Economics and Finance

Control for Societal-scale Challenges: Road Map 2030

Alleyne, Andrew
Allgöwer, Frank
Ames, Aaron D.
Bayen, Alexandre M.
2023

The world faces some of its greatest challenges of modern time and how we address them will have a dramatic impact on the life for generations to come. Simultaneously, control systems, consisting of information enriched by various degrees of analytics followed by decision-making, are pervading a variety of sectors, not only in engineering but beyond, into financial services, socio-economic analysis, entertainment and sports, and political and social sciences. Increased levels of automation are sought after in various sectors and being introduced into new domains. All of these advances and...

Random Projection Design for Scalable Implicit Smoothing of Randomly Observed Stochastic Processes

Belletti, Francois
Sparks, Evan
Bayen, Alexandre M.
Gonzalez, Joseph
2017

Sampling at random timestamps, long range dependencies, and scale hamper standard methods for multivariate time series analysis. In this paper we present a novel estimator for cross-covariance of randomly observed time series which unravels the dynamics of an unobserved stochastic process. We analyze the statistical properties of our estimator without needing the assumption that observation timestamps are independent from the process of interest and show that our solution is not hindered by the issues affecting standard estimators for cross-covariance. We implement and evaluate our...

An Equitable and Integrated Approach to Paying for Roads in a Time of Rapid Change

Bayen, Alexandre
Shaheen, Susan
Forscher, Edward H.
Lazarus, Jessica
2019

A brief overview of transportation user fees (historically and in a contemporary context) is presented followed by a discussion on how segmenting travel into three categories –long haul, the last mile, and at the curb–creates a new typology for transportation pricing and access mechanisms....

Advancing Road User Charge (RUC) Models in California: Understanding Social Equity and Travel Behavior Impacts

Lazarus, Jessica
Broader, Jacquelyn
Cohen, Adam
Bayen, Alexandre
Shaheen, Susan
2022

The State of California is currently moving forward with a road usage charge (RUC) demonstration program, creating promising research opportunities to examine the potential social equity implications of a shift from a gas tax to a RUC system in California. RUC . To this aim, this study investigates the relative burden of gas taxes and mileage-based RUC across various sociodemographic and geographic dimensions by examining key trends in road use, vehicle ownership, fuel consumption, use of RUC-related technologies, and attitudes/opinions related to RUC adoption. Expert interviews were...

Development of Bus Rapid Transit Performance Assessment Guide Tool

Miller, Mark
Golub, Aaron
2010

This report describes the development process of the Bus Rapid Transit Performance AssessmentGuidebook (BRT PAG) Tool, which provides a decision support means for tool users to understand at a high level the benefits and costs associated with implementing bus rapid transit systems. The BRTPAG Tool is based on a conceptual framework consisting of BRT system strategies; stakeholder groupings; impacts of individual BRT system strategies; measurement methods used to analyze the impacts that BRT system strategies have on different stakeholders; and quantitative estimates of benefits and costs...

Assessing the Benefits and Costs of ITS Projects: Volume 1 Methodology

Gillen, David
Li, Jianling
Dahlgren, Joy
Chang, Elva
1999

In this document a framework for evaluating ITS projects is developed. One of the central issues addressed is whether ITS projects are distinctly different from other more conventional transportation projects and thus the traditional decision methods such as Benefit-cost analysis cannot be used. The answer is mixed. The decision models used in the past are still relevant, however, these have been applied in an environment in which there was a well developed data base. The models identified, selected, assembled and evaluated data to make judgements as to whether the proposed projects were...

Assessing the Role of AVL in Demand Responsive Transportation Systems

Gillen, David
Raffaillac, Julie
2002

Many-to-many demand responsive transportation systems consist of vehicles which take passengers from their origins to their destinations within a service area. In dial-a-vehicle systems, in order to circumvent the undesirable feature of taxicab systems, vehicles are allowed to deviate from their direct route to serve other passengers and the emphasis is on building efficient tours to increase vehicle productivity. This strategy increases riding times but also increases average occupancy and productivity of the vehicles, and hence decreases average waiting times. A similar problem is faced...

The Market for Traffic Information-Study of Industry Structure and Prospects

Chan, Shirley
Malchow, Matthew
Kanafani, Adib
1999

The market for traffic information has grown considerably in the past 10 years. Traffic information is different from other goods because the cost to users is negligible and the product is indirectly priced. As a result of these unique characteristics, the classic economic model can not be applied to determine the price or the amount of information which would be produced and consumed under competitive equilibrium. Examination of the history of traffic information as a marketable good and the structure of the market indicate that traffic information providers are experiencing significant...

A Comparative Systems-level Analysis: Automated Freeways, Hov Lanes, Transit Expansion, Pricing Policies And Land Use Intensification

Johnston, Robert
1997

The focus of this project was to examine the potential travel, emissions, and consumer benefits of advanced freeway automation and travel demand management measures. The Sacramento Regional Travel Demand model (SACMET 95) was used to simulate the travel effects of travel demand management measures in the Sacramento region for a twenty year time horizon. The scenarios examined included various combinations of automated freeways, new High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, transit, land use intensification, and pricing policies.

A Futures Market for Demand Responsive Travel Pricing

Fournier, Nicholas, PhD
Patire, Anthony, PhD
Skabardonis, Alexander, PhD
2023

Dynamic toll pricing based on demand can increase transportation revenue while also incentivizing travelers to avoid peak traffic periods. However, given the unpredictable nature of traffic, travelers lack the information necessary to accurately predict congestion, so dynamic pricing has minimal effect on demand. Dynamic toll pricing also poses equity concerns for those who lack other travel options. This research explores a potential remedy to these concerns by using a simple “futures market” pricing mechanism in which travelers can lock in a toll price for expected trips by prepaying for...