Essays on Urban and Environmental Economics
Open AccessThe first essay estimates a gasoline price elasticity of traffic flow in Shanghai, China. The Chinese government is seeking effective regulations to reduce traffic congestion, vehicle emissions, and air pollution. One tool that policymakers have to regulate traffic and reduce emissions is the driving cost. This essay uses data from 577 sensors on city expressways in Shanghai from January 2011 to March 2013 to estimate the short-run causal impact of unanticipated government gasoline price adjustments on traffic flow. Results show that traffic flow does respond to gasoline price changes. This impact dissipates in three days, with an estimated average elasticity of traffic flow to the price of gasoline of -0.26. Given baseline traffic, this estimate implies that a one percent increase in gasoline price would reduce daily average traffic flow by 104 vehicles per sensor. The impact varies with types of price changes and is greater for price increases than price decreases.The second essay (co-authored) investigates the relationship between air quality and travel behavior, e.g., driving vehicles and riding taxis. Air pollution severely affects human health. In 2013, the Chinese government started releasing a daily air quality index (AQI) to inform people of the level of air quality and its health effects. Using daily traffic flow on city expressways in Shanghai from 2013 to 2014, we study the impact of the AQI on traffic flow on workdays. Using westerly wind as an instrumental variable for the daily AQI, we find that daily traffic flow increases with the daily AQI and the effect only occurs when the air switches reported pollution levels. When the air quality switches from a non-polluted level to a polluted level, the daily traffic flow increases by 2.9 percent. Our results provide evidence that people in developing countries engage in avoidance behavior to air pollution in their daily life.The third essay examines the impact of Citi Bike on bicycle-related traffic accidents in New York City. Policymakers introduce bike-sharing programs in the United States seeking to reduce traffic congestion, while opponents have concerns about whether additional bicycles would increase traffic accidents. Using data on the number of daily traffic accidents involving bicycles and the number of daily traffic accidents involving cyclist injuries from 2012 to 2014, I find no significant increase in the number of these two types of traffic accidents after the introduction of Citi Bike in 2013 in the city.
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