Tag Archives: transport economics

Book Review: The Full Costs and Benefits of Transportation

Revised on: 2011-06-13

This book, The Full Costs and Benefits of Transportation: Contributions to Theory, Method and Measurement, edited by David L. Greene, Donald W. Jones, and Mark A. Delucchi is a welcome addition to the field of cost-benefit analysis in transportation, albeit first published more than 10 years ago. It contains individual contributions from 20 or so respected academics, each describing a separate field of study. I have seldom seen a fuller and more holistic approach to cost and benefits in transportation research. But is it really worth buying? I borrowed it from my library and I’m not so sure I would recommend you to put it in your shopping cart. It IS a good book, that is for sure, but at what cost?

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Transportation reliability and vulnerability

Revised on: 2015-09-04

This is a philosophical essay on transportation vulnerability, where three fields or subjects are brought together : engineering (reliability and vulnerability), economics (cost and benefits) and politics (decision making). The idea behind the research is to blend statistical, economical and political arguments in order to achieve a novel and unifying framework for decision making within transportation planning. By adding reliability and vulnerability to the traditional equations of costs and benefits it is hoped that transportation planners and professionals will not only consider economical arguments, but also dare to take on political statements that may be in opposition to strictly factual costs and benefits.

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Er rassikring lønnsomt?

Revised on: 2011-05-27

Rassikring av veger har en klar samfunnsøkonomisk nytteverdi, men hvor stor er den? De største gevinstene er knyttet til å unngå omkjøring, skape trygghet og redusere antall ulykker. Hvordan måler man dette i kroner? Spørsmålet er viktig og angår mange lokalsamfunn i dette fylket. Analyser viser at selve omkjøringskostnadene kan variere fra drøyt 200 kr/time og opp til 80.000 kr/time, avhengig av sted, trafikkmengde, trafikksammensetning og omkjøringsmuligheter.

(ved Svein Bråthen, Jan Husdal og Jens Rekdal, Høgskolen i Molde og Møreforsking Molde)

Denne kronikken stod på trykk i Romsdals Budstikke 24.11.2008 og det er gjort mindre justeringer i teksten for å tilpasse den til denne bloggen.

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Saving Norway’s crumbling infrastructure

Revised on: 2015-10-05

Following up my post this morning called “D-Day for Norway’s Transport Infrastructure“, the numbers are out now: The government intends to spend some 320,000,000 NOK ($45,000,000,000) on transport infrastructure over the next 10 years. Will it be enough? This reminds me of a post I had earlier, called “America’s crumbling infrastructure“, where the Minneapolis bridge collapse was a timely wake-up call for America to invest in its infrastructure. Will Norway be able to save its crumbling infrastructure without such a disaster?

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D-Day for Norway’s Transport Infrastructure

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Today, on this ominous date, Friday the 13th, Norway’s government is presenting it’s development plans for the Norwegian transport infrastructure for 2010 to 2019 (Nasjonal Transportplan 2010-2019). Not that it will make much difference, because the way we do things here, instead of the national or regional government deciding where and what to build or not to build, Norway’s planning and decision process involves even the local governments, who essentially can veto (or at best significantly alter) any plans made the government or other higher authorities. Some call it madness , and I am inclined to agree.

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The curse of being oil-rich

Revised on: 2011-03-16

Ah…the complacency of being oil rich. So complacent, in fact, that we forget about our infrastructure. That’s the picture painted by the Norwegian newspaper aftenposten.no this morning, in their seemingly never-ending series of articles about the increasingly delapidated Norwegian road network. The reason for why things are the way they are: The literally well-oiled economy.

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Infrastructure – essential for competitiveness?

Revised on: 2015-09-26

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed my regular rants about the state of the Norwegian infrastructure, and roads in particular. Now, aftenposten.no reports that there is some support from the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum. In overall infrastructure quality, Norway ranks 28/134, behind many other European countries, which is not too bad, but when it comes to road quality, Norway ranks 48/134, even behind countries such as Namibia (23/134), Tunisia (39/134) and Botswana (44/134). This is not good news.

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How to count money spent on road investments

Revised on: 2011-03-22

Following up yesterday’s post on why one of the world’s richest countries has one of the world’s worst road networks, today’s newspapers offer an interesting perspective: According to numbers prepared by Norway Statistics, Norway spent less money on road investments in 2007 than in 1995, that is, if you count in % of GDP. Is that a correct way of looking at it?

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The worst roads in the world’s richest country

Revised on: 2015-09-14

It is a perpetual topic with the Norwegian public, particularly in election years, like this year: We want better roads. And indeed, it is puzzling that a country ranked as one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, a country whose economy is strong, a country ranked by the UN and OECD as one of the best countries to live in, has such a poor road standard, compared to many other European countries. How come?

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Economists versus Technocrats – who wins?

Revised on: 2015-09-10

In the current financial downturn, much pressure has been on the government (here in Norway, and I bet elsewhere too) to initiate public works projects or other public investment projects in order to create or save jobs, and last month the Norwegian government indeed presented a plan aimed at securing employment by increasing renovation and maintenance of public buildings, and by investing in railways, roads and harbors nationwide. But, are all projects worthwhile?

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Norwegian roads are slooooow…

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Revised on: 2011-03-22

In a previous post, a while I ago, I stated that Nowegian roads are dangerous…well, not only that, they are among the slowest in Europe, according to a newspaper article in Dagbladet. Comparing average speed on roads in 13 countries, it turns out that travelling in central Europe is several times much faster than in Norway.

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International Transport Economics Conference 2009

Revised on: 2015-11-17

If you haven’t already done so, make sure to bookmark this conference in your calendar. The International Transport Economics Conference (ITrEC) 2009 will be held during June 15-16, 2009, at the University of Minnesota. ITrEC brings together researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers interested in all questions of transport economics. Topics include economic questions relating to revenue and finance; congestion, pricing, and investment; production and cost estimation; transport demand; energy and environment; safety; institutions and industrial organization; and transport and land use. The conference is designed to appeal to participants from varied backgrounds, including economists and transport professionals in particular.

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Economies of scale

Revised on: 2011-03-22

In an article in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet today, some of Norways’s major construction businesses, Skanska, Veidekke and Mesta, lament the fact that infrastructure investments in Norway come in small pieces only, and not as large-scale projects, which could have given a bigger bang for the buck, or more kilometers for the kroner, to rephrase it into Norwegian terms.

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Cutting back on road spending may not be wise

Revised on: 2011-08-03

In an article today, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet revealed that Statens Vegvesen (or the Norwegian Public Road Administration in English), which oversees the planning, construction and operation of the national and county road networks, is going to make major cuts to their budget, thus halting or severely delaying major infrastructure projects.

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Impact assessment of road transportation projects

Revised on: 2015-09-09

The idea of an impact assessment, often also referred to as cost-benefit analysis, is to assess all impacts of a certain project, positive or negative, monetized and non-monetized. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has the responsibility for building and maintaining all regional public roads in Norway, and has developed a method for impact assessment that is outlined in Impact Assessment in Norway.

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Book review: Transport – Economics and Management

Revised on: 2015-09-09

Kept at an executive level, Transport: An Economics and Management Perspective by David A. Hensher and Ann M. Brewer delves just deep enough for you to grasp the various concepts of transport planning, where costs occur and how to maximise benefits in both the public and the private transport sector. You will enjoy this book even more if you have some macro-economical background, nevertheless it never goes into complex formulas or calculations. Continue reading →

Pålitelighet og sårbarhet – et ikke-tema i nyttekostnadsanalyser?

Revised on: 2015-09-09

Pålitelighet og sårbarhet er to forhold av betydning for transportbrukere som i dag ikke tas hensyn til i vurdering av samferdselsprosjekter. Få vil være i tvil om at både avsender, mottaker, transportør og samfunnet generelt påføres til dels betydelige tilleggskostnader når varer eller personer ikke kommer frem dit de skal når de skal. At et pålitelig vegnett representerer en nytteverdi er derfor innlysende. Hvorfor er slike vurderinger ikke med når vegprosjekter blir vurdert?

Dette er den norske originalversjonen av Why reliability and vulnerability should be an issue in road development projects. Denne artikkelen stod på trykk i Samferdsel, nr. 3/2004 (pdf).

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