Abstract

The financing of transport infrastructure has been discussed in this chapter as an issue between efficient pricing and political distribution. Historically, toll pricing and private investment in transport infrastructure has been frequent and important (e.g., in the railway era), and market orientation relevant. More recently, e.g., in the economic growth after the Second World War and the construction of large motorway networks as well as urban transit systems, public funding and operation has largely dominated. Economists, models for the return to some economic principles promoting an efficient allocation of funds, environmental resources, and users’ time are of limited relevance as long as distributional issues prevail. Therefore, the conclusion is that the increasing emphasis in the literature on analyzing and understanding the economics of transport policy and the mechanisms of collective choices in the sector will improve the feasibility of financing infrastructure via pricing. Document type: Part of book or chapter of 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

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

Logistic Service Providers (LSPs) offering hinterland transportation face the trade-off between efficiently using the capacity of long-haul vehicles and minimizing the first and last-mile costs. To achieve the optimal trade-off, freights have to be consolidated considering the variation in the arrival of freight and their characteristics, the applicable transportation restrictions, and the interdependence of decisions over time. We propose the use of a Markov model and an Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) algorithm to consolidate the right freights in such transportation settings. Our model incorporates probabilistic knowledge of the arrival of freights and their characteristics, as well as generic definitions of transportation restrictions and costs. Using small test instances, we show that our ADP solution provides accurate approximations to the optimal solution of the Markov model. Using larger problem instances, we show that our modeling approach has significant benefits when compared to common-practice heuristic approaches. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

The concept of Jobs-housing balance (JHB) has attracted many city and transportation planning agencies for the interest of increasing place quality and reducing travel demand. Operationalizing JHB, however, has been a challenge. There are several critical questions in the application of JHB: what is a good ratio? How should JHB be quantified for guiding land use development? And, to what extent could jobs-housing ratio be effectively used as an intervention instrument? Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Transportation has become an increasingly important part of the Canadian furniture industry supply chain. Even when different furniture companies ship to the same regions, the same cities and/or the same furniture retailers, coordination between two or more companies is rare. Recently, interest in collaborative transportation planning to support coordination has intensified as important potential benefits (e.g. cost and delivery time reductions) have been identified. Even though substantial benefits can be realized, the methods for sharing benefits among companies as well as the leadership of the collaboration implementation are key issues in deciding on a logistics scenario for the collaboration. In this paper, the impacts of these two key issues are illustrated using an industrial case study of four Canadian furniture companies shipping to the United-States. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

In transportation planning, design of intersections is required some concrete decisions. It is mostly related to capacity, safety and economy. In many applications, capacity is considered as the main factor for design purpose and type of intersection is determined regarding the capacity. But it is known that safety and economy are as important as the capacity. In order to handle this problem, a multi-criteria decision making approach (AHP) is used. Four intersection types are used. Fuel consumption, emission rates, delay, cost of intersection type and safety parameters are taken into account in the decision process. These intersection types are tested by SIDRA Intersection software using the parameters listed above. The data obtained by SIDRA software is used in the AHP model. Weights of the factors used in the AHP model are varied considering the views of capacity and economy. And results and applicability of the model are discussed. © 2016, IGI Global. All rights reserved. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

In the urban planning literature, it is frequently explicitly asserted or strongly implied that ongoing urban sprawl and decentralization can lead to development patterns that are unsustainable in the long run. One manifestation of such an outcome is that if extensive road investments occur, urban sprawl and decentralization are advanced and locked-in, making subsequent investments in public transit less effective in reducing vehicle kilometers traveled by car, gasoline use and carbon dioxide emissions. Using a simple core-periphery model of Beijing, the authors numerically assess this effect. The analysis confirms that improving the transit travel time in Beijing?s core would reduce the city?s overall carbon dioxide emissions, whereas the opposite would be the case if peripheral road capacity were expanded. This effect is robust to perturbations in the model?s calibrated parameters. In particular, the effect persists for a wide range of assumptions about how location choice depends on travel time and a wide range of assumptions about other aspects of consumer preferences. Document type: Book

Abstract

Micro-simulations for transport planning are becoming increasingly important in traffic simulation, traffic analysis, and traffic forecasting. In the last decades the shift from using typically aggregated data to more detailed, individual based, complex data (e.g. GPS tracking) andthe continuously growing computer performance on fixed price level leads to the possibility of using microscopic models for large scale planning regions. This chapter presents such a micro-simulation. The work is part of the research project MATSim (Multi Agent Transport Simulation, http://matsim.org). In the chapter here the focus lies on design and implementation issues as well as on computational performance of different parts of the system. Based on a study of Swiss daily traffic – ca. 2.3 million individuals using motorized individual transport producing about 7.1 million trips, assigned to a Swiss network model with about 60,000 links, simulated and optimized completely time-dynamic for a complete workday – it is shown that the system is able to generate those traffic patterns in about 36 hours computation time. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book