Daniel Albalate , Albert Gragera (p)

See extended abstract

Daniel Jonsson (p), Josef Andersson, Marcus Adolphsson, Oskar Fröidh

This paper analyses the accessibility effects of alternative locations for train stations in the Stockholm and Lake Mälaren region in Sweden. The study has investigated new or renovated stations where there was discussion whether to locate the station in a central location or a location on the periphery. The main finding of this paper is that train stations have a local effect on accessibility, but that the effect is limited on a regional scale. The results are obtained from a transport model simulating the travel behaviour for 3.5 million individual agents for a base case, and for counterfactual scenarios where station locations were switched from central to peripheral and vice versa. The simulation approach lets us analyse not only average effects, but also distributional impacts such as differences in accessibility depending on car ownership and other socio-economic factors. We describe the modelling framework briefly, and the main impacts alternative train station locations have on the transport system. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential long term effects of accessibility changes on the land use locally and regionally, where the findings from the modelled scenarios are supplemented by the findings from detailed studies of plans and outcomes of the stations that were actually built.

Jan Kluge (p), Ulrike Illmann

This study aims at estimating the extent to which an increasing availability of public charging infrastructure promotes consumers’ decisions to switch from conventional cars to electric vehicles. We make use of a German data set including monthly registrations of new cars at the zip code level between 2009 until recently and match it with the official registry of public charging stations. This allows us to keep track of the whole diffusion process starting with the very first electric cars in Germany. We then deploy dynamic panel approaches as well as hazard models in order to identify the infrastructure effect on the number of new registrations of electric cars in a region. We control for a wide range of socio-demographic and locational characteristics and also consider peer effects as there might be considerable regional clustering with regard to technology diffusion.
One possible outcome might be that consumers are more likely to chose an electric car the longer they are exposed to the emergence of more and more electric cars in their respective neighborhood. The availability of public charging infrastructure might be less important as most cars are charged at home over night. Another result might be, however, that especially early consumers seek the safety of a reliable charging infrastructure, while later followers are not motivated by even more charging stations but mainly by the peer effect. Hence, we expect the results to be non-linear and to change severely over time.
The implications of this study will be crucial to policy makers in Europe as the promotion of electromobility ranks high on the agendas and as the comprehensive roll-out of public charging infrastructure will cost billions of Euros. It, therefore, seems worthwhile to investigate whether charging infrastructure indeed increases the diffusion of electromobility or whether raising awareness or time alone might eventually make electric cars the preferred choice for consumers.

Artem Korzhenevych (p), Manisha Jain

Rapid urbanization and the increase in individual motorization in developing countries such as India may lead to the dominance of unsustainable commuting patterns. However, improved accessibility also has important positive effects, including the empowerment of women. This paper examines newly released spatially disaggregated data on home-to-work commuting for the National Capital Region of India. It aims to understand and compare commuting patterns in urban and rural areas, including mode choice, trip lengths, and gender differentials.
The results reveal a tendency of urban residents to use individual motorized transport more often both for short and for long trips, although the proportion of individual motorization is far from what it is in developed countries. The rural areas are characterized by dominance of non-motorized modes and a large share of long trips. The mobility gap between men and women does not appear to increase with income. In the urban areas, women often choose to commute by car and decide against the green modes of transportation (especially in higher-income districts). The paper stresses the importance of area and gender differentials (in particular in the use of non-motorized modes) that have to be taken into account when formulating regional transport policies.