IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/2036.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Vehicles, roads, and road use - alternative empirical specifications

Author

Listed:
  • Ingram, Gregory K.
  • Zhi Liu

Abstract

The authors extend their earlier empirical work by exploring alternative specifications for the relationship between vehicle ownership, road length, and the ratio of vehicles to road length, on the one hand, and income, population, pollution density, and other variables on the other. For the constancy or variability of cross-section income elasticities for each of these variables, they find that: a) the income elasticity of vehicle ownership decreases slightly with income at the national level but is constant at the urban level; b) the income elasticity of road length is constant at the national level but increases with income at the urban level; and c) the income elasticity of the vehicle to road ration decreases with income at both the national and urban level and, at high income levels, becomes negative for urban roads and for national paved roads. Comparisons of income elasticities from cross-section and time series data indicated that they are generally similar for vehicles, road length, and the vehicle to road ration at the national level. But at the urban level the time series income elasticity of road length (0.1) is much smaller than the cross-section elasticity (0.7), and the time series income elasticity of the vehicle to road ration (0.9) is much larger than the cross-section elasticities (0.1 for low income cities and -0.5 or high income cities). This means that the vehicle to road ratio (a proxy for congestion) is increasing over time in cities, almost in step with per capita income - a trend with dire consequences for urban transport. Although the urban results are somewhat alarming, the national results indicate that the vehicle to road ration nationally (especially on paved roads) is relatively low and not rising rapidly. It also shows remarkable stability across country income levels. This contrast between the national and urban results reinforces the view that urban decentralization is likely to remain the major mode of adjustment to urban congestion.

Suggested Citation

  • Ingram, Gregory K. & Zhi Liu, 1998. "Vehicles, roads, and road use - alternative empirical specifications," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2036, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2000/02/24/000094946_99031911112857/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ingram, Gregory K. & Zhi Liu, 1997. "Motorization and the provision of roads in countries and cities," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1842, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Saiz, Albert, 2006. "Dictatorships and highways," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 187-206, March.
    2. Georges Darido & Mariana Torres-Montoya & Shomik Mehndiratta, 2014. "Urban transport and CO 2 emissions: some evidence from Chinese cities," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 122-155, March.
    3. Cameron, I. & Lyons, T. J. & Kenworthy, J. R., 2004. "Trends in vehicle kilometres of travel in world cities, 1960-1990: underlying drivers and policy responses," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 287-298, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kutzbach, Mark J., 2009. "Motorization in developing countries: Causes, consequences, and effectiveness of policy options," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 154-166, March.
    2. Jorge, Diaz, 2012. "Public Transportation Challenges in America: What can we Learn from Mid-Size Cities in Latin America?," 53rd Annual Transportation Research Forum, Tampa, Florida, March 15-17, 2012 207074, Transportation Research Forum.
    3. Yang, Zhenshan & Jia, Peng & Liu, Weidong & Yin, Hongchun, 2017. "Car ownership and urban development in Chinese cities: A panel data analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 127-134.
    4. Salon, Deborah, 2009. "Neighborhoods, cars, and commuting in New York City: A discrete choice approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 180-196, February.
    5. Shaheen, Susan & Kemmerer, Charlene, 2008. "Smart Parking Linked to Transit: Lessons Learned from the Field Test in San Francisco Bay Area of California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt2bd6m65k, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    6. Marc Gaudry & Bernard Lapeyre & Emile Quinet, 2015. "Infrastructure maintenance, regeneration and service quality economics: A rail example," PSE Working Papers halshs-00559637, HAL.
    7. Rui Wang & Quan Yuan, 2017. "Are denser cities greener? Evidence from China, 2000–2010," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(3), pages 179-189, August.
    8. Salon, Deborah, 2008. "Neighborhoods, Cars, and Commuting in New York City: A Discrete Choice Approach," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt1673h3w3, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    9. Acosta Rojas, Gina E. & Calfat, Germán & Flôres Junior, Renato Galvão, 2005. "Trade and infrastructure: evidences from the Andean Community," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 580, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    10. Salon, Deborah, 2006. "Cars and the City: An Investigation of Transportation and Residential Location Choices in New York City," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt1br223vz, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Kempe Ronald Hope & Mogopodi Lekorwe, 1999. "Urbanization and the Environment in Southern Africa: Towards a Managed Framework for the Sustainability of Cities," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 837-859.
    12. Ingram, Gregory K. & Zhi Liu, 1999. "Determinants of motorization and road provision," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2042, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2036. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.