How should we value the future?
Transport networks and urban planning can have extremely long-lived effects on society, the economy, and the environment. The government’s decision to invest in an electrified commuter rail network for Wellington in the 1930s led to an early form of transit-oriented development in the region.…
68 Comments City centre parking rates: economic literacy versus special pleading
This weekend the NZ Herald’s motoring correspondent Matt Greenop published an article denouncing the “insult” of parking fees. Now, at Transportblog we’re always up for a good debate over the merits of different parking policies, but this doesn’t add much to the conversation:
Parking used to be a doddle.…
Guide to economic evaluation of transport projects: Part 1 – Principles of cost-benefit analysis
Debates over major transport investments often get caught up in arguments over benefit-cost ratios, or BCRs. In recent years, projects such as the Transmission Gully and Puhoi to Warkworth motorways and the City Rail Link have been criticised for their low BCRs.…
NZTA makes positive changes to economic assessment criteria
Many of the debates on this blog and within in the wider community about the merits of projects, or lack of them, end up coming down to down to questions of economics. But as Peter Nunns pointed out a few weeks ago in his excellent guest post, most people aren’t aware of the specific aspects that go into the economic assessment
Readers of this blog will be familiar with the notion of the benefit cost ratio (BCR), a figure that compares the forecasted benefits of a project with the financial cost of building it.…
Further evidence the cost-benefit analysis is too narrow
A couple of weeks back the NZ Institute of Economic Research released a paper which looks into the traditional cost-benefit analysis used for appraising transport projects and asks the question of whether the current process fully recognises all the costs and benefits of those projects.…
Future Competitiveness of Cities
You would expect a mega corporation with the name of Citi to be interested in how cities function – and it appears they are. The banking giant has an initiative called Citi for Cities which while obviously channel for their business, also provides some interesting information on cities.…
An ode to demand-based transport pricing
As you read this I’ll probably be sitting on a flight from Brisbane to Auckland that cost me $750. Sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but I’m happy nonetheless.
Why? Well, at late notice I had the opportunity of working for 2 months in Brisbane.…
Urban Transport Economics
Recently Auckland Transport and Ernst and Young hosted a seminar on the economics of urban transport. Sadly we didn’t get an invite but at least AT have videoed the presentations and put them up online.
First we have Paul Buchanan who is an international transport economist.…
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