Effects Of Transport Policies Research Articles

Integrated planning for sustainable tourism and mobility. A tourism traffic analysis in Italy's South Tyrol region

Emerging tourist market trends are compelling destinations to consider mobility as an essential strategic component of sustainable tourism planning. Tourism mobility analysis is a tool available to policy-makers when developing integrated and effective sustainable transport and tourism policies. This paper introduces an innovative tourism-traffic analysis based on survey techniques which allows the identification of tourism-related components and an estimate of their environmental impact on a destination, information critical to the development of appropriate mobility management measures. This methodology was implemented in Italy's South Tyrol region, an alpine province at the forefront of sustainable tourism and mobility innovation. The significant environmental impact of tourism traffic revealed in the destination justifies the innovative steps taken toward sustainable mobility in two pilot case studies covering eight communities. An exploratory desk analysis shows that neither the push – encouraging sustainable behavior – nor the pull – discouraging unsustainable practices – mobility measures adopted in these pilot areas decreased tourism flows; however, they did succeed in providing more environmentally sustainable means of transport, with reduced emissions. And in a majority of cases, tourism flows increased above the regional average. A range of problems with the existing methodology are described, along with key issues for future research.

Mode Choice Behavior of Commuters in Thiruvananthapuram City

Travel behavior plays an important role in transportation planning. Mode choice analysis is the process of arriving at a decision about which mode to use under a set of circumstances. Choice of a particular mode by a commuter affects the general efficiency of travel within the city. Various techniques are available in the literature for mode choice modeling. Among these, multinomial logit models are found to be efficient in estimating the different mode shares in a scenario where more than two choices of modes of travel are available for a commuter. The present study used multinomial logistic regression to analyze the mode choice behavior of commuters in Thiruvananthapuram, a typical Indian city. The findings from the study revealed that as age increases preference to car increases and preference to two-wheelers decreases in comparison with public transport. Increase in time per distance and increase in cost per distance cause the commuters to switch to car and two-wheelers from public transport. Identification of such factors and its variations will help city planners to formulate effective transport policies to improve the transport within the city. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000533. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Logistics; Urban areas; Commute; Travel patterns; Transportation management; India. Author keywords: Mode choice; Revealed preference technique; Multinomial logistic regression; Odds ratio; Significance level.

Impact of Transportation Policies on Competitiveness of Brazilian and U.S. Soybeans

Because of increased international consumption, soybeans have become one of the world's top commodities. Brazil and the United States, the world's two largest soybean exporters, possess unique agricultural commodity infrastructure schemes for production and transportation. The goal of this paper is to examine the differences between transportation systems and infrastructure of the two countries, and look at how these differences affect their respective commodity transportation policies. A theoretical overview of the essential role transportation plays in business logistics is followed by an analysis and comparison of the Brazilian and U.S. transportation systems. Drawing on previous U.S. Department of Agriculture studies of U.S. and Brazilian commodity transportation, landed cost price formation analyses are performed, taking into account production, internal transportation, and freight tariffs. Examples of landed cost price formation are also given to enrich the information provided. It is shown that in certain cases Brazilian internal soybean transportation costs can represent 230% more than those of the United States. On the basis of the literature review, the effect of transportation policies on the total landed cost of soybeans on the world marketplace are examined, as are reasons for why Brazilian soybeans suffer a competitive disadvantage from field to port. The current situation and what could be done to potentially improve Brazilian internal transportation policies is also discussed.

An stated preference analysis of Spanish freight forwarders modal choice on the south-west Europe Motorway of the Sea

This paper aims to contribute towards the design of effective freight transport policy by means of empirical analysis. In order to do so, a stated preference survey is undertaken to model the modal choice between door-to-door road transport and short sea shipping in the Motorway of the Sea of south-west Europe. The proposed analysis will provide policymakers with the necessary tool to identify the critical areas that should be addressed by future policy action in order to boost short sea shipping on Spain's Mediterranean coast. By applying the proposed method, we will be able to obtain estimates of the subjective values of transport attributes – value of time, value of reliability and value of frequency – in freight transport, values for which barely any empirical evidence on a national scale exists. Quantifying such values is a key part of the cost benefit analyses performed when evaluating transport projects.

Understanding the urban travel attitudes and behavior of Tbilisi residents

In recent decades the public transport network in Tbilisi, Georgia has decayed, while the number of private automobiles has increased dramatically. This study seeks to expand our understanding of the Tbilisi population’s urban transport attitudes and behavior. It elaborates on the perceived strengths, weaknesses, and potentials of the public transport system, and seeks to understand the reasons for the increased use of private automobiles. A questionnaire survey was conducted among Tbilisi car drivers ( n=159) and public transport users ( n=163). The results show that most of the survey respondents preferred to use a private car and avoid using public transport. Particularly important factors include time issues such as schedules and frequency, plus comfort and safety issues. Tbilisi residents value their time and want to use it efficiently. Changing residents’ travel behavior will require making the public transport options competitive with the perceived advantages of the car. The study offers recommendations for more effective urban transport policy, including incentives to encourage greater use of public transport in Tbilisi.

The effect of transportation policies on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission from urban passenger transportation

This paper offers a brief journey through twelve major cities with various policies in place to curb private vehicle use and assesses their success in term of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Every region reviewed including Singapore is experiencing increase in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and/or private vehicle ownership. In Europe, several regions improved transit quality and increased its ridership attracting non-motorized modes users instead of private vehicle users effectively increasing the total energy consumption. The author argues that policies aimed at reducing private vehicles use are failing because they do not incorporate the reality of human propensities for accessibility and comfort and they unsuccessfully try to attract customers toward services of lesser perceived quality. The demand for both accessibility and comfort will likely continue to grow with rising standards of living and will be met regardless of the environmental impact. Instead of attempting to constrain private vehicle use, the author suggests raising the competitiveness of alternate modes by investing in more attractive environments for non-motorized modes and designing transit systems actually capable of competing with private vehicles in term of perceived service quality while offering improved environmental performances.

Effectiveness and Acceptability of Urban Transport Policies in Europe

ABSTRACT This article examines whether and how key changes in transport policy priorities since the beginning of the 1990s have been reflected in public concerns about urban problems and effective urban transport policy options. The article brings together a variety of evidence from across Europe and carries out analysis of Europe-wide public opinion data at three points in time since the beginning of the 1990s. The analysis reveals that opinions about the effectiveness of different transport policy options remained quite constant during the 1990s and that these opinions are remarkably similar across all European countries.

The Driving Factors of Passenger Transport

Over the past few decades passenger transport has grown rapidly resulting in a multitude of problems including severe traffic congestion and pollution. It is expected that passenger transport will continue to grow rapidly in the future, which will worsen the situation even further. The traditional approach to deal with the problems is to expand the infrastructure. However, transport policy is a broad and versatile field. Many different types of policy measures can be observed in literature and practice. Sound transport policy-making requires knowledge on the drivers of transport demand This article is aimed at (re)structuring the many different insights in a single conceptual model, which reviews the key drivers, and how each affects the various choices that travellers make (activity type, destination, mode, time-of-day and route) and the resulting impact on overall passenger transport demand. The model was derived on the basis of a review of literature, which was supplemented by a review of thirteen exemplary urban area cases. In addition, a quantitative data analysis was carried out to assess the transport demand elasticities for various drivers. Current study has been carried out in response to the search for effective transport policy, which is discussed in the concluding section. The outcomes are of particular relevance of policy analysts and policy makers developing passenger transport policy, but are also useful for scholars and students in the field of transport.

Effect of Transportation Policies on Modal Shift from Private Car to Public Transport in Malaysia

Effect of Transportation Policies on Modal Shift from Private Car to Public Transport in Malaysia

Environmental Activism and Social Networks: Campaigning for Bicycles and Alternative Transport in West London

A key element of sustainable development in cities is the implementation of more effective, less polluting, and equitable transportation policy. This article examines the role of activist organizations promoting transport alternatives in London, Britain's capital city and its largest metropolitan area. Major national, citywide, and local policy changes have permitted citizens' groups to work more actively with progressive elements in government planning, breaking down citizen-expert divides. In West London, the most congested sector of the metropolis, an environmentally based social network, the Ealing Cycling Campaign, promotes cycling as a sustain-able transport alternative. Its strategies require active cooperation with the local state rather than radical opposition to it, raising questions about the oppositional stance more commonly found among urban social movements. Environmental citizenship needs to be founded on social realities and conduced in mainstream political systems if it is to be effective in complex urban environments.

Road traffic and nearby grassland bird patterns in a suburbanizing landscape.

An extensive road system with rapidly increasing traffic produces diverse ecological effects that cover a large land area. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of roads with different traffic volumes on surrounding avian distributions, and its importance relative to other variables. Grassland bird data (5 years) for 84 open patches in an outer suburban/rural landscape near Boston were analyzed relative to: distance from roads with 3000-8000 to >30,000 vehicles/day; open-habitat patch size; area of quality microhabitat within a patch; adjacent land use; and distance to other open patches. Grassland bird presence and regular breeding correlated significantly with both distance from road and habitat patch size. Distance to nearest other open patch, irrespective of size, was not significant. Similarly, except for one species, adjacent land use, in this case built area, was not significant. A light traffic volume of 3000-8000 vehicles/day (local collector street here) had no significant effect on grassland bird distribution. For moderate traffic of 8000-15,000 (through street), there was no effect on bird presence although regular breeding was reduced for 400 m from a road. For heavier traffic of 15,000-30,000 (two-lane highway), both bird presence and breeding were decreased for 700 m. For a heavy traffic volume of > or =30,000 vehicles/day (multilane highway), bird presence and breeding were reduced for 1200 m from a road. The results suggest that avian studies and long-term surveys near busy roads may be strongly affected by traffic volume or changes in volume. We conclude that road ecology, especially the effects extending outward >100 m from roads with traffic, is a sine qua non for effective land-use and transportation policy.

The struggle of dutch transport regions: Life and death of a regional planning concept

In the Netherlands it was commonly believed that a comprehensive regional transport policy was the only way of achieving the objectives of national transport policy. A new institution was created: the transport region. Expectations ran high, but many transport regions never reached the implementation stage. Analysis of the national policy and the actual development of the transport regions shows a continuous struggle between the transport region as a policy concept on the one hand and the transport region as an administrative institution on the other. The anticlimax that resulted from this struggle seems to have been inevitable: the transport regions have officially been abolished. Their role has been taken over by the provinces. On the one hand, this provides opportunities for avoiding the mistakes made in the past. On the other hand, this shift holds threats, which may obstruct the making and implementation of effective regional transport policy.

Modelling the effects of transport policies on air pollution

Transport policies can have significant impacts on the environment. This work analyses the extent to which some policies and future trends would influence local levels of air pollution concentration in an urban area. The analysis is based on the application of a road traffic assignment model, in conjunction with an air pollution dispersion model, to the urban road network of Chester, England. The former model simulates the traffic flow conditions, whereas the latter estimates the concentration of five main traffic pollutants at receptor points around road junctions. Actual vehicle exhaust emission rates are input into the dispersion model, as a function of fuel type, fitting of catalytic converters and typical driving operating patterns. Changes in pollutant concentrations are estimated from the implementation of a pedestrianisation scheme in the central area. Furthermore, the effects of traffic growth and the increasing participation of diesels and catalysts in the vehicle market are analysed.

Public health versus public policy? An appraisal of British urban transport policy

The most visible aspect of the relationship between transport and health is in the realm of road traffic accidents (RTAs). But the effects of transport policy upon the public health are much wider-ranging. They include exacerbation of social and health inequalities, separation from directly health-protective amenities and social isolation, as well as health damage by physico-chemical pollution. It is arguable that these factors may account for more years of life lost annually than do RTAs. The current focus on accident reduction as the sole means of avoiding adverse health effects of transport distracts attention from the wide health erosive effects of road traffic. Universal mobility and accessibility, independent of the car, is required for public health protection and advancement, since private transport carries many external, and poorly recognised health costs.