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Information provision by regulated public transport companies

TL;DR: In this paper, the interaction between pricing, frequency of service and information provision by public transport firms offering scheduled services was studied under various regulatory regimes, and the effect of higher fares strongly depends on how frequency and information quality affect the number of planners, and if the agency regulates both the fare and the quality of information then more stringent information requirements induce the firm to reduce frequency; this strongly limits the welfare improvement of information regulation.
Abstract: We study the interaction between pricing, frequency of service and information provision by public transport firms offering scheduled services, and we do so under various regulatory regimes. The model assumes that users can come to the bus stop or rail station at random or they can plan their trips; the fraction of users who plan their trips is endogenous and depends on the frequency of service and on the quality of information provided. Four institutional regimes are considered, reflecting various degrees of government regulation. A numerical example illustrates the theoretical results. Findings include the following. First, fare regulation induces the firm to provide less frequency and less information than is socially optimal. Second, if information and frequency did not affect the number of planning users a higher fare always induces the firm to raise both frequency and the quality of information. With endogenous planning, however, this need not be the case, as the effect of higher fares strongly depends on how frequency and information quality affect the number of planners. Third, a profit-maximizing firm offers more information than a fare-regulated firm. Fourth, if the agency regulates both the fare and the quality of information then more stringent information requirements induce the firm to reduce frequency; this strongly limits the welfare improvement of information regulation. Finally, of all institutional structures considered, socially optimal fares, frequency and quality of information stimulate passengers least to plan their trips, because the high frequency offered reduces the benefits of trip planning.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that the adrenal rush for mobility services, however, may not deliver the full solution that supporters are suggesting, and that a hybrid multi-modal state of affairs may be the most appealing new contract setting.
Abstract: The digital age has opened up new opportunities to improve the customer experience in using public transport. Specifically, we see the role of smart technology in the hands of customers as the new rubric to deliver services that are individualised to the needs and preferences of current and future public transport users. This frontline of service delivery has become known as mobility as a service (MaaS) whereby an individual can book a service delivered through a range of possible modes of transport. At one extreme we have point-to-point car based services such as Uber, Lyft, BlaBlaCar and RydHero (for children), with futuristic suggestions of these gravitating to driverless vehicles (cars and buses). Variations around this future are bus-based options that include smart bookable ‘point-via-point-to-point’ services that offer up options on travel times and fares (with the extreme converting to the point-to-point car service, possibly also operated by a bus business); as well as the continuation of conventional bus services (with larger buses) where the market for smart MaaS is difficult or inappropriate to provide (e.g., contracted (often free) school bus services). This paper, as a think piece, presents a number of positions that could potentially represent future contexts in which bus services might be offered, recognising that a hybrid multi-modal state of affairs may be the most appealing new contract setting, enabling the design of contracts to be driven by the mode-neutral customer experience, and the growing opportunity to focus on MaaS. We suggest that the adrenal rush for mobility services, however, may not deliver the full solution that supporters are suggesting.

233 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a new dynamic dial-a-ride policy is introduced, one that features non-myopic pricing based on optimal tolling of queues to fit with the multi-server queueing approximation method proposed by Hyttia et al. (2012) for large-scale systems.
Abstract: Non-myopic dial-a-ride problem and other related dynamic vehicle routing problems often ignore the need for non-myopic pricing under the assumption of elastic demand, which leads to an overestimation of the benefits in level of service and resulting inefficiencies. To correct this problem, a new dynamic dial-a-ride policy is introduced, one that features non-myopic pricing based on optimal tolling of queues to fit with the multi-server queueing approximation method proposed by Hyttia et al. (2012) for large-scale systems. By including social optimal pricing, the social welfare of the resulting system outperforms the marginal pricing assumed for previous approaches over a range of test instances. In the examples tested, improvements in social welfare of the non-myopic pricing over the myopic pricing were in the 20–31% range. For a given demand function, we can derive the optimal fleet size to maximize social welfare. Sensitivity tests to the optimal price confirm that it leads to an optimal social welfare while the marginal pricing policy does not. A comparison of single passenger taxis to shared-taxis shows that system cost may reduce at the expense of decreased social welfare, which agrees with the results of Jung et al. (2013).

91 citations

01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate that the scheduling of activities by consumers can be explicitly modeled in theoretically satisfactory and empirically productive way, and demonstrate that this approach can be applied productively to other goods subject to peak demands.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the scheduling of activities by consumers can be explicitly modeled in theoretically satisfactory and empirically productive way. Even in the case of urban work trips, probably one of the most tightly constrained of everyday activities, schedule shifting is found to be of quantitative importance for the understanding of urban transportation systems. Considerable effort will be required to assess fully the implications of this type of behavior for such important areas of transportation analysis as demand studies, value-of-time measurement, policy simulation, and cost-benefit analysis. Meanwhile, it seems likely that this approach can be applied productively to other goods subject to peak demands.

78 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an agent-based adjustment process is proposed to evaluate the properties of a stable state as an agentbased stochastic user equilibrium for flexible transport services (FTS).
Abstract: Advances in information and communications technologies, connected vehicle technologies, and Big Data have made it viable for public agencies to offer efficient flexible transit services for travel demand that is predominantly dynamic to the system. There is a clear gap in methodologies to evaluate the user equilibrium for flexible transport services (FTS). In this study we lay the groundwork for studying the equilibrium of these systems and propose an agent-based adjustment process to evaluate the properties of a stable state as an agent-based stochastic user equilibrium. To validate the proposed process and illustrate its effectiveness in measuring the effect of changes in FTS operating parameters on ridership three sets of experiments are conducted: (1) illustration with a simple 2-link network, (2) evaluation of a dynamic dial-a-ride problem, and (3) illustration using real data from Oakville, Ontario consisting of 57 zones and 2000 commuters.

56 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 2014
TL;DR: Analytical results show that the proposed DSS can reduce the ELR and logistics cost and this system helps governments construct DSSs for general PLISMO.
Abstract: Transportation optimization usually aims at minimizing the empty load ratios (ELRs) of vehicles. Most Chinese vehicles for logistics are owned by individual entrepreneurs. Because China is very large, transport distances are typically long, and thus the ELR is very high. The ELR is the primary reason for high transport costs, considerable pollution, and high energy consumption. Many Chinese local governments try to build public transport information services that decrease the ELR. This work proposes a decision support system (DSS) for public logistics information service management and optimization (PLISMO) for vehicle drivers and owners, logistics customers and related logistics service providers and management institutes. The dynamic and real-time matching model between goods and vehicles, and the enabling technologies are important issues for the DSS for PLISMO. Therefore, intelligent positioning technologies are employed to acquire and manage the vehicle status. A model matching vehicles with goods is developed based on an assessment model of transport capability and service priority criteria. A multi-objective real-time scheduling model is devised to minimize the ELR. Based on the concepts and decision-making models for PLISMO, a DSS is created and the architecture of the system is investigated. The effectiveness of the DSS and decision-making models is demonstrated by a case of finished vehicle logistics (FVL). Analytical results show that the proposed DSS can reduce the ELR and logistics cost. This system helps governments construct DSSs for general PLISMO.

45 citations

References
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Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate that the scheduling of activities by consumers can be explicitly modeled in theoretically satisfactory and empirically productive way, and demonstrate that this approach can be applied productively to other goods subject to peak demands.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the scheduling of activities by consumers can be explicitly modeled in theoretically satisfactory and empirically productive way. Even in the case of urban work trips, probably one of the most tightly constrained of everyday activities, schedule shifting is found to be of quantitative importance for the understanding of urban transportation systems. Considerable effort will be required to assess fully the implications of this type of behavior for such important areas of transportation analysis as demand studies, value-of-time measurement, policy simulation, and cost-benefit analysis. Meanwhile, it seems likely that this approach can be applied productively to other goods subject to peak demands.

1,148 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that under regimes of monopoly and monopolistic competition, product characteristics (which are often endogenous variables) are not usually optimally set under the pressure of market forces, and that regulation is also beset with difficulties when price and quality are decision variables.
Abstract: * The argument in this paper reduces to three basic points. Under regimes of monopoly (and monopolistic competition), product characteristics (which are often endogenous variables) are not usually optimally set under the pressure of market forces. Second, regulation is also beset with difficulties when price and quality are decision variables. These difficulties are informational, and are closely related to the sources of market failure in the unregulated market. Third, rate of return regula

1,062 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the modeling of road congestion subject to peak-load demand and provide a detailed analysis of a particular structural model -William Vickrey's model of bottleneck congestion in the morning rush-hour auto commute, extended to treat elastic (i.e., price sensitive) demand.
Abstract: This paper considers the modeling of road congestion subject to peak-load demand. The standard model contains ambiguities and is poorly specified. These problems can be eliminated by working with a structural model that explicitly treats the congestion technology and drivers' behavioral decisions. The paper provides a detailed analysis of a particular structural model -William Vickrey's model of bottleneck congestion in the morning rush-hour auto commute, extended to treat elastic (i.e., price-sensitive) demand -and examines some economic implications of the structural approach. (JEL R41) This paper considers the modeling of road congestion subject to peak-load demand. It argues that a properly specified model should be structural, that is, be derived explicitly treating the congestion technology and consumers' behavioral decisions. The standard model of a facility subject to peak-period congestion is specified as

774 citations

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the modeling of road congestion subject to peak-load demand and argue that a properly specified model should be structural, explicitly treating the congestion technology and consumers' behavioral decisions.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to consider the modeling of road congestion subject to peak-load demand. It argues that a properly specified model should be structural. The standard model contains ambiguities and is poorly specified. This model should be derived explicitly treating the congestion technology and consumers' behavioral decisions. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the structural model by William Vickrey.

710 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that DECLINING MASS TRANSIT QUALITY is an example of what happens when DEMAND DECLINES for a COMMODITY whose production process involves increasing returns to scale.
Abstract: THIS PAPER SHOWS THAT DECLINING MASS TRANSIT QUALITY IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DEMAND DECLINES FOR A COMMODITY WHOSE PRODUCTION INVOLVES INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE, AND SUGGESTS THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS TRANSIT SCALE ECONOMIES AND HENCE THE LOWER BOUND FOR AN OPTIMAL TRANSIT SUBSIDY POLICY. THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG SHORT- AND LONG-RUN COST SCHEDULES, THE NATURE OF THE SUBSIDY REQUIRED IF SHORT-RUN MARGINAL COST PRICING IS TO BE PRACTICED BY AN INCREASING RETURNS ACTIVITY, AND THE NATURE OF INCREASING RETURNS IN BUS OPERATIONS ARE DISCUSSED. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS USED AS A BASE TO PRESENT COST MODELS FOR "STEADY STATE" AND "FEEDER" BUS ROUTES. A SUBSIDY TO URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS REFLECTING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AVERAGE AND MARGINAL COSTS WOULD PROBABLY NOT ELIMINATE THE DECLINE IN MASS TRANSIT USAGE THAT HAS BEEN EXPERIENCED IN VIRTUALLY ALL URBAN AREAS. STILL, A WELFARE MAXIMIZING SUBSIDY POLICY WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY SLOW THIS MOVEMENT AND MIGHT EVEN HASTEN THE ADOPTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT PROMISE VASTLY IMPROVED SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS.

675 citations