This paper aims at equity implications of transportation policies by using a range of equity measures in two case studies. Different measures of inequality embrace different normative judgments. Early studies have warned about placing too much trust in a single measure. One approach is to address equity considerations by assuming an explicit form of social welfare function and the choice of a desired inequality aversion parameter. A second approach is to apply an inequality measure to a given pair of distributions of a variable (e.g., income and accessibility) that changes as the result of a policy. The latter approach is adopted in this paper. A partial equilibrium model of transportation is used for the calculation of the changes in income, accessibility, and the net benefit for different social groups. This paper demonstrates the challenges that arise in addressing equity with a partial equilibrium model of transportation. An overview of some equity measures and their properties is provided first. The performances of these equity measures are evaluated for alternative road pricing schemes for Oslo, Norway. The paper illustrates that relating the equity objective to a predefined value of any of these measures is not desirable. It is difficult to make a judgment about the equity implication of a policy on the basis of a single measure and without a thorough examination of several measures. The paper also shows that the sizes of the equity measures are quite sensitive to the level of spatial disaggregation.
Introduction This paper is concerned with incentives for the take-up and use of e-vehicles that are in place in different European countries. Especially, it analyses Norway and Austria, in order to establish and understand factors influencing the competitiveness of e-vehicles and potential market penetration. Norway currently enjoys the world's largest take-up of electric cars per capita, achieved through an extensive package of incentives. Austria has used the concept of Model Regions with government support to stimulate market introduction. So far, this has been a less effective approach. Methods The paper brings in and combine analyses of national travel survey data and web surveys to e-vehicle owners and non-e-vehicle owners. It considers socio-economic factors including convenience and time savings due to e-vehicle policies. Results Analysing national travel surveys, we find a considerable potential for e-vehicles based on people's everyday travel. Social networks play a crucial role in spreading knowledge about this relatively new technology. The take-up of battery electric vehicles correlates relatively closely with the user value of e-vehicle incentives. The fiscal effects of evehicle incentives are non-trivial -especially in the longer run. The cost of lifting a new technology into the market by means of government incentives is significant. We point to the importance of a strategy for the gradual phasing out of evehicle policies in countries with large incentives when the cost of vehicles goes down and the technology improves. Conclusions Successful market uptake and expansion of electric vehicles requires massive, expensive and combined policies. Central government backing, long term commitment and market-oriented incentives help reduce the perceived risk for market players like car importers and allow the e-vehicle market to thrive. For countries with low e-vehicle market shares the potential is promising. Battery electric vehicles are already a real option for the majority of peoples' everyday trips and trip chains. However, their relative disadvantages must be compensated by means of incentives -at least in the initial market launch phase. Diffusion mechanisms play a sizeable role. The lack of knowledge in the population at large must be addressed.
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