Information, Pricing, and Permits for Externality Management in Multimodal Urban Transport
"Urban transport creates problems that go beyond individual journeys: traffic congestion wastes time, vehicle emissions harm the environment and health, and crowded public transport can impose costs on others. My research investigates how cities can reduce these problems by influencing the choices people make about how, when, and where to travel.
"I focus on three approaches: providing travellers with better information, using prices such as road tolls, and introducing tradable permits to manage transport demand. Drawing on economic models and real-world navigation data, I examine how people respond to these policies and how their decisions affect congestion, emissions, exposure to pollution, and social welfare.
"A central question is why a policy that benefits one group or transport mode may sometimes create problems elsewhere. The goal is to support more effective and sustainable urban transport policies.
"The main finding is that there is no single solution to urban transport problems. Giving people better information can help them avoid congestion and may reduce emissions, but it does not always benefit everyone. For example, encouraging drivers to take the metro can ease road congestion while making trains more crowded.
"I also show that pollution from cars can discourage cycling, potentially keeping cities in a pattern of heavy car use. Data from a navigation app in Beijing suggest that traffic alerts are associated with shorter journeys and less exposure to congestion.
"Finally, transport charges and tradable permits can both help manage travel demand, but their effectiveness depends on uncertainty and how flexibly policies can respond. The key lesson is that transport policies must consider how people react and how different travel modes affect one another."
More information on the thesis to follow.