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Freight transportation can be defined as the movement of goods and services to customers to obtain a monetary reward. Poor quality transport infrastructure implies higher travelling times and costs. This indirectly affects the productivity of a region since transportation costs are directly related to sales prices. Therefore, infrastructure investments become important for improving the competitiveness of a region. The problem with these investments is that they take time and require a large amount of money. Consequently, it is extremely important to prioritise this type of investment. This paper will first explain whether transportation investment or a sustainable transportation method affect the exported freight accessibility and if it also affects regional productivity using a linear regression model with the aid of a data-driven geographical information system. It uses spatial separation, gravity, and cumulative opportunity measures to calculate accessibility. Finally, the paper denotes which regions are highly affected by improvements in road, river, and railway networks using Colombia as a case study. The comparison considers travelling time and costs savings under each scenario. The results indicate that the gravity measure was the most appropriate accessibility measure for analysing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The scenario analyses suggest that zones farthest from the seaports are more sensitive to accessibility changes; consequently, they will receive higher improvements in their regional GDP with a national-level implementation of transport infrastructure investments. Thus, project prioritisation should be performed in regions where the investments lead to a decreased travel cost between regions and ports., Author(s): Maria Jubiz-Diaz (corresponding author) [1]; Maria Saltarin-Molino [2]; Julian Arellana [3]; Carlos Paternina-Arboleda [1,4]; Ruben Yie-Pinedo [1] 1. Introduction Transportation plays an important role in a country's economy and [...]

We revisit the practice of combining revealed (RP) and stated preference (SP) data (i.e., the data enrichment, DE, paradigm) in discrete choice models using secondary data obtained from emerging sources; these facilitate access to massive information about travel choices and can be used to improve transport models. Even though the benefits of the DE paradigm have been known for years, there is a large gap between the state of practice and the state of the art, particularly in Global South countries (but also in many industrialized nations). We use a SP dataset considering two new transport alternatives (train and metro) and a RP dataset based on a large mobility survey in Bogotá, Colombia, complemented with fairly precise level-of-service data obtained using GIS utilities and the Distance Matrix API by Google. Our results allow us to discuss good practice, identify barriers and challenges to the paradigm's application, and draw recommendations for forecasting the demand for new alternatives using joint RP and SP data., Author(s): Luis A. Guzman (corresponding author) [1]; Julian Arellana [2]; Victor Cantillo-García [1]; Juan de Dios Ortúzar [3] 1. Introduction Emerging technologies and telematics offer tools to access and collect [...]

The global COVID-19 outbreak has demanded drastic actions and policies from the governments and local authorities to stem the spread of the virus. Most of the measures involve behavioural changes from citizens to reduce their social contact to a minimum. Thus, these actions influence individual activity patterns and transport systems in different ways. This paper studies the short-term impacts on the transport system caused by the different policies adopted by the Colombian government and local authorities to contain the COVID-19 spread. Using official and secondary data concerning the seven most populated cities in Colombia, we analyse the impacts on three components of the transport system: air transport, freight transport, and urban transport. Results show that national policies and local decisions have decreased the demand for motorised trips across the cities, diminishing congestion levels, reducing transit ridership, and creating a reduction in transport externalities. The country banned air transport for passengers and only allowed air cargo for medical and necessary supplies, which will have negative consequences for the economics of the airline industry. During the first three months of the COVID-19, freight was the most resilient transport component. However, freight trips diminished around 38%, affecting mainly the supply chain of nonessential products. During the pandemic, governments need to provide subsidies to maintain the system supply to avoid crowdedness and promote active transport by allocating less-used street space to cyclists and pedestrians. In the short term, transportation service providers will face a financial crisis, deepened by the pandemic, which will require government assistance for their recovery., 1. Introduction The rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide has generated a public health crisis that started in December 2019. In a few months, the virus spread worldwide from Wuhan, its [...]