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Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) play an important role in the needed transition away from fossil fuels and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs). Although transport planning models and routing problem solutions exist for BEVs, the assumption that BEV drivers search for the shortest path while constraining energy consumption does not have any empirical basis. This study presents a study of actual route choice behavior of drivers from 107 Danish households participating in a large-scale experiment with BEVs and at the same time driving their ICEVs. GPS traces from 8968 BEV and 6678 ICEV routes were map matched to a detailed road network to construct observed routes, and a route choice model was specified and estimated to capture behavioral differences related to the vehicle type. The results reveal that drivers had a higher sensitivity to travel time and trip length when driving BEVs, and to route directness after receiving the BEV, regardless of vehicle type. The results suggest the need to revise the assumptions of transport planning models and routing problems for BEVs in order not to fail to predict what drivers will do by ignoring differences and similarities related to vehicle type.

International audience; Aircraft are able to connect any pair of points on earth by using direct routing thanks to the flight management system (FMS) which is the on-board system in charge of the navigation. From an air traffic control point of view, such direct routing is only possible in low density areas. When demand is high, aircraft have to stay on a route network for which crossing points are well located and do not change with time. This location stability, helps controllers to manage efficiently the traffic and ensure a higher capacity compared with management of the same traffic with direct routes for which crossing points always change in space and in time dimensions. This instability reduces the overall capacity of sectors. During the night, when traffic demand decreases, air traffic controllers often deliver direct routes to aircraft because they know that such aircraft will not interfere with other traffic. During the day, such direct route assignments are not proposed anymore and the controller keeps the aircraft on the route network in order to structure the traffic and to reduce the associated complexity. In this research we propose an intermediate milestone for which direct routes could be proposed to aircraft during the day when it is possible and this in order to reduce also the congestion at some points in the airspace. We then consider a real crossing in the French airspace where aircraft have to merge at the same point and exit toward different directions. An optimization algorithm has been developed for this crossing in order to minimize the workload of the controller in charge of this airspace. Three decision variables are then assigned to each aircraft: speed regulation, flight level setting and direct route setting. The associated objectives of this problem are the minimization of the conflict between aircraft (has to reach zero), the maximization of the number of aircraft having a direct route (avoiding the crossing) and the minimization of the flight deviation (speed and FL). When a direct is given to an aircraft, we must ensure that such aircraft is separated from other aircraft by one when they share the same spatial location; this ensure that the controller in charge of such aircraft has few monitoring workload for this aircraft (because it has no interaction with other traffic). This optimization must satisfy some constraints: speed and FL have to stay in a given range. This algorithm has been applied successfully to a test case quite similar to one located in the west of France ACC (Brest) for which the capacity of the crossing point has been strongly increased thanks to many direct routes that have been given.

This is a background paper to the Pacific Possible report. For many Pacific Island countries, tourism is the main economic opportunity to generate incomes and jobs. This report suggests that increasing tourism demand in four areas could drive growth of tourism arrivals in the Pacific: Increasing demand from Chinese tourists, retired persons, high income individuals, and cruise ship operators. It sets out key actions to capitalize on these potential sources of increased demand and ensure the development of the tourism sector in an environmentally, socially, and culturally sustainable manner.

China Railways Corporation (CRC) is considering new ways to attract capital to support the strategic development of the railway sector. Currently, government is the predominant equity financier, with debt being supplied by domestic bank credits and limited amounts borrowed from International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Considering its high level of accumulated debt and liabilities (RMB 3.7 trillion on an asset base of 5.7 trillion), CRC wishes to explore equity investment mechanisms, to increase cash flow from its core and non-core activities, and to use different financing channels as a way to leverage the value of its assets and introduce market-based business models to the sector. CRC is seeking to attract investment from both the private sector and from public sources such as local governments and state owned enterprises. It refers to these sources of capital as ‘social capital.’ This report examines how companies in China and railways in seven other countries, China, France, India, Japan, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, have attracted capital and made capital budgeting decisions to support their strategic development.

Transport infrastructure is deemed to be central to development and consumes a large fraction of the development assistance envelope. Yet there is debate about the economic impact of road projects. This paper proposes an approach to assess the differential development impacts of alternative road construction and prioritize various proposals, using Nigeria as a case study. Recognizing that there is no perfect measure of economic well-being, a variety of outcome metrics are used, including crop revenue, livestock revenue, non-agricultural income, the probability of being multi-dimensionally poor, and local gross domestic product for Nigeria. Although the measure of transport is the most accurate possible, it is still endogenous because of the nonrandom placement of road infrastructure. This endogeneity is addressed using a seemingly novel instrumental variable termed the natural path: the time it would take to walk along the most logical route connecting two points without taking into account other, bias-causing economic benefits. Further, the analysis considers the potential endogeneity from nonrandom placement of households and markets through carefully chosen control variables. It finds that reducing transportation costs in Nigeria will increase crop revenue, non-agricultural income, the wealth index, and local gross domestic product. Livestock sales increase as well, although this finding is less robust. The probability of being multi-dimensionally poor will decrease. The results also cast light on income diversification and structural changes that may arise. These findings are robust to relaxing the exclusion restriction. The paper also demonstrates how to prioritize alternative road programs by comparing the expected development impacts of alternative New Partnership for Africas Development projects.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are completely dependent on their transit neighbors infrastructure and administrative procedures to transport their goods to port. This publication provides a comprehensive ten-year review in order to assess the progress made in improving access of LLDCs to global markets, identify the remaining challenges faced by LLDCs, and present improved and innovative ways to overcome them. This publication is based on the practical knowledge from implementing the Almaty Program policies, shared by both of our institutions. It provides a snapshot of the economic trends in LLDCs, with regard to trade costs, connectivity constraints and trade diversification. It reviews the key access policies in the Almaty Program of Action framework that include infrastructure, transport and logistics services, regional integration, trade and transit facilitation. It combines data and substantial feedback from implemented projects and policy changes. The focus of the document is general in scope and does not include detailed economic or policy analysis of all the potential components of reforms. The publication is organized as follows: Chapter1: Economics of Landlockedness; Chapter 2: Connectivity Constraints; Chapter 3: Hinterland Connections; Chapter 4: Transit and Trade Facilitation, Regional Integration; Chapter 5: Physical Connectivity, Corridors. This document is based primarily on the experience of project implementation by the World Bank, and on analytical work on trade corridors and LLDCs, including reports and presentations on progress in implementing the Almaty Program of Action.