Search

The value of travel time savings (VTTS), is one of the key variables which are taken into account when several alternatives leading to different travel times are considered. In the case of households, VTTS is related to the monetary value that is attached to the possibility to save a determined amount of travel time that can be reallocated to other activities. In the case of public administrations, VTTS is one of the most important benefit categories aimed at justifying the investments in transport infrastructures that can allow people to save travel time. The relevance of VTTS has availed various economic studies displaying an analytical as well as an empirical framework both in the European Union and in North-American countries. The present paper aims at providing a meta-analysis of a selection of the studies related to the VTTS in passengers’ transport. It will introduce a brief history of meta-analysis (from its first applications in medical science and psychology to its recent use in spatial economics) and of the microeconomic models used in VTTS estimations. It will also identify the factors that are statistically relevant with respect to the VTTS and it will provide a meta-analytical estimation of the selected studies, with a particular emphasis on the similarities and on the differences among European and North-American studies.

The value of travel time savings (VTTS) has been investigated by transport economists since the mid‐1960s. Although the first two decades of research were mainly devoted to VTTS in passenger transport, since the mid‐1980s several studies have analysed the VTTS in freight transport from both a theoretical and an empirical viewpoint. The first part of the paper is devoted to a review of the proposed theoretical models for the value of freight travel time savings (VFTTS), and it discusses the issues arising from the use of different methods to collect empirical VFTTS estimates. The second part is based on a meta‐analysis of a sample of empirical VFTTS observations related to several European and North American countries. It is shown that both the per‐capita gross domestic product and the transport mode are statistically significant variables that can partially explain the variability in VFTTS estimates.

The concept of maritime security has changed dramatically over the years. For centuries it was limited to the ability of a state to project naval power to protect its interests, usually during times of inter-state conflict with occasional forays against pirates and smugglers. In recent decades, however, maritime security has expanded to encompass a new threat - terrorism - as well as enhanced traditional threats such as smuggling and piracy. Thus, maritime security now involves the protection of a state’s land and maritime territory and assets from all potentially harmful acts that can emanate from the seas. These may be the outcome of illegal fishing, people smuggling, illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons, piracy, terrorism and intentional and unlawful environmental damage. The damage caused by such acts may not only be economic but also environmental and/or societal (implying the loss of several or many lives). And, modern terrorists and pirates have at their disposal deadlier weapons than ever before. The present chapter aims to provide a general overview of the main phenomena that have had a momentous impact on maritime security in the last decades. Section 2.2 discusses the various facets of the relationships between technology and security; the increased globalization, container-based transport, destructiveness and (social and physical) distance. In Section 2.3 an analysis of piracy, in its various forms, is developed. Moreover, the impact of a terrorist attack on a port as a main hub of international trade is discussed.

This article investigates security practices within hazmat production and transport companies in two European regions, Apulia in Italy and Flanders in Belgium. A literature review was carried out to highlight the main theoretical hazmat transport security approaches. This led to develop some hypotheses on theoretical 'ideal' security practices in hazmat transport operations. To compare the theoretical insights regarding security approaches within dangerous goods transportation with real industrial practices, and to validate the hypotheses, a questionnaire was drafted. Survey results allowed to ascertain a partial implementation of ideal practices by the firms and provided insights in the existing similarities and differences between the two heterogeneous European regions. The study results led to conclusions and recommendations for European policymakers and for practitioners, in order to enhance current security habits with respect to hazmat transportation. Security Journal (2013) 26, 142-156. doi:10.1057/sj.2012.4; published online 2 April 2012

The book is describing technological developments as well as urban futures in the information age where development of ICT sets the pace and options. Despite this dynamic development, the book describes how stabile daily travelling still is and highlights the achievable impacts and acceptability of transport policy measures. Freight transport is discussed from the viewpoint of industry. In addition, some innovative approaches in rearranging current freight transport networks are given. Transport future is mapped from various viewpoints. Light-rail is presented as a possible back-bone of urban regions. Methods to evaluate the societal consencus related to the spatial development - linked to tranport infrastructures - are described. Methods to assess spatial planning policies are presented as well as options for brenchmarking local public transport compagnies

This paper aims to bring to light how the complex set of procedures concerning the EU budget well represents the existence of a democratic deficit in the European Union. Starting from the development of the English constitutional experience, this paper analyses how the procedures in force at European Union level for the budget approval are very far from the Western constitutional patterns, where a clear checks and balances system is usually established in order to ensure the control of people on the executive power. In this line, the same reforms adopted in the last decades appear under another light, since they seem that have only contributed to complicate the democratic control over EU budget, eventually leading to a stronger and stronger power of Member States.

It is hardly surprising that space matters in terms of industrial organization, not only in terms of mere physical distance in relation to accessibility to supplies and markets (Weber 1909), but also in terms of accessibility to general socioeconomic resources (Dicken 1992). Analyses of the spatial organization of industries and networks of firms often focus on production and distribution systems formed by the material flows of production and distribution units. However, the significance of transport operations and activities, connecting the individual production units together in a network of material flows, is often underestimated, and transport seen only as a derived demand activity.

The publication explores the impact of the global financial crisis and of the European sovereign debt crisis on democratic principles in Europe. They have been democracy as much as financial crises. They not only emerged in democratic countries – first in the United States than in European countries – but caused the worst consequences on other democratic countries, where they had an impact on democratic governance. The two crises produced a number of institutional changes in Europe, which will be explored in the following paragraphs. Some patterns will appear as we go through this list of institutional novelties: first of all, the expanding role of the top political bodies (European Council, Eurozone Summit) and of the technocratic ones (IMF, European Commission, ECB, EMS). This evolution was legitimated by the circumstances, in particular by a sense of urgency, that limited the debate – and the time-consuming parliamentarism – and validated «technical» solutions. Such trends go hand in hand with technocratic solutions used as recipes for recovery, like the preference for regulatory solutions or the extensive use of the conditionality mechanism. As we will explain, the approach inspired by austerity is nothing but a natural consequence. After a comprehensive examination, a fact crops out: there has been a compression of democratic governance at national level through decisions stemming from less than democratic procedures represented to citizens as the only possible way out of the crisis. The scenario might look gloomy, but the goal of this analysis is to prove that the current crisis opened up a window of opportunity not only to address the original flaws of the EMU’s institutional frame as well as the limits of crisis management mechanisms but also to increase European citizens’ awareness and their demand for a more democratic governance.