Essays on Mobility and Environmental Policies in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

Abstract

Europe's cities – home to 70% of the EU population and generating over 80% of the Union's GDP - are connected by one of the world's best transport systems (European Commission Regional Policy, 2011). The Barcelona metropolitan area is home to 3 million people and occupies a surface area of 636 km2. This thesis, is structured into four chapters and this introductory one. While chapter two analyze mobility characteristic in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area with policy implications, chapter three and four pursue to evaluate specific mobility policies. On chapter 5 concludes and add policy recommendations. On chapter 2 we analyze the factors influencing CO2 emissions from daily urban mobility. Concerns about the unequal distribution of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to mobility are gaining increasing attention in scholarly analyses as well as in the public policy arena. Factors influencing on different emitters are largely unknown; and the influence is assumed to be the same for all emitters, be them low or high emitters. We use a household travel survey in the metropolitan area of Barcelona to differentiate the factors that result in different rates of emission. As a results, we find that top ten per cent emitters produce 49% of total emissions, while non-daily emitters account for 38.5% of the sample. We adopt a quantile regression approach, which allows us to find significant differences between groups. Gender, income and home-municipality type are influential in accounting for CO2 emissions for all groups. Educational level appears to be less significant, and occupation shows no significance at all. We confirm that socioeconomic factors have different influences on different emitting groups; these characteristics do not impact equally across all the population. On chapter 3 two speed management policies – a variable speed system and an 80 km/h speed limit – have been implemented on Barcelona’s urban motorways to mitigate NOx and PM10 air pollution. In 2008, the maximum speed limit was reduced from 120 and 100 km/h to 80 km/h and, in 2009, a variable speed system was introduced on some metropolitan motorways. To do so, we use difference-in-differences methodology on the average and on different quantiles for fixed effect panel data, which allows us analyzing different scenarios. We find that the variable speed system improves air quality with regard to the two pollutants considered here, being most effective when nitrogen oxide levels are not too low and when particulate matter concentrations are below extremely high levels. However, reducing the maximum speed limit from 120/100 km/h to 80 km/h has no effect - or even a slightly increasing effect -on the two pollutants, depending on the pollution scenario. On chapter 4 we compare the relative merits of public and private delivery within a mixed delivery system. We study the role played by ownership, transaction costs, and competition on local public service delivery within the same jurisdiction. Using a stochastic cost frontier, we analyze the public-private urban bus system in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. Academics and policy makers are increasingly shifting the debate concerning the best form of public service provision beyond the traditional dilemma between pure public and pure private delivery modes, because, among other reasons, there is a growing body of evidence that casts doubt on the existence of systematic cost savings from privatization, while any competition seems to be eroded over time. We find that private firms have higher delivery costs than those incurred by the public firm, especially when transaction costs are taken into account. Furthermore, tenders tend to decrease delivery costs.

Esta tesis doctoral pretende analizar las políticas públicas de movilidad y medio ambiente en el Área Metropolitana de Barcelona. Fuertes externalidades negativas en congestión, efectos ambientales nocivos de polución así como la generación de gases de efectos invernadero se dan en esta área.

Se analizan tres políticas públicas de movilidad en el Área Metropolitana de Barcelona. En concreto, se analizan los factores socioeconómicos que afectan a la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero, un sistema de gestión mixta de autobuses urbano, entre la compañía pública concesiones privadas de autobuses que discurren por la misma zona y, por último, se analizan las políticas de reducción de la velocidad máxima de 120 a 80 km/h entre el año 2008 y 2010, así como la política de velocidad variable introducida en 2009.

Los factores socioeconómicos no son un gran descriptor de las emisiones de efecto invernadero en la movilidad diaria. Sin embargo, se encuentran diferencias de efecto entre los diferentes tipos de emisores al aplicar técnicas de cuantiles. Se encuentra que la última decila más contaminante emite casi la mitad de las emisiones de gases invernadero. Así, se obtiene un coeficiente del índice de Gini de 0.491. Para el caso del área de Barcelona, se encuentra que la política de peajes de acceso a Barcelona es insuficiente.

La política de prestación mixta en el caso de Barcelona ha implicado que el operador público es mucho más eficiente al prestar el servicio que los concesionarios privados en la misma zona. Uno de los principales motivos es la falta de competencia por los contratos de prestación de servicio a los operadores privados. Además, se ha incorporado los costes de transacción del regulador.

La política de reducción de la velocidad máxima de 120/100 a 80 km/h no tiene efectos en los niveles de NOx y PM10 una vez aplicada. No se recomienda la activación de esta política los días con unos altos niveles de contaminación. Sin embargo, la política de reducción de la velocidad variable tiene efectos sobre la reducción de estos contaminantes. Así, recomendamos la extensión de esta política a otras vías.