Abstract

1Camillo De Camillis1,2, Paul Peeters3, Luigia Petti4 and Andrea Raggi4 1Dipartimento di Scienze, Universita degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio”, Pescara European Commission, Joint Research Centre, IES, Ispra* 3Center for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, 4Dipartimento di Economia, Universita degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio”, Pescara 1,2,4Italy 3The Netherland Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Before financing major urban transport projects, decisionmakers should attempt to put in place the basic elements for long-term sustainability of the sector. Specifically, the author contends that each large metropolitan area in Brazil should incorporate into its urban transport strategy, and pursue vigorously, the following four-point agenda: 1) create a regional transport coordination commission in charge of coordinating policies among federal, state, and municipal governments, giving highest priority to major urban transport investments in the metropolitan region and promoting modal integration - all to the end of improving the sector's economic efficiency and long-term sustainability; 2) adopt an integrated land use, urban transport, and air quality strategy that provides a framework in which the community and decisionmakers can evaluate future urban transport investments and policies; 3) enact into law formal financing mechanisms that would ensure that long-run variable costs of urban transport systems are covered by operating and non-operating revenues from the systems and by appropriate user charges; and 4) promote private sector participation in the operation, maintenance, and construction of urban transport systems - through concessions or management contracts - as a way to lessen the financial burden on the government. Document type: Book

Abstract

In an age when escalating fuel prices, global warming and world resource depletion are of great concern, sustainable transport practices promise to define a new way of mobility into the future. With its comparatively minimal negative environmental impacts, non reliance on fuels and positive health effects, the simple bicycle offers significant benefits to humankind. These benefits are evident worldwide where bicycles are successfully endorsed through improved infrastructure, supporting policies, public education and management. In Australia, the national, state and local governments are introducing measures to improve and support green transport. This is necessary as current bicycle infrastructure is not always sufficient and the longstanding conflict with motorized transport still exists. The aim for the future is to implement sustainable hard and soft bicycle infrastructure globally; the challenges of such a task can be illustrated by the city of Brisbane, Australia. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Each city need to develop sustainable transport plans according to its future developments. This means identifying the best policy package of transport measures that could produce more sustainable future scenarios: lowest environmental impact, but also better social standards and at minimum cost. To that end, it is necessary to measure the environmental and social costs of each alternative transport mode. This paper proposes a methodology to calculate those costs in different city contexts: city centre and metropolitan suburbs. It provides a measure of the following environmental costs: pollution, noise, green house gasses and land taken. Then the social costs as congestion and accident costs. These two cost categories are calculated for each mean of transport: metro, bus, private car and taxi. The methodology has been applied to Madrid Region through modeling its mobility demand in 2004. The outputs are costs per passenger-km in each mode and Area: city centre and metropolitan ring. Therefore it is possible to assign monetary costs to environmental and social costs of each transport option; for example, car environmental costs are four times higher than buses on average, but it differs a lot from city centre to outskirt areas. Finally, some guidelines can be extracted to develop a more sustainable transport policy for Madrid Region. No data (2010) UEM Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Urban sprawl combined with low density development causes unsustainable development patterns including accessibility and mobility problems, especially for those who do not have the capacity to own a vehicle or access to quality public transport services. Sustainable transportation development is crucial in order to solve transport disadvantage problems in urban settlements. People who are affected by these problems are referred to as ‘transportation disadvantaged’. Transportation disadvantage is a multi-dimensional problem that combines socio-economics, transportation and spatial characteristics or dimensions. However, a substantial number of transportation disadvantage studies so far only focus on the socio-economic and transportation dimensions, while the latter dimension of transportation disadvantage has been neglected. This chapter investigates the spatial dimension of transportation disadvantage by comparing the travel capabilities of residents and their accessibility levels with land use characteristics. The analysis of the study identifies significant land use characteristics with travel inability, and is useful for identifying the transportation disadvantaged population. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

In this study, ambulance location problem, which is a significant research field in transportation in healthcare, is focused on. It is assumed that travelling time of vehicles between two demand points is uncertain and this uncertainty is represented as a crisp and as well as convex set. In order to deal with this uncertainty, robust counterpart approach, which is capable of providing conservatism, is employed. According to results of the simulation process, which is designed for the sake of benchmarking robust and nominal solutions, it can be easily claimed that conservative robustness is able to be achieved with significantly sufferable costs, even with no costs in most of the scenarios, by the proposed model. Ultimately, since robustness is one of the most important keywords for sustainability, on which discussions can be found in several parts of the text, this chapter is concluded with the claim that, by the proposed model, sustainability of transportation in healthcare is enhanced based on the adopted problem. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

UN Population Revisions indicate that more than 50% of the world’s population has lived in ‘urban’ areas since 2008 and much of the future ‘urban’ population increase will be absorbed more by the few metropolitan areas of rapidly growing developing countries (UN, 2008). Due to the accelerated urban growth and uncontrolled urban dispersion through naturally significant peripheral areas, sustainable urban growth management becomes a critical urban development policy in Istanbul. In this respect, the interaction among urban growth, urban transportation, rational land use allocations and sustainable transportation policies has an important role to achieve more sustainable urban development in Istanbul. Istanbul set a unique example of urban spatial development/urban transportation interaction with Bosphorus bridges and the connecting highways. This chapter first addresses urban spatial dispersion and transportation development interaction with special emphasis on the existing and proposed Bosphorus Bridges, and then correlates the results with the recent Transportation Master Plan and Environmental Master Plan. Although the latest Environmental Master Plan prepared by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality foresights the progression of public transit systems and no third bridge crossing on Bosphorus, there is a top-down impact for the third bridge crossing and a road tunnel on Bosphorus by the Central Government. Due to the interaction among spatial dispersion, transportation development and existing infrastructure, proposed bridges, their connected highways and flyovers – as well as recent transportation investments of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality – are assessed under the light of sustainable urban transportation policies. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Sustainable infrastructure demands that declared principles of sustainability are enacted in the processes of its implementation. However, a problem arises if the concept of sustainability is not thoroughly scrutinized in the planning process. The public interest could be undermined when the rhetoric of sustainability is used to substantiate a proposed plan. This chapter analyses the manifestation of sustainable development in the Boggo Road Busway Plan in Brisbane, Australia against the sustainability agenda set in the South East Queensland Regional and Transport Plans. Although the construction of the Busway was intended to improve public transport access in the region, its implementation drew significant environmental concerns. Local community groups contested the ‘sustainability’ concept deployed in Queensland’s infrastructure planning. Their challenges resulted in important concessions in the delivery of the Busway plan. This case demonstrates that principles of sustainable infrastructure should be measurable and that local communities be better informed in order to fulfill the public interest in regional planning. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the potential of community-led air quality monitoring. Community-led air quality monitoring differs from top-down monitoring in many aspects: it is focused on community needs and interests and a local problem and, therefore, has a limited geographical coverage as well as limited temporal coverage. However, localised air quality monitoring can potentially increase the spatial and temporal resolution of air quality information if there is a suitable information-sharing mechanism in place: information from multiple community-led activities can be shared at the city scale and used to augment official information. At the core of the chapter, we provide a detailed experiential description of the process of urban air quality practice, from which we draw our conclusion. We suggest that accessible and reliable community-led air quality monitoring can contribute to the understanding of local environmental issues and improve the dialogue between local authorities and communities about the impacts of air pollution on health and urban and transport planning. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book