Abstract

The authors describe how Sao Paulo State granted a 20-year concession for operating a busway, one requirement for which was that the concessionaire replace the diesel bus operation with electric traction (trolleys). This was not a"greenfield concession"but is probably the only"busway"concession undertaken so far worldwide. With roughly 16,000 buses fighting their way through heavy traffic under traffic policies geared to automobiles, bus services was slow and unreliable. Then Sao Paulo adopted certain practices aimed at improving bus operations. Between 1983 and 1987, it implemented a segregated trolleybus corridor between Sao Mateus and Jabaquara, to be opened as a private concession regulated by the state of Sao Paulo. The concession was to operate for 20 years but the winning consortium had to invest in only part of the equipment, because part of it was in place. This made things less risky for the private consortium and allowed thestate to complete an environmentally friendly project with the help of the private sector. The concession has so far been a success - an example to be followed. After an initial increase, demand for the busway began to fall in 1998 and 1999. This was part of a general decline in demand for the bus system because of: a) A drop in jobs resulting from the economic slowdown. b) A growth in the use of automobiles. c) Competition from illegal buses (vans), which offer door-to-door service. The state was late in completing the aerial network for the trolleyway and rehabilitating sections of the roadway. This delayed replacement of diesel buses by trolleybuses. State representatives indicated it might be better in future to find a mechanism through which the concessionaire instead of the state would undertake infrastructure works and would also handle administration of integration terminals. Document type: Book

Abstract

Transportation engineers and urban planners often report uncertain estimates as precise numbers, and unwarranted trust in the accuracy of those precise numbers can lead to bad transportation and land-use policies. This paper presents data on parking generation and trip generation rates to illustrate the misuse of precise numbers to report statistically insignificant estimates . Beyond the problem of statistical insignificance, parking and trip generation rates typically report the parking demand and vehicle trips observed at suburban sites with ample free parking and no public transit. These parking and trip generation rates are therefore useful guides for planning a city where everyone will drive everywhere they go and park free when they get there. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Models supported by ICT tools are developed to raise collaboration and share of resources in urban logistics process, in a kind of "Logistics-as-uber" concept, which allows implementing operations such as “GoodsPooling” con-cept, equivalent to carpooling concept: daily use of home/work trips to pick and deliver goods on the way. This solution can also be integrated with the use of Taxis or even persons in a public transportation in a sharing solution of persons and goods transportation. This project aims to develop a conceptual model based on already existing city mobility alternatives to reduce dedicated transportation of goods. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This paper describes how traffic congestion—both in perception and in reality—impacts the movement of people and freight and is deeply tied to the history of high levels of accessibility and mobility. Along spatial and temporal dimensions, traffic congestion has been around since ancient Rome; it wastes time and energy, causes pollution and stress, decreases productivity and imposes costs on society equal to 2-3% of the gross national product (GDP). In terms of technology, it was that an automobile is “a conveyance which is capable of moving 1.6 km (a mile) a minute, yet the average speed of traffic in large cities is around 17.7 km/h or 11 mph.” The paper describes how in 2002, it was estimated that congestion wastes $63.2 billion in 75 metropolitan areas during 2002 because of extra time lost and fuel consumed, or about $829 per person. Some people refer to these kinds of estimates as misleading since the prospect of eliminating all congestion during peak periods is only a myth; congestion could never be completely eliminated. While some research emphasizes that rush hour is longer than an hour in the morning and more than an hour in the evening, few people are rushing anywhere, and others say that gridlock is not going to happen because people change what they do long before the gridlock occurs. Some view congestion as a problem that individual drivers are subjected to, while others emphasize that the users of transportation networks not only experience congestion, they create it. The paper shows that most people make travel decisions based on an expectation of experiencing a certain amount of congestion; while few consider the costs their trips impose on others by adding to the congestion. The objective of this paper is to discuss current definitions of metropolitan traffic congestion and ways that it is currently measures. In addition, the accuracy and reliability of these measures will be described along with a review of how congestion has been changing over the past few decades. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Part 21: Mobility and Logistics; International audience; Throughout the world societies are changing, so is mobility behavior. People are increasingly using multiple modes of transport; not only different modes for different trips but also combined use of different modes within one trip can be observed. Furthermore decisions for certain modes on specific trip stages depend on situational context (e.g. current traffic) and individual preferences. This trend can be supported by collaboration of mobility and service providers. Therefore information systems need to provide real-time data about traffic, provider status (of several mobility providers) and possible transfer points to enact context sensitive route adjustment. Alongside with customer preferences traffic flow can be optimized on individual and public level. In this article we strive to highlight challenges associated to this scenario. In addition we will present an architecture for intermodal information systems that offers services for individual planning, real-time route adjustment and provider cooperation. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This paper uses a popular web mapping and transportation service to generate information for more than 22 million counterfactual trip instances in 154 large Indian cities. It then develops a methodology to estimate robust indices of mobility for these cities. The estimation allows for an exact decomposition of overall mobility into uncongested mobility and the congestion delays caused by traffic. The paper first documents wide variation in mobility across Indian cities. It then shows that this variation is driven primarily by uncongested mobility. Finally, the paper investigates correlates of mobility and congestion. Denser and more populated cities are slower, in part because of congestion, especially close to their centers. Urban economic development is generally correlated with better uncongested mobility, worse congestion, and overall with better mobility. Document type: Book

Abstract

Traffic congestion and its impacts significantly affect the nation's economic performance and the public's quality of life. In most urban areas, travel demand routinely exceeds highway capacity during peak periods. In addition, events such as crashes, vehicle breakdowns, work zones, adverse weather, and suboptimal signal timing cause temporary capacity losses, often worsening the conditions on already congested highway networks. The impacts of these temporary capacity losses include delay, reduced mobility, and reduced reliability of the highway system. They can also cause drivers to re-route or reschedule trips. Prior to this study, no nationwide estimates of temporary losses of highway capacity had been made by type of capacity-reducing event. Such information is vital to formulating sound public policies for the highway infrastructure and its operation. This study is an initial attempt to provide nationwide estimates of the capacity losses and delay caused by temporary capacity-reducing events. The objective of this study was to develop and implement methods for producing national-level estimates of the loss of capacity on the nation's highway facilities due to temporary phenomena as well as estimates of the impacts of such losses. The estimates produced by this study roughly indicate the magnitude of problems that are likely be addressed by the Congress during the next re-authorization of the Surface Transportation Programs. The scope of the study includes all urban and rural freeways and principal arterials in the nation's highway system for 1999. Specifically, this study attempts to quantify the extent of temporary capacity losses due to crashes, breakdowns, work zones, weather, and sub-optimal signal timing. These events can cause impacts such as capacity reduction, delays, trip rescheduling, rerouting, reduced mobility, and reduced reliability. This study focuses on the reduction of capacity and resulting delays caused by the temporary events mentioned above. Impacts other than capacity losses and delay, such as re-routing, rescheduling, reduced mobility, and reduced reliability, are not covered in this phase of research. Document type: Report

Abstract

The idea of livable communities suggests that people should have the option to utilize non-motorized travel (NMT), specifically walking and bicycling, to conduct their daily tasks. Forecasting personal travel by walk and bike is necessary as part of regional transportation planning, and requires fine detail not only about individual travel, but also on transportation and neighborhood infrastructure. In an attempt to characterize the 'market' potential for NMT, the Office of Planning, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded the Center for Transportation Analysis (CTA) of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to conduct a study. The objectives of this effort were to identify factors that influence communities to walk and bike and to examine why, or why not, travelers walk and bike in their communities. This study relied on information collected under the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) as the major source of data, and was supplemented with data from the American Community Survey (ACS), educational survey, health, employment, and others. Initial statistical screening methods were applied to sort through over 400 potential predictor variables, and examined with various measures (e.g., walk trip per person, walk mileage per person, bike trip per person, bike mileage per person) as the dependent variables. more » The best geographic level of detail used in the modeling for this study was determined to be the Census block group level for walking and Census tract level for biking. The need for additional supplemental private data (i.e., Walk Scores and Nielsen employment data), and geospatial information that reflects land use and physical environments, became evident after an examination of findings from the initial screening models. To be feasible, in terms of costs and time, the geographic scale of the study region was scaled down to nine selected NHTS add-on regions. These regions were chosen based on various criteria including transit availability, population size, and a mix of geographic locations across the nation. Given the similarities in modeling results from walk trips and walk mileages, additional modeling efforts conducted under the later part of this study were focused on walk trips per person. Bike models were limited only with the stepwise logistic models using Census tracts in the selected regions. Due to NHTS sampling limitations, only about 12% of these tracts have bike trips recorded from NHTS sampled households. The modeling with NHTS bike data proved to be more challenging and time consuming than what was anticipated. Along with the late arrival of Nielsen employment data, the project team had to limit the modeling effort to focus on walking. Therefore, the final modeling and discriminant analysis was conducted only for walking trips. « le Document type: Report