Volker Nitsch (p)

Marquis K.F. Yip

The internet is widely believed to make cross-border business easier, thereby increasing the volume of international trade. This paper aims to provide evidence in support of this stylized fact which is typically difficult to identify empirically. Specifically, I use the country-wide internet blackout in Tonga in January 2019 as a natural experiment to examine the effect of the internet on trade. Analyzing monthly trade data for Tonga over the period from 2014 to 2019, I find an economically and statistically sizable, temporary decline in trade when the country’s internet connectivity was lost. Consequently, the damage of sudden disruptions in the existing technological infrastructure in terms of foregone trade may be indeed sizable.

Viktoria Kleinschmidt (p), Felix Roesel, Stefanie Gaebler

Vania Licio

What role did tram networks play in the development of German towns and cities regarding modal shift? Following the guiding principle of the car-friendly city, tram lines in a large proportion of West German cities were shut down and partly replaced by trolleybuses as well as omnibuses, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, in contrast, some cities are considering reactivating their disused tram lines for sustainability reasons. Our study is based on extensive data from the statistical yearbooks of German municipalities from 1950 to 1990. We analyze the causal effects of the dismantling and decommissioning of tram networks on individual transport and other means of public transportation. Using a difference-in-differences and event study approach, we examine whether and to what extent cities with and without decommissioned tram networks developed differently in terms of vehicle density and population. We also use two-way fixed effects regression models to estimate the effect of tram line length on vehicle density.
Preliminary results suggest that cities with large public transport networks tend to have lower vehicle densities. This effect is even more pronounced when the transport modes of rail-based and electrically powered public transport are considered separately.
Our research adds valuable insights to the ongoing public debate on sustainable urban transport use and modal shift.

Marquis K.F. Yip (p), Samira Ramezani, Louise Meijering, Taede Tillema, Jos Arts

Viktoria Kleinschmidt

Though its original vision was to create equitable and sustainable communities, Transit-oriented development (‘TOD’) has received increasing scholarly attention on its social equity and justice implications, from worsening housing affordability and gentrification, to unequal accessibility. However, the bulk of existing justice-related TOD research focuses on outcomes and results, but less on equity in the planning processes.

In view of this, the paper aims to adopt an analytical framework developed by the authors to conduct an analysis of process justice in the case of Kai Tak TOD in Hong Kong (‘HK’). The focus on process justice is because it is less addressed in existing empirical literature, while the framework adopted highlights the importance of the process and how it affects the outcome.

The framework adopts the Institution Assessment and Development (‘IAD’) model to analyse the TOD’s process justice. The core element is the ‘Rules-in-use’, which are implicit rules that guide the interaction and dynamics between the participants in the planning process. They cover aspects from participation and role of those involved, to decision-making and information flow.

To collect data, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders involved in its planning, including government departments, parliament members, consultants, property developers, the metro operator (‘MTR’) and various organisations. Guided by the IAD model, the interview asked about TOD in HK in general, Kai Tak’s planning process, and its built environment. The interview transcripts are coded for thematic analysis, identifying recurrent topics and patterns, and connected to process justice to formulate our findings.

Currently, data analysis is ongoing, though we have formulated some key issues on macro (TOD as a whole in HK) and micro (more specific on Kai Tak) levels. On the macro level, the first issue is that TOD in HK is implemented under a single mode, MTR’s ‘Railway+Property’, which transforms societal benefits of TOD into financial returns of MTR and developers. Secondly, aggressive housing development targets have led to TOD prioritising ‘development’ over ‘transit’. Thirdly, a lack of overarching strategy to guide the planning process have negatively affected stakeholders’ participation. On the micro level, government actors dominated the whole planning process of Kai Tak, from setting boundaries, making decisions, to ruling on conflicting wants and controlling information. Secondly, the visions and targets of many stakeholders were fragmented with little reconciliation in the planning process. Thirdly, stakeholder participation and collective decision-making mechanisms, though existent, were limited in their effectiveness.

Vania Licio (p), Anna Maria Pinna

Volker Nitsch

This paper analyzes the role of the historical Roman transport network on modern travel times in Italy. Roman roads were constructed by the Romans with a clear design, strong engineering, and the ability to overcome geographical barriers. After 2,000 years, the modern transport infrastructure still relies on them. The Roman Empire's influence extended across the entire Italian territory, with its core located in Italy. As a result, all regions in Italy are intersected by the historical Roman road network. Italy is also unique for another reason: the majority of trade takes place overland. Three fourths of intra-EU trade depends on road freight transport, within Italy it is 87 percent. Time is a crucial aspect that reflects the efficiency of a transport infrastructure and the accessibility of a region. By exploiting the information at two different territorial levels, the paper explores whether modern roads and railways constructed following the path of the old Roman road network affect the reduction of travel times - geographical features and distance being equal. On the one hand, the Italian territory is decomposed into small grid cells to examine the role of Roman roads, modern roads, and travel times inside artificial areas of 1 km x 1 km in size and to explore the variability within territorial units with different geographies, urban developments, and infrastructural endowments. On the other hand, NUTS4 municipalities are selected to account for the between connectivity: shortest paths in terms of Roman roads and modern transport infrastructure between pairs of Italian administrative centers are used to investigate how much current paths conform to old ones. The results of this paper indicate that territories crossed or linked to other areas by modern transport infrastructure following the path of the old Roman roads have lower travel times today compared to territories where the modern infrastructure disregards the historical routes.