Investigating travel choice behaviour: a new approach. Since large monetary investments are involved in infrastructure decisions, it is of utmost importance that impacts of transport policies can be accurately predicted. The recent failures to forecast usage and revenues of toll tunnels in Australia illustrate this well. This project aims to contribute by producing improved practical behavioural models to predict responses to such transport policies to assist in better decision making. Further, ....Investigating travel choice behaviour: a new approach. Since large monetary investments are involved in infrastructure decisions, it is of utmost importance that impacts of transport policies can be accurately predicted. The recent failures to forecast usage and revenues of toll tunnels in Australia illustrate this well. This project aims to contribute by producing improved practical behavioural models to predict responses to such transport policies to assist in better decision making. Further, the project is expected to make several methodological contributions by for the first time merging methods from stated choice surveys, experimental economics, and naturalistic driving simulators in order to better investigate travel choice behaviour in realistic environments.Read moreRead less
Valuation of service reliability and crowding under risk and uncertainty: neglected drivers of demand for public transport. The reliability of public transport services, and the amount of crowding at stations and also on trains and on buses, have come under strong criticism. This study identifies the role that improved service reliability and reduced crowding play in influencing the switch from car to public transport for the commute.
Adaptive Stochastic Dynamic Traffic Assignment. This project aims to address some of the limitations of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver adaptivity and information-provision. Previous advances facilitate the proposed methods to introduce; new network routing algorithms that account for numerous increasingly important problem characteristics such as driver route-choice response to real-time information and uncertainty; ....Adaptive Stochastic Dynamic Traffic Assignment. This project aims to address some of the limitations of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver adaptivity and information-provision. Previous advances facilitate the proposed methods to introduce; new network routing algorithms that account for numerous increasingly important problem characteristics such as driver route-choice response to real-time information and uncertainty; new formulations for the stochastic dynamic traffic assignment problem which employ the novel routing algorithms as sub-problems; and new methods for relevant bi-level optimisation transport applications such as network design and incident management.Read moreRead less
Integrating Attribute Decision Heuristics into Travel Choice Models that accommodate Risk Attitude and Perceptual Conditioning. This proposal has the specific objective of integrating two disconnected literatures that are having a major influence on the behavioural and statistical performance of discrete choice models in travel choice modelling. These fields are attribute processing strategies and the conditioning of the marginal utility of attributes by risk attitude and perceptual conditioning ....Integrating Attribute Decision Heuristics into Travel Choice Models that accommodate Risk Attitude and Perceptual Conditioning. This proposal has the specific objective of integrating two disconnected literatures that are having a major influence on the behavioural and statistical performance of discrete choice models in travel choice modelling. These fields are attribute processing strategies and the conditioning of the marginal utility of attributes by risk attitude and perceptual conditioning. These two major developments have not been jointly integrated into a behaviourally richer representation of choice making. Given the encouraging evidence from both literatures, the research will determine more precisely the benefits in terms of improved estimates of willingness to pay for specific attributes and also increased predictive power. Read moreRead less
Business location decisions. This project aims to develop a forecasting model system for economic planning that integrates business (re-) location and co-location choices. Improved transport infrastructure connects places and can influence the location of businesses. This project will use forecasting models to quantify the drivers of firm location decisions linked to an integrated strategic transport and land use modelling system. This project expects to provide guidance for transport investment ....Business location decisions. This project aims to develop a forecasting model system for economic planning that integrates business (re-) location and co-location choices. Improved transport infrastructure connects places and can influence the location of businesses. This project will use forecasting models to quantify the drivers of firm location decisions linked to an integrated strategic transport and land use modelling system. This project expects to provide guidance for transport investment that brings gains in productivity to industry and the economy and wellbeing to individuals and society.Read moreRead less
Assessment of the commuter's willingness to pay a congestion charge under alternative pricing regimes and revenue disbursement plans. The call to replace fixed charges with car use related charges, has placed congestion charging regimes at the centre of future variable user charging policy. This project investigates the impact and acceptability of alternative charging schemes in terms of the charge level, the regime (for example, distance versus cordon), and how revenue is disbursed.
Modelling the Environmental Impacts of Commercial Vehicle Tours and Freight Management Policies in Urban Areas. Commercial vehicle flows have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of millions of pedestrians and urban dwellers. Commercial vehicles' environmental costs per kilometre are about four times higher the corresponding environmental costs of a private car. However, the amount and level of these impacts are highly dependent on the population density and its proximity to freight flo ....Modelling the Environmental Impacts of Commercial Vehicle Tours and Freight Management Policies in Urban Areas. Commercial vehicle flows have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of millions of pedestrians and urban dwellers. Commercial vehicles' environmental costs per kilometre are about four times higher the corresponding environmental costs of a private car. However, the amount and level of these impacts are highly dependent on the population density and its proximity to freight flows. Existing methods to assess environmental impacts such as air quality or noise tend to focus on the production source of the pollutant not the impacts, without providing the necessary framework and methodology to evaluate freight management policies in urban areas.Read moreRead less
Does retail petrol price respond asymmetrically to changes in its cost? A modelling framework. This project will offer a model for assessing the abnormal-price setting for various goods and services, leading to greater transparency of the market. The modelling framework proposed in this project will assist in resolving a significant policy issue, which is now the subject of considerable public debate and not thoroughly examined to date.
Integrating Accident and Travel Delay Externalities in an Urban Speed Reduction Context. The recognition that accident externalities are not independent of travel delays, and hence travel time savings and losses will promote a serious policy rethink about strategies designed to reduce the risk of exposure to accidents. The evidence is designed to identify that additional externality that has to be factored into the accident costs to recognise the other sources of externality typically ignored in ....Integrating Accident and Travel Delay Externalities in an Urban Speed Reduction Context. The recognition that accident externalities are not independent of travel delays, and hence travel time savings and losses will promote a serious policy rethink about strategies designed to reduce the risk of exposure to accidents. The evidence is designed to identify that additional externality that has to be factored into the accident costs to recognise the other sources of externality typically ignored in accident costing and speed restriction studies. The implication on the development of a national program of road safety is likely to be profound. Read moreRead less
Freight Transport and the Environment. Freight transport is a major contributor to traffic congestion and environmental blight in urban areas and adds sizeable costs to final consumption and the terms of trade, yet we currently lack any policy-rich predictive demand models. This program fills this gap. Using ideas from supply chain alliance, stated choice methods and behavioural models we develop a research program to understand and predict the environmental and traffic impacts of the freight di ....Freight Transport and the Environment. Freight transport is a major contributor to traffic congestion and environmental blight in urban areas and adds sizeable costs to final consumption and the terms of trade, yet we currently lack any policy-rich predictive demand models. This program fills this gap. Using ideas from supply chain alliance, stated choice methods and behavioural models we develop a research program to understand and predict the environmental and traffic impacts of the freight distribution task for key commodity classes in respect of origin, destination, trip timing, routing, selection of vehicle type and the way that consolidation is undertaken in freight distribution.Read moreRead less