Decision-Making Mechanism of Urban HighwayScales from the Perspective of GovernmentGuide Words: Urban highways; highways scales; government; decision-making mechanismAbstract: According to the economic ideas of Gary's Becker, this paper built the decision-makingmodel of urban highway scales from the perspective of government who supplied urban highwaysunder funds constraint, and got the equilibrium condition of urban highway scales. Then with thefigure analysis, the paper discusses impact mechanism of the several factors such as the visibility ofurban highways, invalid traffic, construction modes of urban highways. I hope this study can give ahelp to not only alleviate urban traffic congestion but also improve the efficiency of urban highways.L.INTRODUCTIONAs the most important infrastructure in the urban transport system, urban highways are the basison social and economic development and play a positive function on sustainable economy. Highwayscales is an important element which needs to be solved in urban highway planning. In the fields ofhighway scales, one part of literature focuses on the relationship between highway scales and externalfactors.The studies showthe relationshipbetween highway scales and external factors is eitherone-waycausalityortwo-waycausality,therolesofhighwayincremental andhighway stockintheeconomic development are different,highway incremental increases the consumption of the labormaterials and machinery which promotesthedevelopment of other related industriesandfinallypromotes the growth of national economy, highway stock brings ripple effect, development effect,potential effect by improvement of transport conditions.Scholars set up the linear functional among the level of regional development, highwaytransportation volume and the reasonable length of highway network,Japanese proposed thehomeland coefficient theory which suggested highway density and square root of population areproportional relationship, the length of highway and traffic demand in the region are proportionalrelationship, the length of highway and construction costs are inverse relationship. The other part ofliterature studied highway scales by forecasting traffic demand. Main theories of forecasting trafficdemand are the aggregate models and the disaggregate models, the both show the mutual penetrationtrend. The representative of aggregate model is the four-stage method, the corresponding models arebuilt in each stage such as Fratar method, entropy method, opportunity model, shortest pathalgorithms, traffic network equilibrium theory. A small amount of literature studied internaldevelopment law of highways by moving average method, exponential smoothing method, curve
Decision-Making Mechanism of Urban Highway Scales from the Perspective of Government Guide Words：Urban highways; highways scales; government; decision-making mechanism Abstract：According to the economic ideas of Gary’s Becker, this paper built the decision-making model of urban highway scales from the perspective of government who supplied urban highways under funds constraint, and got the equilibrium condition of urban highway scales. Then with the figure analysis, the paper discusses impact mechanism of the several factors such as the visibility of urban highways, invalid traffic, construction modes of urban highways. I hope this study can give a help to not only alleviate urban traffic congestion but also improve the efficiency of urban highways. I. INTRODUCTION As the most important infrastructure in the urban transport system, urban highways are the basis on social and economic development and play a positive function on sustainable economy. Highway scales is an important element which needs to be solved in urban highway planning. In the fields of highway scales, one part of literature focuses on the relationship between highway scales and external factors. The studies show the relationship between highway scales and external factors is either one-way causality or two-way causality, the roles of highway incremental and highway stock in the economic development are different, highway incremental increases the consumption of the labor, materials and machinery which promotes the development of other related industries and finally promotes the growth of national economy; highway stock brings ripple effect, development effect, potential effect by improvement of transport conditions. Scholars set up the linear functional among the level of regional development, highway transportation volume and the reasonable length of highway network, Japanese proposed the homeland coefficient theory which suggested highway density and square root of population are proportional relationship, the length of highway and traffic demand in the region are proportional relationship, the length of highway and construction costs are inverse relationship. The other part of literature studied highway scales by forecasting traffic demand. Main theories of forecasting traffic demand are the aggregate models and the disaggregate models, the both show the mutual penetration trend. The representative of aggregate model is the four-stage method, the corresponding models are built in each stage such as Fratar method, entropy method, opportunity model, shortest path algorithms, traffic network equilibrium theory. A small amount of literature studied internal development law of highways by moving average method, exponential smoothing method, curve
tendency calculating method, GM(1,1),growth rate based on time series data of highway.The existingtheories didn't study decision-making mechanism on highway scales of highway users under fundsconstraint, in practice, on the one hand, the cycle of "traffic congestion -highway construction -increase in private transport -traffic congestion again" often appears; on the other hand, lowefficiency and invalid transport on highway traffic often appear. Based on economic ideas of Gary'sBecker, this paper builds decision-making model of urban highway scales from the perspective ofgovernment under funds constraint, and analyzes decision-making mechanism of urban highwayscales and impact factors. I hope this study can give a help for alleviating traffic congestion andimproving highway efficiency, and can achieve the efficient allocation of urban highwayIL.DECISION-MAKINGMODELOF URBAN HIGHWAY SCALES FROMTHEPERSPECTIVEOFGOVERNMENTPublic goods and services which is more efficient, more comprehensive and better adapted tohuman development is an important feature of the city which is different from rural feature. Theefficient public goods and services is an important reason for the city to keep creativity,is animportant factor to keep the urban life convenient and make the city more competitive.Thegovernment as the main supplier of public goods and services achieves the continuous development ofthe city and the maximum utility of government by supplying the transport system, water supply anddrainage system, energy system, communication system, environment and health system, disasterprevention system, living system, education system, cultural system, recreational system and so on. Itcan be written by the following formula:MAXU(Po, PI,", P.)Where U is interpreted as the utility function of government; Po, P,", Pn is interpretedrespectively as the transportsystem,water supplyand drainage system, energy system,communication system, environment and health system, disaster prevention system, living system,education system, cultural system, recreational system and so on.Taking into account simplified analysis, the other systems except transport system are referred toas a whole, the utility function which has been simplified is written by the following formula:MAXU(R,F)Where R is interpreted as the urban highway scales; F is interpreted as the scales of the otherinfrastructure except transport systems.Budget constrain for the utility of government is given by:R x Pr +FxPp= BWhere Pr is interpreted as the unit cost of urban highway which includes highway constructioncost, maintenance cost, accident cost, congestion cost, traffic noise cost and air pollution cost; Pr isinterpreted as the unit cost of the other infrastructure
tendency calculating method, GM(1,1), growth rate based on time series data of highway. The existing theories didn’t study decision-making mechanism on highway scales of highway users under funds constraint, in practice, on the one hand, the cycle of “traffic congestion – highway construction – increase in private transport – traffic congestion again” often appears; on the other hand, low efficiency and invalid transport on highway traffic often appear. Based on economic ideas of Gary’s Becker, this paper builds decision-making model of urban highway scales from the perspective of government under funds constraint, and analyzes decision-making mechanism of urban highway scales and impact factors. I hope this study can give a help for alleviating traffic congestion and improving highway efficiency, and can achieve the efficient allocation of urban highway. II. DECISION-MAKING MODEL OF URBAN HIGHWAY SCALES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GOVERNMENT Public goods and services which is more efficient, more comprehensive and better adapted to human development is an important feature of the city which is different from rural feature. The efficient public goods and services is an important reason for the city to keep creativity, is an important factor to keep the urban life convenient and make the city more competitive. The government as the main supplier of public goods and services achieves the continuous development of the city and the maximum utility of government by supplying the transport system, water supply and drainage system, energy system, communication system, environment and health system, disaster prevention system, living system, education system, cultural system, recreational system and so on. It can be written by the following formula: MAX U (P0, P1,.，Pn) Where U is interpreted as the utility function of government; P0, P1,.，Pn is interpreted respectively as the transport system, water supply and drainage system, energy system, communication system, environment and health system, disaster prevention system, living system, education system, cultural system, recreational system and so on. Taking into account simplified analysis, the other systems except transport system are referred to as a whole, the utility function which has been simplified is written by the following formula: MAX U (R, F) Where R is interpreted as the urban highway scales; F is interpreted as the scales of the other infrastructure except transport systems. Budget constrain for the utility of government is given by: R x PR + F x PF = B Where PR is interpreted as the unit cost of urban highway which includes highway construction cost, maintenance cost, accident cost, congestion cost, traffic noise cost and air pollution cost; PF is interpreted as the unit cost of the other infrastructure
By defining the Lagrange function, equilibrium condition of government is given as follows:UR_PRU,"PpHU1RFigure 1.Decision-making model of urban highway from the perspective of governmentBy figure 1, assuming the horizontal axis is the urban highway scales; the vertical axis is the otherinfrastructure scales; curve U is interpreted as a certain indifference curve of government, RF isinterpreted as budget constraint line; the tangent of U and RF is the equilibrium point of government,thecorrespondingabscissa canreflecttheurbanhighwayscales.II.THEFACTORANALYSISOFHIGHWAYSCALESA.The visibility of urban highwayThe visibility is used to reflect the local government's achievement. Some public goods whichcan reflect fully local government's achievement are called high visibility, while some public goodswhich cannot reflect fully local government's achievement are called low visibility. The visibility ofpublic goods affects the position of governments in different curve, with the increased visibility ofpublic goods, the indifferent curve translates to the top, and the tangent with the budget constraint linemoves to the top, the supply of urban highway will increase. In figure 1, the budget line R,F.outward translate to R,E , the tangent of RF and utility curve U, with the higher position is theequilibrium point of government. Figure 1 shows that the visibility of urban highway and urbanhighway scales which government wants to supply are positive correlation.Supply of public goods and visibility are positive correlation, local officials are keen on supplythe public goods which has high visibility, they dislike to supply the public goods which has lowvisibility. On the one hand, in China local officials are often appointed by super governmentdepartments or the chief executive. The quantity and quality of urban highway are one of appointmentbasis, because quality is hard to accurately measure and compare, in fact quantity is often focused on.On the other hand, because travel is closely related to the daily life of residents, the quantity andquality of urban highway are one basis which residents judge government's achievement on.Therefore, urban highway becomes public goods with the higher visibility, the local official are keenon supplying more urban highways. Concretely speaking, when the quantity of urban highway is
By defining the Lagrange function, equilibrium condition of government is given as follows: ' ' R R F F U P U P Figure 1. Decision-making model of urban highway from the perspective of government By figure 1, assuming the horizontal axis is the urban highway scales; the vertical axis is the other infrastructure scales; curve U is interpreted as a certain indifference curve of government; RF is interpreted as budget constraint line; the tangent of U and RF is the equilibrium point of government, the corresponding abscissa can reflect the urban highway scales. III. THE FACTOR ANALYSIS OF HIGHWAY SCALES A. The visibility of urban highway The visibility is used to reflect the local government’s achievement. Some public goods which can reflect fully local government’s achievement are called high visibility, while some public goods which cannot reflect fully local government’s achievement are called low visibility. The visibility of public goods affects the position of governments in different curve, with the increased visibility of public goods, the indifferent curve translates to the top, and the tangent with the budget constraint line moves to the top, the supply of urban highway will increase. In figure 1, the budget line RF0 0 outward translate to RF1 1 , the tangent of RF1 1 and utility curve U1 with the higher position is the equilibrium point of government. Figure 1 shows that the visibility of urban highway and urban highway scales which government wants to supply are positive correlation. Supply of public goods and visibility are positive correlation, local officials are keen on supply the public goods which has high visibility, they dislike to supply the public goods which has low visibility. On the one hand, in China local officials are often appointed by super government departments or the chief executive. The quantity and quality of urban highway are one of appointment basis, because quality is hard to accurately measure and compare, in fact quantity is often focused on. On the other hand, because travel is closely related to the daily life of residents, the quantity and quality of urban highway are one basis which residents judge government’s achievement on. Therefore, urban highway becomes public goods with the higher visibility, the local official are keen on supplying more urban highways. Concretely speaking, when the quantity of urban highway is
focused on, the local official will supply more highways, when the quality of urban highway isfocused on, the local official will improve the level of the existing highway.B.InvalidtrafficInvalid traffic is caused by the unreasonable urban land planning, unreasonable transportationplanning and the poor urban traffic management. For example,the city as the center of variousdepartmentandresearchinstitutionshasfrequentbusinesswiththesurroundingareas.Thescattereddepartments and institutions increase the traffic volumes from the surrounding areas which is calledinvalid traffic.If the urban communication facilities are poor, information is transmitted by the onlytransportation, invalid traffic is also caused. Invalid traffic increases the traffic congestion cost, trafficnoisecost and air pollution cost, which increases the highwayconstruction cost P, assuming construction cost of the other infrastructure P, is constant, the rateiPFand increases the other infrastructure scales, for example, the volume rate in the downtown is strictlycontrolled,theplanningandconstructionofsecondarycommercialandservicecenterarestrengthenedmulti-purpose community is built around major city by comprehensively considering all kinds offunctions such as dwelling,business, shopping,education, employment and so on.Moderncommunication means(such as video conferencing and network)are applied toofficeactivitiesamong all departments. Telecommunication, e-government and e-business are promoted in order toreduce unnecessary traffic travel.C. Construction modes of urban highwayFrom the practice, there are mainly two modes in decision making of urban highway: onedecision-making mode is called “from low level to high level", which means the governmentdetermines the urban highway scales according to the demand of highway users, and the aim ofhighwayconstructionistomeetconsumerdemand andtoachievethemaximizationof social welfareThe other decision-making mode is called “from high level to low level", which means thegovernment determines the urban highway scales in order to promote economic and socialdevelopment.The decision-making mode of “from low level to high level"means government and highwayusers have the same utility function, namely series of utility indifference curve in figure 1 are also theindifference curve of highway users. In this case, as long as the budget line slope of government andhighway users are equal, government and highway users are consistent on highway scales.The decision-making mode of “from high level to low level" means government and highwayusers have the different utility function, namely series of utility indifference curve in figure 1 cannotrepresent the indifference curve of highway users. So government and highway users have no
focused on, the local official will supply more highways; when the quality of urban highway is focused on, the local official will improve the level of the existing highway. B. Invalid traffic Invalid traffic is caused by the unreasonable urban land planning, unreasonable transportation planning and the poor urban traffic management. For example, the city as the center of various department and research institutions has frequent business with the surrounding areas. The scattered departments and institutions increase the traffic volumes from the surrounding areas which is called invalid traffic. If the urban communication facilities are poor, information is transmitted by the only transportation, invalid traffic is also caused. Invalid traffic increases the traffic congestion cost, traffic noise cost and air pollution cost, which increases the highway construction cost PR , assuming construction cost of the other infrastructure PF is constant, the rate R F P P increases, the budget line is more steep, the government will decreases the urban highway scales and increases the other infrastructure scales, for example, the volume rate in the downtown is strictly controlled, the planning and construction of secondary commercial and service center are strengthened, multi-purpose community is built around major city by comprehensively considering all kinds of functions such as dwelling, business, shopping, education, employment and so on. Modern communication means (such as video conferencing and network) are applied to office activities among all departments. Telecommunication, e-government and e-business are promoted in order to reduce unnecessary traffic travel. C. Construction modes of urban highway From the practice, there are mainly two modes in decision making of urban highway: one decision-making mode is called “from low level to high level”, which means the government determines the urban highway scales according to the demand of highway users, and the aim of highway construction is to meet consumer demand and to achieve the maximization of social welfare. The other decision-making mode is called “from high level to low level”, which means the government determines the urban highway scales in order to promote economic and social development. The decision-making mode of “from low level to high level” means government and highway users have the same utility function, namely series of utility indifference curve in figure 1 are also the indifference curve of highway users. In this case, as long as the budget line slope of government and highway users are equal, government and highway users are consistent on highway scales. The decision-making mode of “from high level to low level” means government and highway users have the different utility function, namely series of utility indifference curve in figure 1 cannot represent the indifference curve of highway users. So government and highway users have no
common basis on highway construction,the imbalance between supply and demand often happens inhighwayconstruction:when supplyscalesof urban highway ismorethandemand scales of urbanhighway, low efficiency of highway use often happens, when supply scales of urban highway is lessthan demand scales of urban highway, traffic jams has always been associated with urbandevelopment.IV.CONCLUSIONTo sum up, based on economic ideas of Gary's Becker, this paper builds the decision-makingmodel of urban highway scales from the perspective of government, and gets the equilibriumcondition(U=Pe),UPFThen with the figure analysis, this paper discusses the impact mechanism of the several factorsfrom the perspective of government, such as the visibility of urban highway,invalid trafficconstruction modes of urban highway. It shows the local officials are keen on supplying more urbanhighways because of the higher visibility of urban highway. Concretely speaking, when the quantity ofurban highway is focused on, the local official will supply more highways;, when the quality of urbanhighway is focused on, the local official will improve the level of the existing highway, invalid trafficmakes the local government put more funds for the other urban infrastructure; the decision-makingmode of “from low level to high level"can realize the consistency of government and highway userswith highway scales, the decision-making mode of "from high level to low level" can cause theimbalancebetween supply and demand in highway construction
common basis on highway construction, the imbalance between supply and demand often happens in highway construction: when supply scales of urban highway is more than demand scales of urban highway, low efficiency of highway use often happens, when supply scales of urban highway is less than demand scales of urban highway, traffic jams has always been associated with urban development. IV. CONCLUSION To sum up, based on economic ideas of Gary’s Becker, this paper builds the decision-making model of urban highway scales from the perspective of government, and gets the equilibrium condition ( ' ' R R F F U P U P ). Then with the figure analysis, this paper discusses the impact mechanism of the several factors from the perspective of government, such as the visibility of urban highway, invalid traffic, construction modes of urban highway. It shows the local officials are keen on supplying more urban highways because of the higher visibility of urban highway. Concretely speaking, when the quantity of urban highway is focused on, the local official will supply more highways; when the quality of urban highway is focused on, the local official will improve the level of the existing highway; invalid traffic makes the local government put more funds for the other urban infrastructure; the decision-making mode of “from low level to high level” can realize the consistency of government and highway users with highway scales, the decision-making mode of “from high level to low level” can cause the imbalance between supply and demand in highway construction