Economics
Transport economics is used to understand both the relationship between the transport system and the wider economy and the complex network effects when there are multiple paths and competing modes for both personal and freight (road/rail/air/ferry) and where Induced demand can result in increased on decreased transport levels when road provision is increased by building new roads or decreased (for example California State Route 480). Roads are generally built and maintained by the public sector using taxation although implementation may be through private contractors). or occasionally using road tolls.
Public-private partnerships are a way for communities to address the rising cost by injecting private funds into the infrastructure. There are four main ones:
- design/build
- design/build/operate/maintain
- design/build/finance/operate
- build/own/operate
Economics and society depend heavily on efficient roads. In the European Union (EU) 44% of all goods are moved by trucks over roads and 85% of all people are transported by cars, buses or coaches on roads. The term was also commonly used to refer to roadsteads, waterways that lent themselves to use by shipping.
Read more about this topic: Road
Famous quotes containing the word economics:
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
—Anonymous.
An axiom from economics popular in the 1960s, the words have no known source, though have been dated to the 1840s, when they were used in saloons where snacks were offered to customers. Ascribed to an Italian immigrant outside Grand Central Station, New York, in Alistair Cooke’s America (epilogue, 1973)
“Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“Women’s battle for financial equality has barely been joined, much less won. Society still traditionally assigns to woman the role of money-handler rather than money-maker, and our assigned specialty is far more likely to be home economics than financial economics.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)