This paper focuses on the spatial impacts of transport supply distribution and on issues of equity of access to the networks. More specifically, the methodology we are presenting is based on a cross-analysis of the territorial distribution of supply on the one side, and the spatial coverage of the population by the Paris urban rail transit network on the other side. This methodology resorts to various concepts, indicators and methodologies from Graph Theory, Multicriteria Analysis for decision-making, and recent microcomputer-based network graphic design techniques. Within the field of network planning methods, this type of analysis gives shape to the concept of multimodality, often praised but not so often applied by transport operators and their institutional and political counterparts.
In this paper, the conjecture that city size doesn't lead to economies of scale in operation of urban public transportation is successfully tested with data over 47 French towns. Operating costs are increasing stronger than city size. This is due to a larger supply per inhabitant and to bigger unit cost (per seat kilometre). The urban area of Paris is an exception to the rule of the increasing unit cost, but because of the important service level, operating costs per inhabitant are nevertheless higher than those of smaller cities. The comparison between Paris and the provinces puts forward that the capacity of bus and trains could be very important for improvement in productivity. However, vehicles capacity increasing seems to be significant only in huge urban area, as Paris for instance. But those diminishing operating costs could be balanced by travel length and travel time. In this respect, it is worthy to mention the possible gap between the productivity of urban services and the efficiency of an urban area considered as a whole.
Pricing policy in air freight involves important differences on average revenues (per hours of flight) between city pair market. We assume that average cost is constant. We show that price equilibrium of air freight market can be studied with a simple Cournot analysis. We deduce that main significant criterium to understanding pricing policy is the number of airlines on every destination. Few airlines give some possibilities to set a price higher than marginal cost.
For ten years, the investment decisions in urban public transport have been occurring in an environment which faces an increasing uncertainty. The financial crisis, the appearance of new technologies and the apparent failure of economic appraisals have caused a real "decision crisis". In front of this rise of uncertainties, decision-makers are obviously displaying a preference for flexibility in the field of transport choices in urban areas. Indeed, they give greater importance to choices that provide the widest range of options for the future. Meanwhile, the irreversibility theories have experienced important developments, enabling economists to meet with the needs of decision-makers.The aim of this work is to suggest a methodology to compare levels of flexibility for alternative technical options in the well-known Cost-Benefit Analysis. The conception of a decision-taking model for transit should allow to estimate relative levels of risk, and especially to introduce the "irreversibility effect" as a part of socio-economic return. Simulations will be carried out, based on simple case studies in the field of public transport.