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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>The Incentive Elasticity of Demand for Non-Motorized Transportation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1359759</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Transportation and obesity are two of this decade's largest public policy challenges, with non-motorized commuting at the nexus of the two issues. Economists and transportation planners have long been studying mode choice and predicting demand for motorized alternatives. This research represents a preliminary investigation into demand for non-motorized commute modes and the role policy may play in promoting these modes.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2015 01:01:11 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Light Trucks and Highway Fatalities: The Role of Network Effects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236082</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Highway fatalities in University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) Region II fell steadily from the 1970s through the 1990s, but levels have since rebounded slightly and have remained flat for more than a decade. The stagnation in progress on fatalities has been attributed by some analysts to the prevalence of light trucks, such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs), on American roads. Because light trucks are taller, heavier, and more rigid than cars, they pose greater danger to the occupants of cars, as well as to pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. Despite increased fuel costs in recent years, large vehicles continue to make up a large percentage of the vehicle mix. One important factor in the ongoing light-truck trend may be the interrelationship among individual motor vehicle purchase decisions: specifically, a consumer's choice between a large and small vehicle may be influenced by the current mix of large and small vehicles on the roads. The proposed research project hypothesizes a "network effect," whereby increases in the number of light trucks increase the consumer's propensity to purchase a truck as a means of protection against heightened accident risks posed by the greater incidence of these vehicles on the roads. The project will measure this effect and examine its relationship to highway fatalities over the period 1997 through 2008. It will use an economic metric called the demand elasticity, which will allow for integration of network effects with effects on vehicle consumption from a host of influences, including prices and policy variables. The principal investigator (PI) will manage a graduate student in collecting data to complete and extend a data set I have previously compiled of household- and state-year-level variables relevant to the analysis. The PI will employ the data in estimating a binary vehicle choice model (car versus light truck) and use the results to calculate measures of the network effect in each year. The PI then estimate the network effect's role in highway fatalities, its effect on potential public policies for addressing the vehicle mix, and its role in manufacturer incentives with respect to light-truck safety. The project will generate two deliverables: a final paper to be published in a top economics or public policy journal, and a research brief summarizing the results in non-technical language.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:40:44 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Optimal Gasoline Taxes and the Elasticity of Demand for Gasoline</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1235189</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Gasoline-powered passenger vehicles create numerous negative externalities, including local air pollution, global climate change, accidents, congestion, and dependence on foreign oil. These externalities can be addressed by policymakers through a variety of actions aimed at reducing demand for gasoline or reducing pollution from automobiles. While it has been argued that a gasoline tax is second-best as a corrective measure for each of these externalities separately, it is perhaps the best policy to jointly address these, due to the cost and difficulty of simultaneously implementing several first-best policies. A key parameter in the estimation of gasoline demand and in calculating the optimal gasoline tax is the price elasticity of demand, which measures the percent change in gasoline demand for a percent change in gasoline price. It is a measure of how responsive consumers are to changes in the price of gasoline. The higher the elasticity in magnitude, the more consumers will decrease gasoline consumption in response to an increase in gasoline price. For this project, the researchers propose to estimate and analyze the elasticity of demand for gasoline, and to calculate the optimal gasoline tax for various regions of the world, including the U.S., China, and Latin America.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:25:52 GMT</pubDate>
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