Papers Published as Chapters in Books
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2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 1999
2007
- Xie, Feng and David Levinson (2006) The Use of Road Infrastructure Data for Urban Transportation Planning: Issues and OpportunitiesIn order to maintain and improve road infrastructure in their respective jurisdictions, the state (the Minnesota DOT), region (the Metropolitan Council), and seven counties in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area develop their respective decision making (investment) processes in which federal or local funding are periodically allocated to road projects, prioritized according to their funding needs based on measured road infrastructure conditions such as pavement quality, level of service, and safety. Including such an investment process in urban transportation planning enables forecasting changes to road infrastructure in the future. Periodic road infrastructure reporting provides standards the jurisdictions maintain, as well as the measures they adopt for the management of road conditions. These measures, developed and maintained by engineers, however, are inconsistent with transportation planning models, causing difficulties in fully using infrastructure reports in planning practice. This paper addresses the issues we encountered with regard to the use of road infrastructure reports in planning practice and identifies the opportunity to improve the inter-operability and integration of infrastructure reporting with urban transportation planning.
Keywords: road conditions, infrastructure, urban transportation, urban planning Forthcoming in ASCE special publication on Infrastructure Reporting and Asset Management (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Systems Committee ). - Zhang, Lei and David Levinson (2007) The Economics of Transportation Network Growth A number of factors influence the efficiency, productivity, and welfare of a transportation network. Travel demand, user costs, and facility supply costs equilibrate on various time scales under a set of pricing (taxes and tolls), investment and ownership policies. Two types of equilibria exist in a transportation network, short-run traffic equilibrium and long-run supply-demand equilibrium. The phenomenon of traffic equilibrium is explored with a fixed transportation network where the capacity of links is given. Even though investment- and ownership-related policies are not of major concern for studies on traffic equilibrium, it is still a complex problem due to network congestion effects, variations of pricing rules, and multidimensionality of user choices. In order to understand the long-run supply-demand equilibrium in a transportation network, one has to consider all above-mentioned factors in a coherent analytical framework. We refer to this research problem as the transportation network growth problem, because the network evolves and link capacity is not fixed in the long run. Most previous studies have considered network pricing, investment, and ownership structures separately, which are reviewed. The paper considers choices of prices, capacity, and ownership simultaneously on small parallel, serial, and parallel-serial networks, and develops an analytical network model. We discuss properties of long-run network equilibria with different network layouts and ownership regimes, and the implications on network efficiency. in Essays on Transportation Economics. (ed. Pablo Coto Millán & Vicente Inglada) Springer. Contributions to Economics
- Levinson, David, Reinaldo C. Garcia, and Kathy Carlson (2007) A Framework for Assessing Public Private PartnershipsThis paper examines in detail Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), discussing their main objectives, implementations and challenges. The possible joint venture between the government and private companies when establishing a PPP is addressed, and an analytical approach to evaluate a PPP measure of success (M) is proposed. Applications of PPP are described, giving special attention to American and European experiences. It concludes by examining future extensions of the analytical Measure of Success of a PPP and what lies ahead for future PPP implementations.
Keywords: Public Private Partnership; Tagus River Bridge, Alameda Corridor; Dulles Gateway; European Experience in Institutions and Regulatory Reform in Transport (ed. Piet Rietveld and Roger Stough) Edward Elgar Publishers .
2006
- Levinson, David (2006) The Political Economy of Private Roads This paper first briefly reviews the history of private roads. Then the functional and economic classification of roadways is presented. Three different classes of roads (local, linking, and limited access) need to be treated in very different ways. The ideology of private roads is then presented. The political factors constraining this ideology from taking root are then presented. Distributional effects associated with privatization are described, and means for using the proceeds from the sale of roads to compensate losers are presented. Prospects for the future of private roads are discussed in the conclusions.Chapter 4 (pp. 79-96) in Street Smart : Competition, Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Roads (ed. Gabriel Roth), Transaction Publishers of Rutgers University
- Levinson, D. and Ewa Zofka (2006) The Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive: A Case Study in Archiving This paper summarizes research on standards for archiving travel survey data. It then describes some of the efforts at organizing data and developing metadata. The development of metadata standards used for documenting datasets using DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) for DTD (Document Type Definitions) is described. A case, applying these approaches to a US Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive is presented. The Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive, housed at the University of Minnesota, now contains over 60 surveys from almost 30 metropolitan areas. The paper concludes with some recommendations for archiving data. in Travel Survey Methods . Presented at 7th International Conference on Travel Survey Methods. Los Sueños, Costa Rica. August 1-6 2004.
2005
- Zou, Xi and David Levinson (2005) Financing and Deploying Automated Freight Systems New technologies are bringing Automated Freight Systems (AFS), which aim to reduce congestion, mitigate environmental impacts and enhance public safety, to fruition. The financing and deployment issues of AFS differ from other Intelligent Transport System applications. This chapter briefly introduces major concepts of AFS. The financing strategies for these concepts are discussed, in which the government subsidies play an important role through the use of public-private partnership. Economies of scale and externalities of the current and new systems are discussed. In the discussion of the deployment of AFS, it is suggested that deployment schemes are highly correlated with financing strategies. inThe Future of Automated Freight Transport: Concepts, Design and Implementation. (ed. Rob Konings, Peter Nijkamp, Hugo Peimus) Edward Elgar pp. 227-242.
- Levinson, David, Kevin Krizek and David Gillen(2005) Machine for Access, in Access to Destinations (ed. David Levinson and Kevin Krizek) Elsevier Publishers.
- Levinson, David and Wei Chen (2005) Paving New Ground This paper explores the inter-connectedness and co-evolution of transportation networks and land use through the application of a Markov Chain model. This model investigates how individual cells, with both land use and transportation network attributes, change over time. Cells with more transportation network available are more likely to develop, and cells that are developed are more likely to attract additional highway investment.
Keywords: Transportation Network Growth, Transportation-Land Use Interaction, Markov Chain , in Access to Destinations (ed. David Levinson and Kevin Krizek) Elsevier Publishers. [poster] - Levinson, David (2005) The Evolution of Transport NetworksBetween 1900 and 2000, the length of paved roads in the United States increased from 240 km to 6,400,000 km (Peat 2002, BTS 2002) with virtually 100% of the U.S. population having almost immediate access to paved roadways. Similarly, in 1830 there were 37 km of railroad in the United States, but by 1920 total track mileage had increased more than ten-thousand times to 416,000 km miles, however since then, rail track mileage has shrunk to about 272,000 km (Garrison 1996, BTS 2002). The growth (and decline) of transport networks obviously affects the social and economic activities that a region can support; yet the dynamics of how such growth occurs is one of the least understood areas in transport, geography, and regional science. This is revealed time and again in the long-range planning efforts of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), where transport network changes are treated exclusively as the result of top-down decision-making. Changes to the transport network are rather the result of numerous small decisions (and some large ones) by property owners, firms, developers, towns, cities, counties, state department of transport districts, MPOs, and states in response to market conditions and policy initiatives. Understanding how markets and policies translate into facilities on the ground is essential for scientific understanding and improving forecasting, planning, policy-making, and evaluation. , Chapter 11 (pp 175-188) in Handbook of Transport Strategy, Policy and Institutions Volume 6 (Handbooks in Transport), (ed. Kenneth Button and David Hensher) Elsevier, Oxford.
2004
- Gillen, David and David Levinson (2004) Assessing the Investment in ITS: An Introduction, (pp. 1-16) in Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (David Gillen and David Levinson (co-editors)) Kluwer Publishers.
- Levinson, David and Lei Zhang (2004) Evaluating Effectiveness of Ramp Meters: Evidence for the Twin Cities Ramp Meter Shut-offRamp meters in the Twin Cities have been the subject of a recent test of their effectiveness, involving turning them off for 8 weeks. This paper analyzes the results with and without ramp metering for several representative freeways during the afternoon peak period. Seven performance measures: mobility, equity, productivity, consumers' surplus, accessibility, travel time variation and travel demand responses are compared. It is found that ramp meters are particularly helpful for long trips relative to short trips.Ramp metering, while generally beneficial to freeway segments, may not improve trip travel times (including ramp delays). The reduction in travel time variation comprisesanother benefit from ramp meters. Non-work trips and work trips respond differently to ramp meters. The results are mixed, suggesting a more refined ramp control algorithm,which explicitly considers ramp delay, is in order.
Keywords: Ramp Meters, Evaluation, Equity, Mobility, Accessibility, Productivity,Consumers' Surplus, Travel Time Variation, Travel Demand (pp. 145-166) in Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (David Gillen and David Levinson (co-editors)) Kluwer Publishers. - Levinson, David, David Gillen and Pavithra Parthasarathi (2004) Freeway Service Patrols: A Stated Preference Analysis of Insurance Values Highway assistance services, also called the freeway service patrols (FSPs), are one of the main approaches used by incident management programs. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors that contribute to people choosing to rely on the highway assistance services (FSP) in comparison to private assistance services such as the Automobile Association of America (AAA). Further the effectiveness of the Freeway Service Patrol was studied by carrying out a Benefit-Cost Analysis using Los Angeles as a test case. The results indicate that the probability that an individual would choose to depend on the highway assistance services depends on the key attributes like the annual fee of the program, the fee at the time of assistance, the time of waiting for assistance and cost of breakdown. The B/ C ratio for the Los Angeles FSP was calculated to be 5.91, (pp. 199-216) in Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (David Gillen and David Levinson (co-editors)) Kluwer Publishers.
- Levinson, David and Wei Chen (2004) Traffic Management SystemsThis study uses regression analysis to evaluate long-run traffic management system performance. Three important traffic management systems in the Twin Cities metro area - Ramp Metering, Variable Message Signs (VMS), and Freeway Service Patrol (the Highway Helper Program) were evaluated with multiple regression models to predict link speed and incident rate. We find that ramp meters increase freeway link speed and reduce incident rate. Freeway Service Patrols increase link speed when incidents are present. The results for variable message signs are ambiguous.
Keywords: Traffic management system; Traffic system performance; Before-and-after study; Ramp Metering System; Variable Message Signs (VMS); Freeway Service Patrol; Highway Helper Program., (pp. 263-286) in Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (David Gillen and David Levinson (co-editors))Kluwer Publishers.
2003
- Levinson, David and Lei Zhang (2001) Travel Time Variability After A Shock: The Case Of The Twin Cities Ramp Meter Shut OffRamp meters in the Twin Cities were turned off for 8 weeks in the Fall of 2000. This paper analyzes travel time variability with and without ramp metering for several representative freeways during the afternoon peak period. Travel time variability is generally reduced with metering. However, it is found that ramp meters are particularly helpful for long trips relative to short trips. The benefits from reducing travel time variability with meters are on the order of 37% of the benefits from reducing average travel time.
Keywords: Freeway Operations, Ramp Meters, Travel Time Variability, The Network Reliability of Transport (2003) Pergamon (editors Yasunori Iida and Michael Bell) (Presented at First International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability, Kyoto, Japan July 30- August 1 2001). [presentation]
1999
- Levinson, David (1997) Road Pricing in PracticeThe history of turnpikes from their first deployment in the 17th century through their decline in the 19th century, and some restoration in the 20th century is analyzed with a view to understanding the systematic causes of these changes. Key factors posited to explain both the rise and decline include the length of trips using the roads, the size of the governing jurisdiction, the degree of excludability, and the transactions costs of collection - which dictate the size and scope of the free rider problem associated with financing. This paper concludes with some discussion of what is required for turnpikes to become the preferred financing mechanism for highways.. Chapter 2: Road Pricing, Traffic Congestion and the Environment, (1999) (ed. Ken Button, Erik Verhoef). Edward Elgar Publishers.