Abigail L. Bristow

Transport project appraisal in the European Union

This paper reviews transport appraisal methods in use in the countries of the European Union. A key element of the paper is an examination of the range of costs and benefits included in appraisal and the degree of consensus on their measurement and valuation. There is a strong consensus on the treatment of a number of direct impacts, where monetary valuation and inclusion in cost benefit analysis is usual. There is less agreement on the treatment of the environmental and social impacts. Recent developments are in the direction of comprehensive multi-modal approaches and a greater use of multi-criteria analysis.

Traffic related noise and air quality valuations: evidence from stated preference residential choice models

This paper reports on research which has estimated valuations of changes in traffic related noise levels and air quality and which contributes to the body of knowledge and to methodology in this area. There are several novel aspects of this research. Firstly, there have been relatively few stated preference studies of the monetary valuations of traffic related noise and air quality. A feature of this analysis is the examination of variations in values according to the size and sign of the environmental change, the currently experienced level of the attribute and various socio-economic factors. Secondly, the important issue of presentation is addressed, with two different methods used in the valuation of air quality and links made between valuations and physical measures. Thirdly, the results from stated preference and the contingent valuation method are compared. Finally, we bring together evidence from other studies and compare them with the findings obtained here.

Road pricing in National Parks: A case study in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

Road user charging is typically associated with urban contexts, however, congestion at rural attractions is of increasing concern and road user charging may be considered as a suitable policy instrument. This paper investigates the issue of rural road pricing and presents the results of a survey of car-based visitors to Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which explores the potential impacts on mode and destination choice of a road user charging scheme, combined with a park and ride alternative. The scheme was found to be acceptable to 68% of the respondents, with nearly half opting to park and ride. The results are of particular interest in the light of the 1998 Transport White Paper that encourages pilot road user charging schemes in rural areas.

ICBEN Review of Research on the Biological Effects of Noise 2011-2014

The mandate of the International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN) is to promote a high level of scientific research concerning all aspects of noise-induced effects on human beings and animals. In this review, ICBEN team chairs and co-chairs summarize relevant findings, publications, developments, and policies related to the biological effects of noise, with a focus on the period 2011-2014 and for the following topics: Noise-induced hearing loss; nonauditory effects of noise; effects of noise on performance and behavior; effects of noise on sleep; community response to noise; and interactions with other agents and contextual factors. Occupational settings and transport have been identified as the most prominent sources of noise that affect health. These reviews demonstrate that noise is a prevalent and often underestimated threat for both auditory and nonauditory health and that strategies for the prevention of noise and its associated negative health consequences are needed to promote public health.

Introducing Willingness‐to‐pay for Noise Changes into Transport Appraisal: An Application of Benefit Transfer

Abstract Numerous research studies have elicited willingness‐to‐pay values for transport‐related noise. However, in many industrialized countries including the UK, noise costs and benefits are still not incorporated into appraisals for most transport projects and policy changes. This paper describes the actions recently taken in the UK to address this issue, comprising: primary research based on the city of Birmingham; an international review of willingness‐to‐pay evidence; the development of values using benefit transfers over time and locations; and integration with appraisal methods. Amongst the main findings are: that the willingness‐to‐pay estimates derived for the UK are broadly comparable with those used in appraisal elsewhere in Europe; that there is a case for a lower threshold at 45 dB(A)Leq,18h rather than the more conventional 55 dB(A); and that values per dB(A) increase with the noise level above this threshold. There are significant issues over the valuation of rail versus road noise, the neglect of non‐residential noise and the valuation of high noise levels in different countries. Conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of noise valuation based on benefit transfers in the UK and elsewhere, and future research needs in this field are discussed.

AN ASSESSMENT OF ADVANCED TRANSPORT TELEMATICS EVALUATION PROCEDURES

This paper reviews and critically assesses procedures which have been adopted to evaluate Advanced Transport Telematics (ATT) projects. The importance of such a review at this juncture stems from the changing position of ATT in transport planning. ATT is no longer simply a field for experimentation, where technical feasibility and user acceptance are dominant concerns. Rather it is a potential mainstream contributor to the functioning of road transport systems. For this reason, ATT project appraisal needs to be developed to the same form, level of sophistication and consistency as the appraisal of conventional transport infrastructure investment. Based on the review set out here, we argue that appropriate methods have not yet been established which, in turn, poses a number of challenging questions, since current socio‐economic evaluation procedures are not directly suited to either measuring or evaluating many of the impacts which ATT schemes are implemented to achieve.

VALUATION OF AIRCRAFT NOISE BY TIME OF DAY: A COMPARISON OF TWO APPROACHES

Abstract The paper reports on an innovative application of stated preference techniques to derive values of aircraft noise by time of day and by day of week. Revealed preference techniques cannot provide such segmentations, which would clearly be of use in policy development, especially relating to airport operations. Given the lack of research on this issue, the work reported herein is highly experimental. Two stated preference experiments were designed. The first focused on a single time period, whilst the second asked respondents to trade between time periods. Both approaches yielded results that are plausible and mutually consistent in terms of relative values by time period. It is concluded that stated preference techniques are particularly useful in this context where the use of aggregated values may lead to non‐optimal policy decisions.

An Exploration of Household Response to Personal Travel Carbon-Reduction Targets

ABSTRACT Transport is currently responsible for around one-quarter of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions in the United Kingdom, and this proportion is projected to increase. The transport sector will undoubtedly need to play a significant role in achieving carbon reductions if the government is to meet its ambitious long-term goal of a 60% reduction by 2050. This article examines current carbon use by households for personal land-based transport and considers how feasible it would be to change that use over the period up to 2050 in the United Kingdom. It provides a unique insight into how much and in what way households and individuals may be willing to adapt their transport behavior to achieve carbon reductions. A computer-based transport carbon calculator was developed to investigate the CO2 emissions of individual households from various modes based on travel diary information. This formed the focus of a series of interactive interviews in which participants were asked to consider how their future low carbon transport strategy could look. Views of households on various abatement measures were explored, including technological change in vehicle design or fuel source and behavioral change through, for instance, traffic restraint and investment in public transport. Overall, a 40% reduction in carbon emissions was seen to be feasible through a combination of behavioral change measures and a realistically achievable degree of technological improvement, falling well short of the UK governments goal of a 60% reduction. Through changes in behavior alone, the households involved could only achieve around a 20% cut in carbon emissions —seemingly a threshold beyond which further reductions will be difficult and may necessitate significant lifestyle change.

Improving the Performance of a Topological Map-Matching Algorithm through Error Detection and Correction

Map-matching algorithms integrate data from positioning sensors with a digital map in order, first, to identify the road link on which a vehicle is traveling, and second, to determine the vehicles location on that link. Due to errors in positioning sensors, digital maps, and the map-matching (MM) process, MM algorithms sometimes fail to identify the correct road segment from the candidate segments. This phenomenon is known as mismatching. Identification of the wrong road link may mislead users and degrade the performance of a location-based intelligent transportation system (ITS) and services. The main objective of this article is to improve a topological map-matching (tMM) algorithm by error detection, correction, and performance re-evaluation. Errors in a tMM algorithm were determined using data comprising 62,887 positioning points collected in three different countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, and India). After map-matching, each mismatched case was examined to identify the primary causes of the mismatches. A number of strategies were developed and applied to reduce the risk of mismatching thus enhancing the tMM algorithm. An independent data set of 5,256 positioning points collected in and around Nottingham, UK, was employed to re-evaluate the performance of the enhanced tMM algorithm. The original tMM algorithm correctly identified the vehicles position 96.5% of the time; after enhancement this increased to 97.8%. This compares very well with the performance of tMM algorithms reported in the literature. The enhanced tMM algorithm developed in this research is simple, fast, efficient, and easy to implement. Since the accuracy offered by the enhanced algorithm is found to be high, the developed algorithm has potential to be implemented in real-time location-based ITS applications.

City-scale integrated assessment of climate impacts, adaptation and mitigation

Newcastle University: Jim Hall, Stuart Barr, Richard Dawson, Alistair Ford, Claire Walsh University of Manchester : Sebastian Carney Cambridge University: Terry Barker, Athanasios Dagoumas University of Easy Anglia: Colin Harpham University College London: Mike Batty, Steve Evans University of Leeds: Miles Tight, Helen Harwatt Loughborough University: Abigail Bristow, Alberto Zanni City-scale integrated assessment of climate impacts, adaptation and mitigation