do more roads really mean less congestion for commuters? M. Beck and M. Bleimer 2015
SACTRA, Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Route Assessment. Trunk roads and the generation of traffic 1994 UK DoT
Traffic Monitor 2012-13 VicRoads SEPTEMBER 2014 Average travel speed has been decreasing over the last 10 years in both peak and off-peak periods. Since 2002-03, the trends show a reduction in average travel speed of approximately 1.9 km/h in the morning peak and 4.4 km/h in the afternoon peak.
"What's Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse" 2014
Traffic Forecasts Ignoring Induced Demand: a Shaky Fundament for Cost-Benefit Analyses, Næss, Nicolaisen and Strand, 2012
“ … a significant overestimation of benefits in appraisals that fail to account for induced demand. Once again, we would like to emphasize that these results are only an expression of the short-term effects that result from induced demand, and that long term effects must be expected to increase these exponentially. Furthermore, the faulty conclusions that decision-makers might derive from such appraisals can create a positive feedback loop of continued capacity expansions that do little to solve congestion in practice.”
Transport for Sustainable Cities
by Emmerson Richardson, Sinclair Knight Merz and Professor Peter Newman, Curtin University
The evidence suggests that improving public transport is more likely to reduce congestion in large cities than building more roads. Market research conducted in Perth in 1999 and in Sydney in 2001 revealed that the public favoured strategies to reduce traffic and improve public transport over strategies to build more freeways as the preferred way of reducing congestion.
9. “Before and after opening of theM4 Motorway from Mays Hill to Prospect Sydney case studies in induced traffic growth” Michelle E Zeibots
10. EXPERT WITNESS REPORT Induced travel demand and traffic forecasts for the proposed East West Link tollway: implications for traffic network performance. 20 February 2014, Dr Michelle E Zeibots.
11. THE PARADOX OF CONGESTION Kerry Wood MIPENZ, 2007
The role of passenger transport in controlling urban congestion, through the little-known Downs-Thomson paradox (‘The quality of peak-hour travel by car tends to equal that of public transport’).
12. Implementing congestion charging, The International Transport Forum 2010
Next to the subsidization of parking, the failure to charge for external costs of congestion is one of the main inefficiencies in metropolitan transport systems. Recent economic evidence strengthens the case for using charges to bring congestion closer to efficient levels.
13. Increasing urban sprawl. THE EFFECT OF TRANSPORTATION SUBSIDIES ON URBAN SPRAWL. Su and De Salvo, 2008.
14. PUBLIC TRANSPORT INVESTMENT - The Value of Action versus the Cost of Inaction January 2014
“investment in passenger rail – both light and heavy rail – offers the best value for money solution as it can move large numbers of people quickly at a substantially lower cost than the equivalent investment in roads. Our analysis shows that in Brisbane and Perth, rail requires 57% and 38% less in investment than road (respectively) to achieve the same reduction in congestion. “ Synergies Economic Consulting Pty Ltd
15. Committee for Sydney's Tim Williams slams road building plans for city
The chief executive of the Committee for Sydney, Tim Williams, told an audience at the University of Sydney last week all sides of politics had "got it wrong" on the city's transport priorities, criticising them for a lack of ambition in promoting public transport in the growing metropolis.
16. Forecasting road volumes in Australia has been inaccurate
“A 2005 global study led by the Danish academic Bent Flyvbjerg found forecasts have not become more accurate in the 30 years he studied them and that half of road projects overestimated demand by more than 20 per cent and 25 per cent of road projects overestimated demand by more than 40 per cent.”Australian Financial Review, 30 May 2012 by Vesna Poljak “Blown-up traffic estimates take their toll”3:
17. More Roads, More Traffic: Why Highway Construction Won't Solve Traffic Congestion in Washington, June 2003, Tony Dutzik; Robert Pregulman
18. California's DOT Admits That More Roads Mean More Traffic
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/11/californias-dot-admits-that-more-roads-mean-more-traffic/415245/
19. Public Transportation Does Relieve Traffic Congestion, Just Not Everywhere
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2013/04/public-transportation-does-relieve-traffic-congestion-just-not-everywhere/5149/
20. Melbourne's long, hard road ahead: Freeway traffic on course to double in 20 years
About 900,000 trips are taken on the M1 freeway corridor each weekday. The freeway was widened at a cost of $1.4 billion in 2011 but traffic to and from the outer suburbs is growing so fast that it is about to be widened again just five years later.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbournes-long-hard-road-ahead-freeway-traffic-on-course-to-double-in-20-years-20160219-gmyhv1.html
21. Stuck in traffic: watchdog slams state over congestion
22. Public transport: funding growth in urban route services
http://sydney.edu.au/business/itls
There is a strong case for improving public transport services in Australian cities and ITLS opinion surveying has consistently shown strong support for such improvements. These improved services will include, for example, increasing the capacity of rail services to central business districts in some cities, improving tram/light rail services in inner suburbs, providing Bus Rapid Transit services in higher density corridors that lack rail, providing increased frequencies and operating hours for route bus services, particularly in middle and outer suburbs in the largest cities and across the entire area of medium and smaller cities.
23. Sydney traffic: Secret WestConnex documents show worse congestion after toll road
24. WestConnex and the sad reality of Level Of Service F.
https://michellezeibots.wordpress.com
“What the traffic engineers are telling us very clearly in the two EISs for the M4 sections of WestConnex is that congestion during peak periods is pretty bad and after spending billions of dollars of taxpayer funds on building WestConnex, congestion levels in peak periods are going to be pretty bad.”
25. Increasing Highway Capacity Unlikely to Relieve Traffic Congestion, National Center for Sustainable Transportation
http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2015/10-12-2015-NCST_Brief_InducedTravel_CS6_v3.pdf
26. Impact of Highway Capacity and Induced Travel on Passenger Vehicle Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Susan Handy, University of California, Davis Marlon G. Boarnet, University of Southern California
“highway construction projects often have substantial negative effects on the communities through which they are sited, particularly if construction necessitates the removal of homes or businesses. Historically, low-income and/or minority communities were and continue to be disproportionately affected by such projects. In contrast, reductions in road capacity tend to produce positive social and environmental effects, and they can also generate economic benefits
See also
Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project (Korea)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon#Restoration
Removal of Embarcadero Freeway, San Francisco
References to support Supply Management
(ie expanding or building more roads or ambivalent towards induced demand)
(ie expanding or building more roads or ambivalent towards induced demand)
1. Induced demand and road investment, Luk and Chung.
2. The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US cities. Duranton and Turner, University of Toronto 2010.
“We find no evidence that the provision of public transportation affects vkt. We conclude that increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion.”
3. Rethinking Traffic Congestion, B. Taylor
http://www.uctc.net/access/21/Access%2021%20-%2003%20-%20Rethinking%20Congestion.pdf
4. Transit Utilization and Traffic Congestion:Is There a Connection?
By Thomas A. Rubin and Fatma Mansour
Reason Foundation’s mission is to advance a free society by developing, applying and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets andthe rule of law.
5. The Impact of Urban Spatial Structure on Travel Demand in the United States, Bento et. Al.
6. How much can vehicle travel be reduced through land-use policies in California?: David R. Heres Del Valle, 2009
6. LAST, J.V. Puncturing the myth of more roads mean more congestion, 2011