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Scholarly Works (2 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2011)

Aided by economic development, India is undergoing rapid motorization. Growth of car ownership and use is attributed to rising per capita income and introduction of many car models are promoting the growth of ownership and use of cars. This growth portends a sea change in a country that relies mostly on non-motorized and public modes of transportation. It also signifies the transformation to a car based lifestyle in a country where motorized two-wheelers are the dominant personal motorized vehicle.

Such a transformation calls for various policy pertaining to auto-ownership that aim to i) reduce fuel emissions, ii) enable environmental protection, and iii) support infrastructure development. This research aims to support such policy development by providing information on the substitutions among various categories of motorized vehicles owned by households. To this end, a primary survey was conducted in Surat, a prosperous, industrial city in western India in 2009. The survey involved home interviews of 196 motorized vehicle owning households.

The research explains the effects of increased per capita income and of the decreasing sizes of households on the composition of motorized vehicle fleet. The analysis involves econometric modeling supplemented with qualitative observations based on interviews and interactions with the residents. The research focuses on the possible shift from motorized two-wheelers to cars, and the substitutions among different sizes of cars. It reveals that household income is the key determinant of the number and the sizes of cars that households own, and that household size is a much less significant factor; smaller vehicles are preferred even by larger households. Some of the possible reasons for this preference are the relative expense of larger vehicles, lax enforcement of regulations allowing many more passengers than mandated by the seating capacity, and the need for maneuverability for driving in congestion and for parking.

An integrated choice and latent variable model is used to study the effect of different attitudes on the type of vehicles purchased, such as new versus pre-owned motorized two-wheelers or different sizes of cars. The results reveal that underlying perceptions and cultural beliefs regarding the different modes of transportation, attitudes on saving or spending money and similar subjective factors are not significant in explaining the type choice behavior of the households surveyed. Instead, the measurable vehicle attributes, such as price and cost of fuel, and those of household characteristics, such as household size, are what explains purchase behavior of these households.

The contribution of this research is in analyzing the choice of car size categories in a developing country. In a single framework, it studies the substitutions among i) motorized two-wheelers and different sizes of cars, and ii) between new and used vehicles.

    Cover page: Automobility in India: A Study of Car Acquisition and Ownership Trends in the City of Surat
    • Article
    Research Reports (1989)
    This paper concerns the benefits from vehicle route guidance in urban networks. We suppose that vehicle routes can be altered by En-Route Vehicle Guidance (ERVG) in such a way as to achieve system optimal assignment. Benefits are measured by the savings in total travel time for a given demand when comparing this assignment with the user equilibrium, which is assumed to occur in the absence of route guidance. A continuum approach is used to analyze some idealized corridors in which a freeway is superimposed over a dense grid of surface streets. Two cases are considered: in the first, the freeway corridor is a distributor and is long compared to average trip length. In the second case the corridor is considered as a link to an end point such as a CBD. In the first case trips of length L are within the corridor and freeway flow along the corridor is constant. In the second, with all trips destined to the end point, the flow on the freeway accumulates as that point is approached. The main role of ERVG in both cases is to divert traffic from the freeway whenever its marginal cost exceeds that of the street system.It is found that travel time savings of the order of 3-4% can be achieved from routeguidance. Benefits are quite sensitive to city street speed. At low speed more users wouldchoose the freeway resulting in congestion, and the potential benefits of route guidanceare relatively high. But as street speed increases and approaches that of the freeway routeguidance would be of less value as more of the motorists would be choosing the citystreet on their own. Route guidance benefits can be enhanced if information is customizedto motorists on the basis of their origins and destinations. Finally, it is shown that routeguidance benefits are reduced when the freeway network is dense. It is recommended thatfuture research should focus on potential opportunities for using ERVG technology inmanaging networks under conditions of non-recurring congestion (accidents/incidents).This paper does not consider important aspects of the evaluation of route guidance, suchas the equity issue stemming from increasing some trip times in order to achieve systemoptimum, or the local impact of diverted traffic.
      Cover page: Some Theoretical Aspects Of The Benefits Of En-route Vehicle Guidance (ervg)
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