Local Public Transport Research Articles

Baulandpotenzialanalyse als Instrument zur Umsetzung nachhaltiger Siedlungsentwicklung – das Fallbeispiel Biosphärenpark Wienerwald

This paper introduces a land suitability analysis, based on the Dutch “ABC location planning”. Two criteria are applied in this process: Firstly, the accessibility of high-ranking local public transport locations as well as town centres, and secondly, the density of the surrounding urban fabric. The aim of the paper is not only to employ this method as a technical assessment instrument for planners, but to use its transparency and traceability for the purpose of introducing a “mediation and communication tool” into discussion processes at the local level. The underlying case study involved the assessment of the building land reserves of Lower Austrian municipalities belonging to the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald. These are characterised both by a significant degree of suburbanisation radiating from Vienna, the capital of Austria, and also by the considerable heterogeneity of the settlement structure. The method described not only serves to operationalize the process of sustainability within local spatial planning, but also to make planning processes accessible to larger groups of actors in terms of a governance strategy, thus triggering broader discussion processes at the local level, about when settlement development can be seen as “good” or “bad”.

NEW ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS IN EUROPEAN LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT: FROM MYTH TO REALITY*

ABSTRACT: The Europeanization of public services is frequently considered to have created pressure for Member States to progressively converge towards a new dominant organizational model, based on deregulation, de‐integration and privatization. However, while in some sectors European directives played a crucial role in boosting a common evolutionary path, in other cases, mainly related to local public services, this influence remained feeble and more uncertain. The empirical insight on EU Local Public Transport Services carried out in this paper aims at investigating if and to what extent this new dominant paradigm actually emerges, or if and to what extent more fragmented and heterogeneous outcomes prevail.The main outcome is that the public role in Local Public Transport is still widespread and that a major theoretical and analytical focus should be directed to the ability of the principal‐competent public administration to play its role in an effective and sound manner, while often too much attention is paid to the characteristics of the agent‐operator (public‐private, big or small, foreign or national, etc.).

LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES: MAIN RESULTS OF A RESEARCH PROJECT BY CIRIEC INTERNATIONAL

ABSTRACT: The present article is meant as an introduction to the three contributions on local public transport, water services and waste management resulting from a research of CIRIEC International Scientific Commission on ‘Public Services/Public Enterprises’, launched in 2008. The main purpose of the research was to produce a cross section description of essential and widely used local public services in different countries and to investigate their evolution over the last two or three decades.We give here a transversal overview of general common trends in the three analyzed sectors. We explain the increasing autonomy and separation of decision levels in planning and governance processes, describe the changing role and nature of the provider of public services, depict some peculiarities of the structure and the process of regulation, and deal finally with some remarks on funding policies. We show that unquestionably EU directives and regulations did have a definite impact on the way the services were supplied; however this has not produced a prevailing ‘European model’ in all member States. Our research shows clearly that as of now the EU area offers very different models of local public services. The variety of solutions adopted is impressive. Each concrete choice regarding regulation, market governance, planning and provision depends in the end on a negotiation between the central state, local authorities, bureaucracy, trade unions, pressure groups such as private enterprises and users of the service. The existence of different solutions adopted by different countries and within the same sector could mean that a compulsory policy towards a uniform solution, as frequently favoured by the EU, is not convincing and should not be supported. Since there is no evidence that the different solutions produce different degrees of efficiency and effectiveness, they could represent appropriate forms of adaptation to national overall characteristics and changing citizens’ needs.

Тренды в слияниях и поглощениях LPT в Италии

Авторы: Александро Данови НИУ ВШЭ
 Димитрис Карлетсос НИУ ВШЭ
 Дмитрий Александрович Кокорев НИУ ВШЭ
 В данной статье проанализированы тридцать два случая слияний, поглощений и консорциумов на итальянском рынке пассажирских перевозок. Для определения основных тенденций рынка корпоративного контроля основное внимание было уделено целям, потребностям и стратегиям его основных игроков. Стоит также отметить сильное влияние на рынок регуляторов: принятие закона 422/97 (декрет Бурландо) ввело прозрачные публичные условия отбора компаний при проведении тендеров на оказание услуг LPT, что, в свою очередь, заставило игроков рынка менять стратегию продвижения и модернизировать услуги.Основные игроки данного рынка, которые до этого развивались в условиях отсутствия конкуренции, в условиях либерализации и изменений условий работы начали активно пересматривать свои позиции, участвуя в слияниях и поглощениях, а также формируя союзы и альянсы.

Radio Cabs - How Do They Work in Delhi?

Radio Cabs cater to the major chunk of the commuters of Delhi from/to airport, railway stations etc. Addressing the concern of safety and hassled fares, radio cabs entered the Delhi transportation sector half a decade ago. Even though the charges are higher unlike those of local taxis and public transport the service delivered by radio cabs is highly reliable. My study examined the Radio cabs market in Delhi through various interviews with people associated with radio cabs. Interviews were conducted with the tourist taxi services also who see the radio cabs to be their contenders. These interviews widened my knowledge scope about the cabs market. Also, I got a clear picture of the norms followed and transactions amongst the driver, company and the customer discussed later in the paper. The role of government is minimal, deals only with the licensing system of the new cab company, registration of the cabs and provision of the electronic meters based upon the category to which the cab company would fall. There are certain problems mentioned customers during the interviews. Therefore, I have proposed solutions to address those issues in the conclusion section of my paper.

Pilot Plant of Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil

Biodiesel, as an alternative auto fuel for conventional fossil fuel, has drawn wide attention in recent years. In this research, a two-step process for biodiesel production using waste cooking oil as feedstock was studied in a pilot plant with a treatment capacity of 3 ton/d. The results show that: the process exihibited a good conversion ratio and the biodiesel displayed suitable physical-chemical properties in comparison with diesel fuel, such as flash point of 137°C, viscosity of 4.49 mm2/s, acid value of 0.44 mg KOH/g etc. The quality of biodiesel meets the agreement with the European specification defined by EN 14214. Afterwards, the mixture of biodiesel and diesel were test in the engine with a ratio of 50/50（v/v）, 20/80（v/v）, and 0/100（v/v）. It indicates the mixed fuel has a reasonable fuel consumption rates without diesel engine modification, when the biodiesel blended with 0# diesel as fuel. The present results demonstrated that the industrial scale plant would achieve promising objective with waste cooking oils and animal fats as raw material. Also, this biodiesel-based diesel fuel could be applied in Tianjin local public transportation system that improves its sustainable development.

Regionalism in the organisation of traffic in Hungary

In the member states of the European Union, especially in Germany and Austria, regionalism has a growing importance by the organising of public services. At the field of public transport services the regional organising methods will be realised through the establishment of public transport associations in interest of coordinating the local, suburban and regional public transport interests. In the period since the 90’s there are a not a lot of best practices regarding the regional organisation of public transport services in Hungary. The study goals to present the position of the local and regional interest in the public transport organisation in Hungary, and deals with the reason the lack of best practices also.

The human side of organizational change: Compliance and management control systems in Italian public utilities

AbstractDeparting from a neo‐institutional framework, this article investigates the role and the importance of Management Control Systems (MCS) used by the Italian local public transport and electricity supply utilities in governing the processes of organizational change that occurred in the last decade. The role of MCS in the implementation of business strategy and organizational change represents a recurrent topic in literature. Nevertheless, only a few studies have covered until now the relationship between MCS and change processes. Our empirical analysis has surveyed overall 185 local public utilities. We analyzed the way in which management has adopted MCS, as well as the outcome of the implementation of organizational change. Our study confirms that organizational change processes are carried out with the purpose of obtaining institutional legitimacy, deploying behavioral control mechanisms, such as incentives and empowerment. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Community Bus in Tokyo: Promoting Community Initiative through Decentralisation

Public transport can be justified as a public good. Its delivery, however, often proves problematic as it relies on significant government subsidies, especially in the context of low-density urban sprawls. Even in cities with extensive and efficient mass transit systems, coverage of local feeder bus services is often limited. ‘Community bus’ initiatives in Japan represent a major decentralisation of public transport service provision, whereby decision-making authority shifts to the local government at the city/ward level. A community bus initiative typically involves innovative and effective partnerships between local government, the local community and private operators. Focusing on the decentralisation of authority to enable city/ward governments to initiate innovation in local public transport plans and services through partnerships with the community, this paper describes community bus initiatives being tried out in Japan. Through a review of recent legislative changes and the literature coupled with a study of various community bus schemes in and around Tokyo, the study seeks to describe the roles assumed by main actors, the means adopted to mobilise community resources and the type and level of services provided by local authorities. The paper attempts to draw out models of governance, community engagement and the operationalisation of public–private and community partnerships in the inception and implementation of local transport solutions as part of local area improvement planning. The paper draws conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of the evolving model and makes recommendation on improving its effectiveness.

A Study on Evaluation Structure of Local Public Transport from Viewpoint of

A Study on Evaluation Structure of Local Public Transport from Viewpoint of

Perceived Satisfaction with Public Transport Service in Nine European Cities

The present study provides a transnational comparison of the perceived service satisfaction with public transport in eight European countries. Data was collected from 9,542 respondents in Stockholm, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Geneva, Helsinki, Vienna, Berlin, Manchester, and Oslo. The respondents rated their agreement with 17 attribute-related statements regarding local public transport services. Using factor analysis, this study identifies the four satisfaction dimensions of system, comfort, staff, and safety, which were present in most, but not all of the cities. These findings indicate that there are differences in how public transport is perceived. This needs to be addressed in order to make comparison meaningful. Different explanations for these diverse findings are discussed.

How do people with cognitive functional limitations post-stroke manage the use of buses in local public transport?

People with cognitive functional limitations (CFLs) have rarely been the focus of research dealing with road users and their needs. The aim of the present study was to describe how people with CFL post-stroke manage in their use of buses in the framework of their outdoor mobility, and to find out what difficulties, but also what opportunities, they experienced when moving from origin to destination using buses in public transport. Semi-structured interviews combined with participant observations during bus trips with eight persons were performed. Several barriers that have the potential to restrict autonomous outdoor mobility were identified. These barriers were not only represented by well-known infrastructure problems (high pavement curbs, etc.) or ergonomic shortcomings in the buses but, even more so, by specific issues relevant for persons with CFL, e.g. having to cross a road on their way to the bus stop, which poses problems of interaction with fast-moving car traffic. Obtaining all the necessary information prior to and during the trip is difficult and produces insecurity. Often, communication with the bus drivers, not least in connection with the search for information, causes extra stress. Lack of self-confidence and feelings of inferiority add to these problems. Measures to control vehicle speeds, to optimise the communication style of bus drivers with their customers, and to improve customers' access to information are recommended. Training measures to reassure persons with CFL in connection with their use of the public space are suggested.

Alliances and groupings in the local public transportation sector. A preliminary survey of strategic motivations

This paper analyzes thirty-two cases including alliances, merger consortiums, acquisitions and partnerships between diverse major Italian companies in the Local Public Transportation Sector. In order to single out the principal trends, special attention has been paid to the aims of the players, their needs and the strategies implemented. The actions taken by the institutions and the competent authorities regarding the regulations have also had a very important role, mostly after the Law 422/97 (Decreto Burlando), that, by introducing transparent public selections, has forced Local Authorities to modify players’ strategies to become more efficient and sustainable by promoting, liberalizing and modernizing the service. The players, accustomed to a competition-free framework, have had to face the change by MA utilities; m&a in the public sector.

Insights on Italian car sharing: the case of Genoa

Car sharing, an innovative mobility service complementary to the local public transport, helps, through the sharing of a fleet of cars among users, to reduce individual and social costs of private transport, at the same time avoiding the rigidity of traditional public transport as well. This paper intends to explain the nature and development of car sharing through three key directions: 1 the critical analysis of literature, through which it was possible to identify how car sharing is still not very extensive 2 the overview of the Italian context 3 the analysis of car sharing service in detail, through a case study of the experience in the city of Genoa. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the few existing studies on car sharing in an effort to increase academic and managerial attention on this sustainable mobility service.

The Role of Benchmarking in Public Transport: The Case of Thessaloniki, Greece

This paper examines the practice of benchmarking in public transportation and presents a preliminary study conducted for the public transport organisations of Thessaloniki, Greece. The paper also investigates whether it is possible to apply the method in the local public transport system under the present circumstances. It proposes strategies to cope with the planning phase of the process and provides some useful guidance for organisations wishing to perform the technique.

Regulation issues in the Italian local transport system: aligning transactions and governance structures

This paper refers to the concept of public governance in the light of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). While TCE is well developed and widely applied in the private sector, only a few studies have adopted such framework to investigate the provision of public services. We aim at pointing out the coherence between peculiar typologies of transactions and a given set of governance structures, within Local Public Transport systems. The core of the analysis is the alignment between characteristics of transactions and governance structures. The empirical section addresses these issues referring to three case studies, pointing out an articulated organizational configuration in terms of actors involved and governance structures adopted. The analysis shows an alignment between the choices underlying the design of the local transport system and the outcomes expected in terms of TCE.

Governance Models in the Local Transport Industry: An Empirical Research on Tariff Integration Systems

The aim of this research is to analyze governance models for tariff integration systems in the local public transport sector both in Italy and in some regions of Europe. In particular, it aims to study and compare coordination models chosen by the key players, their role (especially that of the political policy-driver) and the degree of decisional centralization/decentralization within the network.For this purpose ten case studies (AMT Barcellona, CRTM Madrid, Formula Torino, Metrebus Lazio, Pegaso Toscana, Sitam Milano, Stib Bruxelles, Stif Parigi Ile-de-france, Stimer Emilia Romagna, UnicoCampania) will be presented and compared in the paper. Data was collected through direct (semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires) and indirect sources (analysis of internal documents).The analysis brings to light two organizational models for governance: the focal organization and the agency model. Features and implications of these two models will be outlined.Practical implications.The intention of this paper is to provide strategic and operative considerations for designing governance structures for tariff integration systems.

Mobilità partecipata: Agenda XXI e buone pratiche

The prediction and realization of mobility actions, other than those already existing in a territory, often result in conflicts between proponents (for example Administrations) and population. Question not only of new road infrastructures but also new forms of mobility, such as best practice to make sector sustainable. For example we can remember some tools of sustainable mobility, as Urban Traffic Plan or Urban Mobility Plan; traffic calming measures, as areas with limited traffic, car sharing, car pooling; soft mobility as bike sharing; actions of local public transport as park and ride; communication and formative actions, as eco-driving courses and happybus (for children). Certainly construction of important infrastructures, strategic internationally, catalyze public attention because they pose problems to entire community, but very often are local works to determine conflicts. This paper focuses on this second aspect that is of major impact in our daily lives. In order to achieve adequate sustainability thresholds for mobility and a general consensus shared at different involved levels, a fundamental role is played by participation that arises as a solution to conflict aforementioned. Steps of participatory process are information, awareness, communication and training. A tool that allows you to achieve these objectives and facilitate participatory process is Agenda XXI, which, as noted, includes within it (after a survey on environmental status and highlighting present criticality studied by experts), consultation tables (forums) with different actors involved (government, population, technical, business, ...). In this paper we report main results obtained in search experience aimed at identifying best practices on sustainable mobility and its applicability thresholds useful to analyze and define, in a shared and co-responsible way, what are good actions to take to an area considered. A best practice cannot be applied in different territorial areas, because characteristics (cultural, physical or commercial development...) of each territory are various. The research wants to categorize the virtuous cases to be able to define types of actions for replication in areas with similar characteristics. From above mentioned (reconnaissance and evaluative analysis on case) it was possible to define two types of Decision Support System: first, in general, defines a database of all possible best practices on sustainable mobility and second is specific to a determinate territory (the latter is obtained by first, taking into account identified applicability thresholds). This is to set frameworks useful to administrators and people (involved in first person) to be shared in processes of Agenda XXI (forums) aimed at a participatory governance, without unnecessary conflicts.

All change? Motorway interchanges for public transport

Motorways and similar roads have been essential for the dominance of the motor car and lorry for personal and freight transportation. Alongside benefits, this dominance has generated a range of problems including congestion and pollution. However, motorways could play a much greater public transport role if suitable facilities were provided. Critical among these could be interchanges between long-distance and local public transport, located at motorway junctions. A combination of established thinking about public transport and pleasure-based approaches to design provides a framework within with the criteria likely to be required for success can be established. In additional to operational matters these success factors include user comfort and perceived status. A partial case study based on junction 16 of the M1 suggests that provision of such interchanges could be a cost-effective means of mitigating the need for motorway expansion schemes. This, taken with the likely wider social and environmental benefits including reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, suggests that further exploration of their potential role is justified. Although not central to the concept, further improvement in vehicle quality and measures to ensure bus journey time reliability would be valuable supporting measures.

Shared passengers and goods urban transport solutions

Urban goods transport, long considered not to be a priority issue, seems to be attracting interest today not only by traditional actors, such as local administrations and logistics firms, but also by new actors, such as local public sector transport companies. The first part defines the concept of shared passenger and goods urban transport and describes the existing solutions by means of an international survey. An analysis is then made of the experiences of pioneering European urban transport operators and finally economic factors are examined along with the conditions which could make those solutions an interesting alternative to the traditional provision of logistics services. Finally, possible scenarios for Milan are proposed, based on an analysis of the urban transport system of this regional capital.