TRANSPORT PLANNING

CHAPTER ONE .INTRODUCTION

Definitions of Transport planning.

Transportation planning is a field involved with the evaluation, assessment, design and sitting of
transportation facilities (generally streets, highways, sidewalks (footways), bike lanes and public
transport lines).

Transportation helps shape an area’s economic health and quality of life. Not only does the
transportation system provide for the mobility of people and goods, it also influences patterns of
growth and economic activity by providing access to land. The performance of the system affects
public policy concerns like air quality, environmental resource consumption, social equity, land
use, urban growth, economic development, safety, and security. Transportation planning
recognizes the critical links between transportation and other societal goals. The planning process
is more than merely listing highway and transit capital projects. It requires developing strategies
for operating, managing, maintaining, and financing the area’s transportation system in such a
way as to advance the area’s long-term goals.

Transportation — the movement of people and goods from point A to point B — is the life force
of our economy. Cities could not exist if we didn't have transportation systems to move people
and goods in, out and around them. It has been a leading driver behind globalisation: shrinking
distances, seeding the emergence of entire new economies and improving the quality of life for
millions of people.

What is transport planning?

Transport planning is about preparing, assessing and implementing policies, plans and projects to
improve and manage our transport systems. There is a need for transport planning on a local,
regional, national and international level. It can involve understanding the link between transport
and the future shape of our towns and cities, the economy, the environment and climate change,
and the quality of life. It is also about changing people's attitudes towards travel to encourage use
of alternatives to the private car.
What sort of things do transport planners do?

Transport planning includes a very wide range of disciplines and covers everything necessary to
tackle the nation's transport problems and to plan and deliver our transport systems. The wide
range of work is one of the big attractions. In fact, the work of transport planners touches almost
every aspect of our day-to-day lives.

Transport planning allows for high utilization and less impact regarding new infrastructure. Using
models of transport forecasting, planners are able to predict future transport patterns. On the
operative level, logistics allows owners of cargo to plan transport as part of the supply chain.
Transport as a field is studied through transport economics, the backbone for the creation of
regulation policy by authorities. Transport engineering, a sub-discipline of civil engineering, and
must take into account trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice and route assignment, while
the operative level is handles through traffic engineering.

Because of the negative impacts made, transport often becomes the subject of controversy related
to choice of mode, as well as increased capacity. Automotive transport can be seen as a tragedy of
the commons, where the flexibility and comfort for the individual deteriorate the natural and
urban environment for all. Density of development depends on mode of transport, with public
transport allowing for better spacial utilization. Good land use keeps common activities close to
people’s homes and places higher-density development closer to transport lines and hubs;
minimize the need for transport. There are economies of agglomeration. Beyond transportation
some land uses are more efficient when clustered. Transportation facilities consume land, and in
cities, pavement (devoted to streets and parking) can easily exceed 20 percent of the total land
use. An efficient transport system can reduce land waste.

CHAPTER TWO.BACKGROUND

History of transport

The history of transport evolved with the development of human culture. Long distance walking
tracks developed as trade routes in Paleolithic times. For most of human history the only forms of
transport apart from walking were using domesticated animals or transport in small boats.
Road transport

The first earth tracks were created by humans carrying goods and often followed game trails.
Tracks would be naturally created at points of high traffic density. As animals were domesticated,
horses, oxen and donkeys became an element in track-creation. With the growth of trade, tracks
were often flattened or widened to accommodate animal traffic. Later, the travois, a frame used to
drag loads, was developed. Animal-drawn wheeled vehicles probably developed in Sumer in the
Ancient Near East in the 4th or 5th millennium BC and spread to Europe and India in the 4th
millennium BC and China in about 1200 BC. The Romans had a significant need for good roads
to extend and maintain their empire and developed Roman roads.

In the medieval Islamic world, many roads were built throughout the Arab Empire. The most
sophisticated roads were those of the Baghdad, Iraq, which were paved with tar in the 8th
century. Tar was derived from petroleum, accessed from oil fields in the region, through the
chemical process of destructive distillation.

In the Industrial Revolution, John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) designed the first modern
highways, using inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (macadam), and he
embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain to cause water to drain away from
the surface. With the development of motor transport there was an increased need for hard-topped
roads to reduce wash ways, bogging and dust on both urban and rural roads, originally using
cobblestones and wooden paving in major western cities and in the early 20th century tar-bound
macadam (tarmac) and concrete paving were extended into the countryside.

The modern history of road transport also involves the development of new vehicles such as new
models of horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, motor cars, motor trucks and electric vehicles.

Maritime transport

In the stone ages primitive boats developed to permit navigation of rivers and for fishing in rivers
and off the coast. It has been argued that a boat suitable for a significant sea crossing was
necessary for people to reach Australia an estimated 40,000-45,000 years ago. With the
development of civilization, bigger vessels were developed both for trade and war. In the
Mediterranean, galleys were developed about 3000 BC. Galleys were eventually rendered
obsolete by ocean-going sailing ships, such as the Arabic caravel in the 13th century, the Chinese
treasure ship in the early 15th century, and the Mediterranean man-of-war in the late 15th
century. In the industrial revolution, the first steam ships and later diesel-powered ships were
developed. Eventually submarines were developed mainly for military purposes.

Meanwhile specialised craft were developed for river and canal transport. Canals were developed
in Mesopotamia c. 4000 BC. The Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan and North India (from c.
2600 BC) had the first canal irrigation system in the world. The longest canal of ancient times
was the impressive Canal of China. It is 1794 kilometres (1115 miles) long and was built to carry
the Emperor Yang Guang between Beijing and Hangzhou. The project began in 605, although the
oldest sections of the canal may have existed since c. 486 BC. Canals were developed in the
middle Ages in Europe in Venice and the Netherlands. Pierre-Paul Racquet began to organise the
construction of the 240 km-long Canal du Midi in France in 1665 and it was opened in 1681. In
the Industrial Revolution, inland canals were built in England and later the United States before
the development of railways. Specialised craft were also developed for fishing and later whaling.

Maritime history also deals with the development of navigation, oceanography, cartography and
hydrography.

Rail transport

The history of rail transportation dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with man or
horse power and rails of wood (or occasionally stone). This was usually for moving coal from the
mine down to a river, from where it could continue by boat, with a flanged wheel running on a
rail. The use of cast iron plates as rails began in the 1760s, and was followed by systems (plate
ways) where the flange was part of the rail. However, with the introduction of rolled wrought iron
rails, these became obsolete.

Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which made
use of the steam locomotive, were the first practical form of mechanized land transport, and they
remained the primary form of mechanized land transport for the next 100 years.

The history of rail transport also includes the history of rapid transit and arguably monorail
history.

Aviation
Humanity's desire to fly likely dates to the first time man observed birds, an observation
illustrated in the legendary stories of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology, and the Vimanas
in Indian mythology. Much of the focus of early research was on imitating birds, but through trial
and error, balloons, airships, gliders and eventually powered aircraft and other types of flying
machines were invented.

Spaceflight

The realistic dream of spaceflight dated back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, however Tsiolkovsky
wrote in Russian, and this was not widely influential outside Russia. Spaceflight became an
engineering possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper 'A
Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes'; where his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid
fuelled rockets gave sufficient power that interplanetary travel became possible. This paper was
highly influential on Hermann Oberth and Wernher Von Braun, later key players in spaceflight.
The history of transportation is largely one of technological innovation. Advances in technology
have allowed people to travel farther, explore more territory, and expand their influence over
larger and larger areas. Even in ancient times, new tools such as foot coverings, skis, and
snowshoes lengthened the distances that could be traveled. As new inventions and discoveries
were applied to transportation problems, travel time decreased while the ability to move more and
larger loads increased. Innovation continues today, and transportation researchers are working to
find new ways to reduce costs and increase transportation efficiency.

Containerization

Containerization can be defined as a system of intermodal [The term intermodal means

that the container can be loaded on different means (or modes) of transport - for example,
ships, aircraft, trains, trucks, etc. - with the minimum of effort and without have to
unpack and repack the container.] freight and cargo transport using standard ISO
containers (known as Shipping Containers or Isotainers) that can be loaded and sealed
intact onto container ships, railroad cars, planes and trucks. The idea of using standard
containers that could be easily and quickly packed and loaded onto like 'Lego blocks'
onto ships, aircraft, trucks and trains, resulted in a huge reduction in port handling costs,
contribute significantly to lower freight charges, increased cargo security and, in turn,
boosted trade flows.
The advantages of containers are:

• Increased efficiency
• Greater security
• Economical shipping costs

Chapter three

Literature review

Elements of transport

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the fixed installations that allow a vehicle to operate. It consists of both a way,
terminal and facilities for parking and maintenance. For rail, pipeline, road and cable transport,
the entire way the vehicle travels must be built up. Air and water craft are able to avoid this, since
the airway and seaway do not need to be built up. However, they require fixed infrastructure at
terminals.

Terminals such as airports, ports and stations, are locations where passengers and freight can be
transferred from one vehicle or mode to another. For passenger transport, terminals are
integrating different modes to allow riders to interchange to take advantage of each mode's
advantages. For instance, airport rail links connect airports to the city centres and suburbs. The
terminals for automobiles are parking lots, while buses and coaches can operates from simple
stops. For freight, terminals act as transhipment points, though some cargo is transported directly
from the point of production to the point of use.

The financing of infrastructure can either be public or private. Transport is often a natural
monopoly and a necessity for the public; roads, and in some countries railways and airports are
funded through taxation. New infrastructure projects can involve large spending, and are often
financed through debt. Many infrastructure owners therefore impose usage fees, such as landing
fees at airports, or toll plazas on roads. Independent of this, authorities may impose taxes on the
purchase or use of vehicles.

Vehicles

A vehicle is any non-living device that is used to move people and goods. Unlike the
infrastructure, the vehicle moves along with the cargo and riders. Vehicles that do not operate on
land, are usually called crafts. Unless being pulled by a cable or muscle-power, the vehicle must
provide its own propulsion; this is most commonly done through a steam engine, combustion
engine, electric motor, a jet engine or a rocket, though other means of propulsion also exist.
Vehicles also need a system of converting the energy into movement; this is most commonly
done through wheels, propellers and pressure.

Vehicles are most commonly staffed by a driver. However, some systems, such as people movers
and some rapid transits, are fully automated. For passenger transport, the vehicle must have a
compartment for the passengers. Simple vehicles, such as automobiles, bicycles or simple
aircraft, may have one of the passengers as a driver.

Operation

Private transport is only subject to the owner of the vehicle, who operates the vehicle themselves.
For public transport and freight transport, operations are done through private enterprise or by
governments. The infrastructure and vehicles may be owned and operated by the same company,
or they may be operated by different entities. Traditionally, many countries have had a national
airline and national railway. Since the 1980s, many of these have been privatized. International
shipping remains a highly competitive industry with little regulation, but ports can be public
owned.

Freight

Freight transport, or shipping, is a key in the value chain in manufacturing. With increased
specialization and globalization, production is being located further away from consumption,
rapidly increasing the demand for transport. While all modes of transport are used for cargo
transport, there is high differentiation between the nature of the cargo transport, in which mode is
chosen. Logistics refers to the entire process of transferring products from producer to consumer,
including storage, transport, transhipment, warehousing, material-handling and packaging, with
associated exchange of information. Incoterm deals with the handling of payment and
responsibility of risk during transport.

Containerization, with the standardization of ISO containers on all vehicles and at all ports, has
revolutionized international and domestic trade, offering huge reduction in transhipment costs.
Traditionally, all cargo had to be manually loaded and unloaded into the haul of any ship or car;
containerization allows for automated handling and transfer between modes, and the standardized
sizes allow for gains in economy of scale in vehicle operation. This has been one of the key
driving factors in international trade and globalization since the 1950s.

Bulk transport is common with cargo that can be handled roughly without deterioration; typical
examples are ore, coal, cereals and petroleum. Because of the uniformity of the product,
mechanical handling can allow enormous quantities to be handled quickly and efficiently. The
low value of the cargo combined with high volume also means that economies of scale become
essential in transport, and gigantic ships and whole trains are commonly used to transport bulk.
Liquid products with sufficient volume may also be transported by pipeline.

Air freight has become more common for products of high value; while less than one percent of
world transport by volume is by airline, it amounts to forty percent of the value. Time has become
especially important in regards to principles such as postponement and just-in-time within the
value chain, resulting in a high willingness to pay for quick delivery of key components or items
of high value-to-weight ratio. In addition to mail, common items send by air include electronics
and fashion clothing.

1. The Traditional Transport Planning Process

"Long-range plans engender the dangerous belief that the future is under control." Max Gunther.

Transport planning is usually focused on specific problems or on broad transport concerns at a

local level. It has been traditionally a preoccupation of lower tier governments, such as the state
or municipality. Because of this fact, transport planning is most developed in the urban
sphere, and it is there where most experience has been gathered. The planning process, however,
has a number of similarities with the policy process. Identifying a problem, seeking options and
implementing the chosen strategy are essential steps in planning too. Because it tends to deal with
localized problems, the solutions adopted in transport planning tend to be much more exact and
specific than policy directives.
Many aspects and issues involved in urban transport planning have already been covered in
Chapter Six. For a long time been it was a field dominated by traffic engineers who gave it a
distinctly mechanistic character, in which the planning process was seen as a series of rigorous
steps undertaken to measure likely impacts and to propose engineering solutions. There were four
major steps: Trip generation, trip distribution, modal split, and route selection. They involved the
use of mathematical models, including regression analysis, entropy-maximizing models, and
critical path analysis.

There are many reasons why the results of these models should be treated with caution:

• They are only as good as the data they manipulate and many times the data is inaccurate
or incomplete;
• They are based on assumptions that the mathematical relationships between variables
remain constant;
• They can be manipulated to produce the outcome that the analyst knows the client
prefers;
• Because the predictions were rarely subjected to subsequent evaluation, their validity
is largely questioned, and the modeller is happy to predict the future since projections
rarely question the validity of the methodology.

The predictions of future traffic flows produced by the four stage sequence are then used to
identify planning options. Since the most common prediction of the modelling is that present
capacities will be unable to cope with traffic growth, the tendency has been to produce planning
solutions that call for an expansion of capacity. This has been referred to as predict and
accommodate. It is the solution that has typified so much urban transport planning from the 1940s
to the 1980s. It has given rise to the enormous expansion of highway construction that reinforces
the dominance of the automobile. Rarely are there post mortems of the prediction models, and as
has been learned by empirical observation, the issue of induced demand has distorted the actual
traffic.

2. Contemporary Transport Planning

In cities traffic problems have increased significantly over the last 50 years, despite a great deal
of urban transport planning. There is a growing realization that perhaps planning has failed and
that the wrong questions have been asked. Rather than estimate traffic increases and then provide
capacity to meet the expected growth, it is now accepted that what is required is better
management of the transport system through new approaches to planning. Just as urban planning
requires the inputs of many specialists, so transport planning is beginning to utilize multi-
disciplinary teams in order to broaden the scope of the planning process. Planning is still a multi-
step process, but it has changed considerably over the last twenty years.

• Goals and objectives. While the goal of traditional transport policy, improving
accessibility, is still useful, it has to be considered in the context of other desirable goals.
For instance improving safety and health, reducing emissions from vehicles, improving
equity, enhancing economic opportunities, improving community livability, promoting
mobility are all valid. But which goal(s) are pursued results in a very different planning
process. Defining goals becomes a much more complicated stage in contemporary
planning. Increasingly goals have turned to consider managing demand, rather than trying
to build capacity.
• Options. Given the possible range of goals that transport planners have to consider, it
becomes necessary to provide a set of possible options. Several objectives may be
desirable, and thus it is important to consider what they imply. Several scenarios may
have to be considered, and they must become important components of the planning
process.
• Identification of actors, institutions, stakeholders. Given that transport planning has
the potential to influence so many elements of society –economic wellbeing,
environmental conditions, social integration – it is important that those affected by the
transport problem and its potential resolution should be identified so that they can be
engaged. This would be a much wider list of affected parties than simply those involved
in transportation activity itself, and requires recognizing a role for citizen participation.
• Predicting outcomes, identifying benefits, and assessing costs. The stage of predicting
the outcomes for each of the options is a critical step in the process. Models continue to
play an important role, but whereas the traditional models were based on the number of
trips, increasingly modelling is becoming more activity based. Transport is seen in the
context of scheduling household decisions in time and space. Demographic and social
data are used extensively, and the mathematical models have become more sophisticated.
Nevertheless there are roles for other types of analyses, including non-objective forecasts.
The predicted outcomes must then be assessed as to their benefits and costs. These may
be expressed in monetary terms, but many transport planning situations call for
 measurement in other terms, such as visual impacts, environmental dislocations, and
employment impacts.
• Choosing course of action. Evaluation of the scenarios has to consider the costs and
benefits from the frequently conflicting perspectives of the stakeholders and actors.
Extensive public consultation may be required. The information has to be disseminated
and explained so that an informed public can participate in the debate. Ultimately it will
be the politicians who decide, but they are swayed by the strength of the arguments
presented by the transport professionals, and in publicly contentious cases by pressure
brought to bear by citizens groups.

3. Transport Demand Management

In rejecting the former paradigm of building capacity, transport planners have turned increasingly
to managing both demand and the transport system. Building roads has produced a car-
oriented society in which the other modal alternatives have little opportunity to co-exist.

Car ownership is beyond the ability of the transport planner to control directly and the question
remains if it should. But car use and ownership is affected by land use and density, both elements
that planners can affect. High population densities, in particular, favour walking, bicycling and
public transit use. It is for this reason that a great deal of attention in planning is being paid to
densification and integration. This includes concentrating development along well served
transport corridors (transit oriented development) and increasing densities in areas undergoing
rehabilitation.

Managing the demand for transport is made up of a large number of small interventions that
cumulatively can impact of car use, but in particular improve the liveability of cities (Victoria
Transport Policy Institute, 2005). A sample of well-practiced and successful interventions
includes:

• Park and ride. Parking spaces are provided, usually close to an expressway, where
drivers can board busses that provide service to the city centre. This has become a staple
feature in the outer zones of many US and British cities. Its success is variable, however,
and there is some evidence from the UK that park and ride may actually increase car use,
as people who may have used regular bus services now use their cars to drive to the car
parks (Pankhurst and Richardson, 2002).
• Traffic calming. Measures that seek to reduce the speed of vehicles in urban areas, such
as speed bumps and street narrowing. For residential streets the goal is to make their use
by car drivers unattractive because of the obstacles, for thoroughfares the objective is to
reduce the average speeds. The measures indicate the need for much greater attention to
street design and layout (Ewing 1999).
• Priority lanes for busses, and high occupancy vehicles. Lanes on major thoroughfares
and expressways that are reserved for busses, taxis and passenger vehicles with several
occupants. This has become an important feature of transport planning in North America,
where major highway expansion projects offer priority lanes. The goal is to encourage
use of busses and high occupancy vehicles that can be seen to travel at higher speeds
along the reserved lanes by other drivers who may be stuck in traffic jams.
• Alternate work schedules. Encouraging work hours other than the dominant 9 to 5
schedule. One of the great problems in transport planning is that demand is concentrated
in two main peak periods. In the past, efforts were made to meet this demand by
increasing road capacity, which was never sufficient, and resulted in an under use of the
capacity the other 20 hours each day. Promoting flexible schedules and encouraging
telecommuting are policies that are seeking to spread out the demand for transport over
more hours and even reducing the demand altogether (Janelle and Gillespie 2004).
• Promoting bicycle use. In some countries, particularly the Netherlands, the bicycle is an
important mode of travel. It is a green and healthy mode, but in automobile dependent
cities, the bicycle does not share the roads easily with trucks and cars. Encouraging
greater use of the bicycle requires significant planning adjustments, such as the provision
of bicycle lanes and bike stands.
• Car sharing. Encouraging drivers to share car use with neighbors or co-workers.
• Enhancing pedestrian areas. In most cities vehicles dominate the streets. In many areas
of high population density, the quality of life (enhanced safety, less pollution etc.) and the
visual attractiveness of streetscapes can be enhanced by excluding vehicles from streets
altogether, or limiting access to public transport vehicles. In Europe this has become a
distinctive feature of the historic cores of many cities.
• Improving public transit. For fifty years or more public transit use as declined in most
cities. Yet it is the only major alternative to the car in these cities, and thus enhancing the
use of transit has become a major planning objective. Improvements include making
transit more attractive, by improving bus schedules and improving the appearance and
comfort of transit vehicles and stations. At the same time efforts are underway to widen
 the range of transit alternatives. These include extending commuter rail services, and
constructing new systems such as light and heavy rail modes (Litman 2005).
• Parking management. Restricting on-street parking and charging higher rates for
parking.

4. Pricing

While planning interventions may have a positive cumulative effect in shaping transport demand,
some economists suggest that a more direct approach involving imposing more stringent cost
measures on car users is necessary. It is widely accepted that car users pay only a small
proportion of the actual costs of their vehicle use. Economists argue that the external costs
should be borne by the users. As intuitively rational as this argument may be, there are several
problems with its application.

• First, there are difficulties in measuring externalities, with considerable variations in

estimates between different studies. Different types of use, speeds, engines, vehicle
weight, driving conditions etc. make it difficult to produce broadly accepted values.
Decision makers have difficulty in agreeing to impose charges when there is a diversity
of evidence about external costs.
• Second, there are practical difficulties in collecting these costs. One of the easiest (and
most widely used) methods is a gasoline tax. It is a crude approach, however, because it
imperfectly distinguishes between driving conditions and engine type – a fuel efficient
vehicle may have just as high consumption in heavy urban traffic as a gas-guzzler in a
rural setting.
• Third, is the political difficulty of imposing such additional costs on the public. In
North America in particular, access to ‘free’ roads is regarded as a birthright, and it is
intensely unpopular to propose any new forms of revenue generation that hints at
additional taxation.

The effectiveness of economic controls is evident by the experience of Hong Kong, where,
despite high incomes, car ownership and use remains at a very low level. This is due in the main
to the high cost of parking. An even more drastic example is Singapore, where extreme measures
limiting car purchases, high vehicle licenses, electronic tolls on highways, and cordon pricing in
the downtown area have restrained car use.
The use of pricing mechanisms may be less in other countries, but the trend towards greater
application of some forms of tolling is accelerating. Cordon pricing has been applied in a
number of jurisdictions, especially in Norway in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. Under cordon
pricing, access to certain areas, usually the CBD is tolled. The most famous application was the
decision to charge private vehicles for entry into Central London in early 2003, a program that
has proved to be successful, despite a great deal of opposition.

Another form of charging is the imposition of tolls on new highways and bridges. In North
America, the public had become used to the notion that highways are ‘free’, a legacy of the
Interstate Highways Act, funded largely by Congress. In both Canada and the US legislation now
permits private companies to build and operate private roads and bridges, and to collect tolls to
cover costs. In Canada, Highway 407 outside Toronto and the Confederation Bridge linking
Prince Edward Island to the mainland are examples of tolled facilities developed and operated by
private corporations. The same trend applies to developing countries such as China where many
new roads and bridges are toll based.

Another form of pricing is congestion or "fair" pricing. Here certain lanes of a highway are
tolled, but at variable rates. When traffic is moving freely, the charges for the tolled lanes are nil.
But as traffic builds up and speeds are reduced, the costs of using the reserved lanes increase.
Collection of the tolls is electronic, and drivers are informed of the current charges by large signs.
Drivers are given a choice therefore, to stay in the slower lanes for free, or move to the tolled
lanes at a cost that is proportionate to the speed on the congested lanes. This system is now in
place in several US States, after successful tests in California and Texas.

5. Intelligent Vehicles and Intelligent Highways

Technology is seen by many transport planners as a solution to a wide range of transport

problems. This is an approach that has achieved wide acceptance in the US, where there has
always been a strong emphasis on seeking engineering solutions to urban transport problems. It
involves using information technologies (ITS) to provide better information and control over
traffic flow and individual vehicle use. Many of the solutions involve the application of remote
sensing techniques along with ITS.

One of the most promising approaches involves Interactive Highways. They are a means of
communication between the road and driver that warn of approaching road conditions. Warnings
include electronic message boards that suggest alternate routes to approaching motorists,
designated radio frequencies that give updated traffic reports. It is based on a closed-circuit TV
system (CCTV) that records lane-by-lane occupancy, volume and speed. At the same time ramp
meters record in real time the amount of traffic entering the highway. This information is
analyzed and processed at a control centre that can dispatch emergency equipment to accidents as
they happen, and can inform other drivers of road conditions, accidents, construction and delays.

A further technology is Emergency Signal Priority. This is a means of providing emergency

vehicles and public transport busses priority at traffic lights in congested areas. The system
allows a vehicle equipped with a system emitter to send a coded infrared message to the system
detector, installed at the traffic intersection. When activated, the detector receives the coded
message and then either holds the existing green light until the vehicle passes through or changes
the existing red light to a green light.

ITS is being applied in many further innovative ways to improve the efficiency of emergency
vehicles. For example, in Montreal mathematical models are being used to predict where road
accidents are likely to occur given the time of day, traffic volumes and weather conditions.
Ambulances can be assigned to these zones. Once deployed and assigned to a specific event,
optimal routing is determined and relayed to drivers. When the first responders have identified
the extent and type of injuries, the information is relayed to a control center which determines
availability of doctors and nurses at which hospital emergency room, and suggests a routing for
the ambulance using least-time model estimation.

ITS is providing many solutions to the problems of road pricing. Toll collection is increasingly
using electronic means to collect tolls without requiring vehicles to stop at toll booths. In its
simplest form, vehicles equipped with a transponder that emits details of the vehicle are allowed
to pass through toll lanes without stopping to pay. Receptors at the booth record the passage and
debit the account. This is at the heart of the cordon pricing and of most new toll systems in place.

This technology, however, is being wedded to global positioning systems (GPS), which is likely
to produce radical changes in the way vehicular traffic is priced. As reviewed by Sorenson and
Taylor (2005), this combination of technologies will permit a more effective means of applying
road pricing than the road tax. Vehicles will be required to have an on-board unit that includes a
GPS receiver, a set of digital maps showing jurisdictional boundaries, an odometer feed, a set of
distance rate charges, and a wireless communication system to report billing data. During each
trip the GPS determines the jurisdictional zones, the odometer calculates the distance travelled in
each zone, and the computer tabulates the running total of fees, and periodically signals the data
to the billing agency. These systems are presently being evaluated in several states in the US. A
comparable system is already in place in Germany, where since late 2004 all truck movements are
charged an environmental tax based on distance travelled and vehicle characteristics.

6. Freight Planning

The vast preponderance of transport planning, certainly at the urban level, has been devoted to
passengers. The automobile and public transit issues have pre-occupied planners since individual
mobility can be a highly political issue (drivers are also voters). Yet freight traffic represents a
significant part of many problems that planning seeks to address. The models and data inputs
used in transportation planning are of little relevance when applied to freight movements. For
example, demographic data, such as household size, the backbone of passenger analysis, are
irrelevant for freight. The bi-polar daily peak of traffic movements applies only to passengers,
freight movements being distributed in a different profile over a 24 hour period.

While trucks account for approximately 10% of vehicles on the road, their size, low
manoeuvrability, noisiness, and high pollution output make their presence particularly
objectionable. Truck pick-up and delivery in city centres is particularly problematic because of
limited parking. At the same time trucks are vital to the economy and well-being of society.
Commerce is dominated by trucking, and the logistics industry in particular is dependent on road
transport for pickup and delivery. Garbage pickup, snow removal, fire protection is among many
essential services that are truck oriented.

Planning for freight movements is still in its infancy. As a largely private sector activity it is
difficult to control, and many of the decisions that affect trucking are made by the industry itself.
The emergence of large logistics/distribution centres on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas is
taking place without public control or oversight. In Europe, some attempt to manage such
development by establishing publicly-promoted freight villages has only limited success.

Several cities are seeking to limit trucking as pressures keep mounting up. In many jurisdictions
limits on heavy trucks in urban areas are in place, and there are restrictions on the times of
delivery and pick up, which in some European cities extend to the exclusion of all trucks in the
urban core during daytime hours. The question remains about is constraining urban freight
circulation does not impair the economy.

All these steps are tackling the problem at the edges. In many cities there are no census data on
freight traffic, so that planning in the few cases where it takes place is inevitably hit and miss.
There needs to be a much greater focus on freight planning overall, since it is almost universally
recognized that freight transport is important

Chapter four.

Transport being one of the most expensive items involved in the logistics should be really looked
into otherwise this will amount to very high costs of goods which will lead to a drop in the sales
this will result to low organizations profit due to low stock turnover. An organization should
always consider its transport system in order to cut down on costs.

A good transport system should be that one that cuts down the costs of the organization other than
that one that increases the costs which are eventually transferred to the buyer.

Nakummat is a chain of supermarkets its Head office is situated at industrial area this is where all
the purchases for the chain supermarkets are done for economies of scale. Purchases are done on
large scale from manufacturers in order to enjoy trade discount. Nakummat having a chain of
supermarkets were forced to think of how they would transport its large quantities of goods
conveniently and economically. Nakummat uses trucks to ferry goods to the various destined
shops of the chain.

Nakummat has planned its transport this way so that they want to cut down on transport costs
because if every shop goes to source for their products transportation costs would be very high
which would ultimately be transferred to the customer and in the long run will lower the
organizations profit. .

The management sat and thought of the most convenient way of transporting the goods to the
various shops and also considered the costs involved.
Winter (1997) talked of transportation in the transportation journal where he mentioned that the
most important aspect is to consider the cost involved in transportation when designing
transportation.

A company dealing with sale of cars will be based at the port where they are able to transact there
business easily and wait for several orders so that they will transport all vehicles needed e.g. to
Nairobi using one track instead of bringing one each and every time.

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

Transportation

Transportation is an important link of the logistics system. Transport is a branch of material

production, transporting people and goods.

Vehicles must have a number of necessary properties and satisfy certain requirements in order to
create innovative systems for the collection and distribution of goods. First of all, transport
should be flexible enough to provide the transportation process that is subject to weekly or even
daily adjustments, to ensure frequent and clock delivery of goods in scattered and remote
locations, reliably serve clients in order to avoid interruption of business or deficit at the client.
Simultaneously, transport must be able to carry small loads over short intervals, in accordance
with changing user demands and conditions of small-scale production.

Transportation is represented as a system consisting of two subsystems: public transport and

transport non-generic use.

Public transport is a sector of the economy that meets needs of all sectors of the economy and the
population in the transportation of cargo and passengers. Public transport serves the scope of
treatment and population. It is often called the backbone (backbone is a main line in any system,
in this case – the system of means of communication).

Transport non-generic use – in-plant operations, as well as vehicles of all kinds, belonging to the
non-transport enterprises, is typically an integral part of any production systems.
Means of transport

The main means of transport include:

 Rail
 Marine
 Inland
 waterways (river)
 automobile
 air
 pipeline among others

Each of the modes of transport has specific characteristics in terms of logistics management,
strengths and weaknesses, determine the possibilities of its use in the logistics system.

Advantages of modes of transportation

Rail

• high throughput, and the freight, regardless of climatic conditions, time of year and day
• high frequency of traffic,
• the ability to effectively organize the implementation of loading and unloading
operations;
• relatively low rates and significant discounts for transit shipments,
• high speed delivery of goods over long distances.

Naval

• possibility of intercontinental transport,

• low cost of transport over long distances,
• the freight and high throughput,
• low capital intensity of transport.

Inland waterways (river).

 • high carrying capacity in the deep rivers and reservoirs,
• low transportation costs,
• low capital intensity.

Road transport.

• high availability,
• possibility of delivery of cargo from door to door;
• high agility,
• flexibility,
• agility,
• ability to use different routes and delivery schemes,
• high safety of the cargo,
• the possibility of sending the goods in small batches;
• great opportunity to select the most suitable carrier.

Air transport.

• the highest speed of delivery,

• high reliability,
• the highest integrity;
• the possibility of reaching remote areas.

Pipeline.

• low cost,
• high capacity,
• high safety of the cargo,
• low capital intensity.

Disadvantages

Rail
 • limited number of carriers,
• large capital investments in industrial and technology base,
• high material and energy intensity of transport,
• low accessibility to the final point of sales (consumption),
• high enough of the cargo.

Naval

• limited traffic,
• low speed of delivery (large transit time),
• depending on geographical,
• navigational and weather conditions,
• the need for complex email infrastructure,
• stringent requirements for packaging and stowage of cargo,
• The low frequency of shipments.

Inland waterways (river)

• limited traffic,
• low speed of delivery of goods;
• dependence on the uneven depth of rivers and reservoirs,
• navigation conditions,
• seasonality,
• low reliability of transport and cargo safety.

Road transport

• low productivity,
• dependence on weather and road conditions,
• the relatively high cost of transport over long distances,
• lack of environmental cleanliness,
• punctuality of discharge,
• a relatively small payload.
Air transport

• high cost of transportation,

• the highest rates among the other modes of transport,
• high capital intensity,
• material and energy transport,
• the dependence on weather conditions.

Pipeline transport

• limited types of cargo (gas, oil, emulsions and raw materials),

• low availability of small volumes of transported cargo.

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY

1. Congestion

The causes of congestion are well understood, even if the solutions are not. Congestion arises
from two causes. Most important is when demand for mobility exceeds the capacity so support
it. It can also occur when random events bring about a temporary disruption to service, such as
an accident or a natural hazard such as flooding. In the case of the second set of causes, it is
possible to mitigate their effects if the occurrence is frequent, such as accidents, or if the risks are
great, as for example of flooding in a flood plain. In the first case a solution is to increase
capacity. However, as has been shown, increasing capacity engenders a hidden demand, so that
adding lanes to an expressway tend to attract even more cars. Furthermore, demand is increasing
ceaselessly, so that the practicality of this solution may be questioned.

The issue of congestion is likely to remain as one of great ongoing issues in transport geography
because there are unprecedented demands for transportation being generated by a global
economy that is ever more dependent upon the transport industry. The growth of demand is likely
to have major impacts on the nature and form of the future transport industry.

In the short term at least, road transport is likely to continue its domination of the transport
industry. There are two basic reasons for this assertion. In the developed world automobiles and
trucks already dominate the market, and the spatial patterns of people, industries and services
have adjusted themselves somewhat to the demands of these modes. Such low density, space
extensive patterns are pushing the traffic congestion ever further out, and make it very difficult
for other higher capacity modes to compete. At the same time the demand for mobility is growing
as a result of the rapid industrialization of countries such as China and India. There too a modal
shift is occurring in favor of road transport. Increasing prosperity in these countries represents a
great potential for growth in road transport.

Congestion is not limited to internal urban-generated traffic. International trade is likely to

continue to be dominated by maritime transport (in terms of weight) and air transport (in terms of
value). This has already led to a concentration of traffic a relatively small number of hubs,
which are capable of extracting scale economies. For example, the 20 largest container ports
handled more than 52% of global traffic in 2005. The traffic concentration however is already
producing capacity problems in many of these hubs. International trade has grown at a rate faster
than the global economy in recent decades and there are expectations that hub congestion will
remain an issue in the future.

For geographers there are a whole range of issues arising out of the growth of demand and the
paralysis of congestion. Here, they are grouped into two categories. First, are a series of questions
surrounding how to provide solutions; second are the effects on future spatial patterns.

In the past the solution to congestion was to provide more capacity by building more
infrastructures. Such a response depended heavily on engineering solutions. As has been learned
over the last few decades, the model of “predict and accommodate” has not worked well. It is
now recognized that a multi-disciplinary approach is required. It is recognized that there will still
be a heavy reliance on engineering skills to design and construct infrastructure and systems, and
to develop further technological innovations required for the “intelligent highway”. However,
transport policy and planning requires a broader perspective, one that considers different
goals and alternatives, responds to different needs for mobility, and one that seeks ways to
manage demand. Under what conditions and in what types of locations can travel demand be
modified? Does the current emphasis on proposing densification as a solution to reducing car
dependence work? How might freight transport be better integrated in the urban environment?

Congestion is a phenomenon that is spatially bound. It takes place in specific locations with
impacts at a multitude of scales, from a particular highway intersection that may delay traffic
over a few hundred meters, to blockage in a port that may disrupt the flow of goods over half a
continent. Each event produces a spatial response, from the car driver who searches out an
alternative route in future to the shipper who selects a different mode or point of entry for
succeeding shipments.

Increased demand and the rising likelihoods of congestion will intensify new spatial responses
and thus it appears very likely that new spatial flows and structures will come into being. What
will be the effects? What kinds of impact will be evident at the local, regional or global scales?
Will congestion be sufficient to counteract the strong forces favoring concentration? Already
there is evidence in air transport for growth in passengers and freight in some smaller airports.
Will congestion in the newly industrializing countries act as a break on development?

2. Infrastructure

Regardless of the specific solutions to congestion that are considered, increasing demand is
placing unprecedented requests for investments on transport infrastructures. A major question
confronting all countries of the world is how to finance the construction and maintenance of
transport infrastructures. Governments have traditionally been the primary source of funding in
the transport sector, but the costs of keeping pace with the growth in demand are making it
difficult for even the richest countries to countenance public funding on the scale required.

Capital requirements are particularly prevalent on both sides of the infrastructure life cycle
spectrum. Over this matter the highways in China and North America represent two salient cases.
For China, the last decade has seen an impressive level of highway construction with the setting
of a national highway network which totaled more than 53,000 km in 2007, the second longest in
the world. Comparatively, the American Interstate highway system of about 75,000 km is nearing
a phase of its life cycle where a substantial amount of capital investment will be required to
upgrade the system and maintain its operability, including thousands of aging highway bridges.
While most of Interstate is publicly funded, almost all Chinese highways were funded by private
interests that are using tolls to recover their investments.

Public-private partnerships and completely private solutions are one set of solutions. For many
developing countries this is the only solution, since public finances are inadequate to the task.
Thus, in the future, a greater private involvement in the provision of transport infrastructure is to
be expected. Several models are already well tested: BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer), where the
private sector builds and operates a facility or system for a period of time, but then transfers it
back to the government after an agreed period; BLT (Build-Lease-Transfer) where after building
the facilities, it is leased for a fixed period for operation, and finally transferred back; ROT
(Rehabilitate-Operate-Transfer) where the private party refurbishes an existing facility to be
operated for a term prior to be turned back to the state.

Another approach that is gaining momentum is charging for use of transport infrastructure.
Pricing is becoming an important feature of transport planning in urban areas. Whether it is
cordon pricing, congestion pricing, or tolling, drivers are being forced to pay for their use of
roads and limited price elasticity has been observed so far. With the growing concerns over the
environment, charging for the externalities of transport modes is becoming a reality in many
jurisdictions. How effective are these alternatives? What effects do they have over travel
behavior?

The difficulties are not to be underestimated, however. Most transport infrastructure projects are
long term, but are typified by the heaviest capital investment requirements being incurred over a
short initial phase. Most private enterprises cannot take a long term perspective, because they
need to cover their expenses over short period of time. With the growing unwillingness or
inability of the public sector to fund and provide transport infrastructure, what form and structure
in infrastructure provision, maintenance and operation will be achieved?

3. Environmental Challenges

The issue of sustainability has become an increasing important consideration for the transport
industry. It is now broadly recognized that there needs to be a balance between economic
efficiency, social factors and the environment. Of these three, the issue of economic efficiency
has always been to the forefront, and governments have been important in regulating social
conditions (safety, security, and working conditions). Despite the strong historic relationships
between transport and the environment, the latter has tended to be overlooked by the industry.
This is changing, and environmental issues are likely to play an ever more important role in the
transport industry, particularly over three core dimensions:

• Transport and atmospheric pollution. Air quality standards are being implemented
with increasing rigor in more and more countries around the world. There are still
striking differences between regions and between the modes. For example, most of the
countries of the developing world still have to go a long way to fixing and enforcing
 standards. In North America, passenger vehicles are more rigorously controlled than
trucks, and ships are much less controlled than other modes. However, the trend is
towards greater control over emissions. What will be the modal effects and the impacts
on modal competition? Which regions and what transport systems are most likely to be
impacted?
• Transport and water quality. The contribution of transport to the pollution of rivers and
oceans is considerable, and is only recently being addressed by international legislation.
Considerable progress has been made in a number of areas such as ballast water, waste
and oil spills. As the legislation increases in its comprehensiveness, the more the
transport industry is impacted. This is particularly evident in matters relating to dredging,
where environmental constraints are placing a growing financial burden on ports that are
seeking to deepen channels in order to keep pace with the growth of vessels size. Will
these constraints serve to reduce the competitiveness of some ports? Will increased
dredging costs bring about a break in the growth of vessel size? Similar questions arise
out of coastal zone legislation, especially the provisions for protecting wetlands.
• Transport and land take. Increased demand for transport is already placing enormous
pressures for new infrastructures. Many of these transport facilities such as airports and
ports require very large amounts of land for their own internal operations and for the
external transport links that have to be provided. A fundamental question is can the
environment and society afford to provide sites of the scale required by the transport
industry? Will the transport industry have to move away from its preferred model of
massive hubs and load centers?

4. Energy, Safety and Security

The macroeconomic and policy environment in which the transport sector evolves has
substantially changed in recent years, bringing concerns which before were rather secondary.
With the expected increases in energy costs, significant adjustments in transport modes may be
expected in the future. While technologies may make alternative fuel vehicles a commercial
option to the internal combustion engine, the main question is the effect of higher prices on
automobiles and trucks. As the costs are passed on to users, how global production systems that
depend upon cheap transport be impacted? How will the logistics industry that exploits the most
energy inefficient modes be affected? Will a modal shift to more energy efficient modes, such as
rail or shipping, take place? What forms of transport and mobility will take shape as the energy
transition away from fossil fuels takes place?
Another prevalent matter concerns security practices that are now part of the business
environment in which passenger and freight transport systems are evolving. Most of these
measures are imposed by regulatory agencies with consequences often difficult to assess, but
always involving additional costs and delays for transport operators. A balance between security
measures and the efficient flow of passengers and freight will need to be achieved through a
variety of regulatory, operational and technological innovations.

5. The Role of Geographers

Geographers have played a relatively small role in the field of transport studies, a field that has
been dominated by engineers and economists. This was due in part to the needs of the industry
being focused on providing infrastructures and technologies, at what cost and benefits and at what
level of pricing. The contemporary industry is much more complex, with issues as varied as
safety, aesthetics, working conditions, equity, deprivation, the environment, and governance
being necessary considerations. A much broader set of skills are required therefore, and
transport studies are essentially multi-disciplinary today. Geographers thus have important
opportunities to contribute to transport studies, transport planning and transport operations, in
part because of the breadth of the approach and training. Still, transport geography, like the field
of transportation in general, does not receive a level of attention in academia proportional to its
economic and social importance.

It is also a fundamental fact that transport is a spatial activity. It has always been a space
adjusting service, but over the last few decades it has become increasingly global in scope.
Contemporary transport operates at a wider range of scales than ever before. There are complex
interactions between the local and the global. For example, the issues surrounding the expansion
of an airport are usually decided at the local level, and the impacts are likely to be felt locally,
namely its externalities such as noise and congestion. However, the effects on passenger and
freight flows may have a global impact. The spatiality of transport and the many scale levels at
which it operates are elements that are the particular concerns of Geographers. No other
discipline has as its core interest the role of space in shaping human activities.

One reason for the success of engineers and economists in transport studies and applications is
that their training has been rigorous in the application of mathematics and multivariate statistics.
They have demonstrated the ability to provide precise answers to the questions that decision
makers have required – what to build, at what cost, with what cost effects. There has evolved a
culture in the transport industry that unless it can be quantified it is of little value. Many transport
geographers have the quantitative skills that have made their work accepted by the broader
scientific community. There is little doubt that training in modeling, graph theory, and
multivariate statistics is required. However, there are newer techniques that provide geographers
with opportunities to contribute to transport studies. GIS-T, in particular should be an essential
element in the training of a transport geographer. The multi-scalar, multivariate nature of the
transport industry makes GIS-T an invaluable tool, and one that will raise the profile of
geographers in the transportation industry.

One of the great challenges in transport studies is data availability. Many times official census
and survey data are inadequate or unavailable in the form required. Knowledge of survey
techniques and their limitations are an important part of the transport geographer’s toolkit. Many
of the traditional tools and approaches of geographers are still relevant. They allow us to address
problems that are frequently overlooked by other disciplines because of the lack of data.
Questionnaires and interviews represent a vital source of information in many situations. Content
analysis is extremely useful in providing quantified data from non-quantified sources. At the
same time, field work provides the opportunity to obtain detailed understanding of the
particularities of the local conditions that cannot be obtained from reading texts and official
documents.

The prospects for transport geography and transport geographers appear to be excellent. A look
back at the subject matter and topics covered in this book indicates an industry that is growing in
significance and changing. The kinds of issues that are achieving greater importance –
sustainability, congestion, governance and management – are ones to which geographers have the
opportunity to contribute. As the transport industry becomes more complex, old approaches,
focusing on a narrow range of factors, have to be replaced by more nuanced analysis and
solutions. In the transport industry itself, in public planning, and in research institutions, the
scope for geographers appears bright.
RECOMMENDATION

Management of Transport Systems

The transportation industry is changing so significantly in form and function that it easy to
overlook the very important changes in the way it is organized and managed. Yet it is through
different management practices that the spatial manifestations of the industry are expressed. It is
perhaps easiest to see the changes in management through the lens of governance, where an
industry that used to be largely managed and controlled by the state, has become increasingly
controlled by the private sector. The privatization of transport companies and infrastructures has
been an important feature of the last decade, and is likely to continue further into the present
century. However, there are still many questions about the role of the state in transportation.
Under what conditions and in what circumstances should continued state control be maintained
and even strengthened? What are the best models of public-private partnerships in the transport
industry?

The growing role of the private sector over an industry that is becoming global and multi-
functional has necessitated a shift in management and ownership relationships that are still
evolving. They include:

• The emergence of horizontally linked global corporations that through a series of

acquisitions and mergers have bought up similar operating companies in different
markets. A good example is the port terminal operators, such as Hutchison Port
Corporation, a Hong Kong based firm with major investments in Europe, China and the
Americas.
• The development of vertically integrated corporations that have grown by merger and
acquisition to control several segments of the transport chain. Examples include A. P.
Moller, a company that controls the world’s largest container fleet, an airline, terminal
operating activities, trucking, barge, railroad services and logistics services in many parts
of the world.
• Intermediaries that provide transport services on a global scale, without direct
ownership of infrastructure. 3PL companies such as Kuhne and Nagel, Schenker and
Panalpina operate in many markets and are major actors in the transport chain.
 • Alliances, informal groupings of transport providers that pool resources and offer joint
services between major global markets. Examples include the One World and Star airline
alliances.

Transport is being increasingly integrated in global production systems. It is becoming an

integral part of production and distribution chains.

Sustainable transport systems make a positive contribution to the environmental, social and
economic sustainability of the communities they serve. Transport systems exist to provide social
and economic connections, and people quickly take up the opportunities offered by increased
mobility. The advantages of increased mobility need to be weighed against the environmental,
social and economic costs that transport systems pose.

REFERENCE
1. Transport planning 2nd Ed by David Banister
2. Transport; development & sustainability, 2002 Madison New York.