Provision Of Transport Infrastructure Research Articles

Urban Expansion and Transportation: The Impact of Urban form on Commuting Patterns on the City Fringe of Beijing

A key issue in the development of China's growing megacities in the transport-related environmental costs due to rapid urban expansion. In light of this issue, the authors examine the impact of urban form on commuting patterns on the city fringe of Beijing. Based on household-survey data, the results of the analysis suggest that the forms of land use adopted in the suburbs have a significant impact on commuting distance when a worker's socioeconomic characteristics and the level of transport accessibility are taken into account. Sprawling expansion, characterized by a low degree of self-contained development and low-density land use, tends to increase the need for long-distance commuting to the central urban area. In contrast, compact urban development in the suburbs, particularly in the peripheral constellations of Beijing, would reduce the probability of long-distance commuting. The current trend in improving transport accessibility on the city fringe is likely to lead to further long-distance commuting. In particular, huge road projects could cause more traffic congestion in the centre. The findings suggest that land-development management on the city fringe could have significant implications with respect to containing the dramatic costs to the environment entailed by transportation in the context of the rapid process of motorization. Reducing travel needs through the integration of land use and transport-infrastructure provision is likely to be the key to sustainable urban expansion.

Peranan Infrastruktur Jalan Terhadap Perekonomian Regional Di Indonesia

During the development stage, provision of transportation infrastructure is ven; important. It contnbutesto the regional economy and makes economic development more inclusive by giving directand indirect effects. The aim of research wants to know the role of road infrastructure to regionaleconomy in long term periods.Having panel data in the regional level (province) which is 26 provinces and a 14-year time series(1993-2006), variables that are used in this stud!; are GDP as the output measurement, labor forceand capital stock which is divided into road capital stock and non road capital stock. Road capitalstock itself is comprised of national, province and city road capital stock.Based on the model in analysis, we can say road infrastructure has significant contributions to theregional econonn; where city roads give the highest contnbution to the regional econonn;. In addition,based on the time lag model, we can see that the investment in road development will have a significanteffect on GDP in the curre11t year, as well as in the following .few years, but the effect diminishesover time. However, the significant contnbution of road development to GDP only remains for 1 yearfor all types of road.Some polictj implications that can be proposed from the above analysis are: it is still necessary toincrease the development of road infrastructure in order to provide good accessibility for all regions inIndonesia; so government should give priorihJ to develop city and province roads rather than nationalroads to increase the regional output (regional GDP). On the other hand government shouldmake it a priority to develop strategies for the development of road infrastructure based on the specificneeds of each region so it will be more effective and efficient in encouraging regional economic growthand, ultimately, in enhancing high economic growth in Indonesia as a whole.Key words: road infrastructure, regional econonn1

Erwartete externe Effekte und Wahlverhalten: Das Beispiel der Münchner Allianz-Arena / Expected External Effects and Voting: The Case of the Munich Allianz-Arena

Summary We investigate at the precinct-level the 2001 stadium referendum for the Allianz-Arena in Munich, where voters had to decide upon a projected site as well as on public subsidies for provision of transport infrastructure. This is the first analysis of a stadium referendum with respect to the spatial dimension outside the U.S. The new arena, which is the home venue of the professional soccer clubs FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München and also was a major venue during the FIFA World Cup 2006 clearly won the approval of a majority of voters in one of the referendums with the largest participation in the history of Munich. However, in proximity of the projected site, residents strongly opposed the project, which reflects in significantly reduced shares of yes-votes. Assuming rationality, we conclude that at city level residents expected an increase in utility from the new arena that justified public expenses. However, our results also point to considerable proximity cost, probably related to the presence of fan crowds and congestion. This finding contradicts the existing evidence on stadium impact from the U.S. There are also major differences in the socio-economic determinants of voting behavior, indicating that the expected net-benefit of proximity to professional sports facilities may vary across sports and countries.

Critical issues in the design of contractual relations for transport infrastructure development

The increasing use of Public–Private Partnerships (PPP) arrangements in the provision of transport infrastructure seems to be a trend all over the world with a very particular incidence in Europe. The arguments supporting these public decisions are several and their validity varies with the different realities where these instruments are applied. The paper highlights the critical issues around the design and implementation of PPPs in the transportation sector and makes a brief presentation of the rational behind the structure of papers presented in this special issue.

The regulatory function in public-private partnerships for the provision of transport infrastructure

A wide range of contractual arrangements are increasingly being used by the public sector to materialise the delegation of transport infrastructure provision tasks to the private sector, over long periods of time. This paper addresses the issue of transport infrastructure regulation in the specific context of public-private settings. Starting by the discussion on the concept of Public–Private Partnership (PPP) it is stressed that, despite the different meanings that can be found in the literature, it is possible to define a PPP by using a core group of characteristics, such as the bundling of services and the transference of a relevant part of the risks to the private sector on a long term basis. Regarding the action of the regulator, we look at three dimensions of efficiency that are expected to be pursued at the strategic level of regulatory action. However, it is acknowledged that the regulatory function is in practice rather complex since it requires balancing a multiplicity of other objectives or goals, which may vary according to specific economic conditions. In the domain of pricing, the review carried out suggests that since “first best” assumptions are not met in the “real world” it hardly seems possible that the short run marginal cost pricing “canon” could be directly used to shape pricing policies. Consequently, when considering the application of the standard neoclassical marginal cost pricing approach it is pertinent to ask whether the second best solutions can lead to efficient outcomes that might be accepted by the stakeholders. Bundling construction and maintenance tasks into a single long term contract, which is a typical characteristic of “standard” PPPs, could theoretically bring cost benefits since it allows for the possible internalization of any positive externalities that may be generated during the whole project life cycle. The economic rationale for the bundling of construction/maintenance with financing services is that it enhances the likelihood of submission of realistic bids at the procurement stage. In addition, the chances of the contractor sticking to the agreed contractual terms, after contract award, are potentially increased given the higher exposure to financial risk.

Future challenges for transport infrastructure pricing in PPP arrangements

In this paper we report the conclusion of a research project dedicated to pricing regimes in public-private partnership contracts for the provision of transport infrastructure ( Macário et al., 2009). Several elements have been brought to the bulk of knowledge that supports the design and implementation of public-private partnership in the transport sector. These developments have been achieved in the following domain: • Understand difficulties of price setting within the PPP environment, given the potential conflict of interest among the different parties engaged, go beyond the discussion of first best versus second-best price setting mechanisms. • Understand the role of government and regulators in the performance of a PPP. • Translate the issue of asymmetries of information between parties into a risk taking language. • Devise alternative contractual designs that will enable competitive price setting. • Understand that a structural element is missing to conciliate the views of the different stakeholders over a PPP: a bridge between infrastructure costs and charges. The objective of this paper is to overview the main challenges ahead of transport infrastructure pricing, considering the current and likely future policies as well as the field constraints. Moreover, a proposal is formulated to overcome some of the current pitfalls associated to transport infrastructure pricing.

The Effects of Transport Accessibility and Jobs–Housing Balance on Commuting Time: Evidence from Beijing

Increases in commuting time have caused serious social and environmental problems in a physically fragmentizing mega-city. Some policy-makers attend to solve commuting-related problems through alternative land-use policies, in particular mixed land use and multi-functional structures, rather than mere transport programmes. This paper investigates the effects of the jobs–housing balance on commuting time at the community level in Beijing. The paper puts forward a new indicator of home-based job proximity to measure the jobs–housing balance. A 1500 household-based travel data set was used to aggregate the average commuting time of the 60 communities studied. Based on the results of a correlation analysis, findings suggest that home-based job proximity has the strongest significantly negative relationship with average community commuting time. In fact, the results of a two-step regression analysis suggest that 68.6% of the changes in average commuting time are explained overwhelmingly by the home-based job proximity variable. However, there are no significant associations between average commuting time and the variables of local public transport accessibility and private vehicle transport accessibility. Obviously, current urban policy, which relies predominantly on ambitious and expensive programmes of transport infrastructure provision must be rethought in Beijing. Improving the jobs–housing balance through the implemention of compact land development may be an alternative to reducing overall commuting duration.

A LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT FOR EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF INTER-REGIONAL HIGH-SPEED MASS TRANSIT PROJECTS

Abstract: Most of the existing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research in the field of transport is ex-post evaluation. This paper proposes an LCA method in the planning phase for evaluating life cycle carbon dioxide (LC-CO 2 ) emission from the provision of modal railway systems. As a case study, the Superconducting MAGnetically LEVitated (MAGLEV) transport system is examined. The LC-CO 2 emission factors with standard infrastructure are introduced in the inventory analysis for the LC-CO 2 emission. The change in LC-CO 2 emission by shifting from the existing inter-regional transport mode (ordinary railways, airplanes and motor vehicles) to the MAGLEV are analyzed by the Extended Life Cycle Environmental Load (ELCEL) concept. An environmental efficiency index considering speed and capacity is also defined and the alternative transport system evaluations are conducted. Key Words : Life cycle assessment (LCA), Environmental load, Transport infrastructure provision 1. INTRODUCTION Due to increasing concerns about global and local environmental problems, improvement of railway systems is preferred for their lower environmental load in operational conditions. However, there are few examples in which their effects were quantitatively inspected. Even though such effects were proven, the basis and method of estimation were rarely clarified. This study aims at developing a method which quantitatively evaluates carbon dioxide (CO

Voting for highway construction in economic geography

This paper investigates the efficiency of voting for provision of transportation infrastructure such as highways, and discusses the effect on regional structure. The salient conclusions of this study show that voting and political competition engender overprovision of large-scale transportation infrastructure. In addition, consideration of industrial location reveals that the provision of transportation infrastructure exerts a negative effect on development of rural areas.

Air Transportation, Airports, and the Discourses and Practices of Globalization

The material processes of globalization are both enabled by, and place ever-growing demands on, the provision of transportation infrastructure and technology, particularly in major cities that function as nodes in global networks. However, the cities where such infrastructure is provided are not merely passively affected by the processes of globalization, but help to constitute those processes, particularly through debates over infrastructure expansion. This paper examines the connections between transportation and globalization via case studies of two major U.S. airports, showing how history, governance, airline service, and regional economic situation all play a role in mediating the effects of the processes of globalization on individual places, and in shaping those processes in turn.

Using planning agreements to fund transport infrastructure

The use of planning agreements to provide funding for transport improvements required to support development proposals is discussed. The legislation and Government guidance referred to applies to England, but there is similar legislation and guidance applicable to Scotland and Wales. Planning policies since the late 1980s have required developments to be accessible by non-car modes of transport as well as by private vehicles and planning agreements are thus usually used to secure improvements to all transport modes. Planning agreements have been in use since the early 1970s and many agreements have secured highway improvements. These have usually been for single large-scale developments. Securing improvements needed to meet the cumulative impact of a number of developments has not been very successful with the result that many developments cause an impact but the necessary transport infrastructure has to be provided by the transport authorities. New Government advice issued in 2005 has made it clear that standard charges and pooling funding from several developments for the provision of transport infrastructure is acceptable. Some methods have been developed and are reviewed in the paper. Compared with the standard charge methods that have been developed for the provision of open space and educational facilities those for transport lag well behind. The result of this is that much needed funding for transport is not being collected.

A Changing of the Guard: Regional Planning in Ottawa, 1945-1974

This paper examines the evolution of planning in Ottawa’s metropolitan region between 1945 and 1974—a period of significant change in the city’s planning history.1 As else-where, planners and policy-makers in Ottawa were coming under increasing pressure to make effective public participation a legitimate part of planning activities and to consider more seriously the potential quality-oflife impacts of their planning decisions, most notably those related to the provision of transportation infrastructure. Yet it was also in the late 1960s that the federal government was forced to concede its long-standing, yet unofficial, control of regional planning for the Ottawa area to the newly created Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC). Accordingly, creation of the RMOC’s first official plan was a contentious process that, in the end, enabled the continuation of postwar suburban development trends while also incorporating a "transit first" philosophy granting precedence to public transit over all forms of road construction and widening. The direction taken in its first official plan also enabled the RMOC to demonstrate that it, rather than the federal government, would from then on play the lead in regional planning.

Financing Of The Transport Infrastructure In Australia

Australia has an extensive multi-modal transport infrastructure comprising of well-developed road, rail, air and coastal networks. It has a relatively low road density of 0.10 km/sq.km. as well as the lowest number of persons per kilometer or road length in the world, which is indicative of the extensive road network per captia. Australia’s transport infrastructure is financed by all three tiers of government - Commonwealth, State and Local governments. A number of financing regimes have been adopted by the Australian Government since 1981, which are indicative of government priorities and distribution of responsibilities for provision and maintenance of transport infrastructure with the State and Local Government. Recently the Commonwealth Government has developed a planning and financing strategy in the form of AusLink. It is the Australian government’s latest approach to land transport infrastructure to achieve better national and land transport planning, funding, and investment decision-making. The salient features of AusLink approach that make it distinct from previous approaches include an integrated corridor approach to planning, integrated land use and transport planning, increasing private sector involvement, focus on sustainable development and shared responsibility and funding with States and Territories. The methodology for identification and appraisal of specific projects to achieve the AusLink objectives are discussed.

Addressing Sustainability in Transportation Systems: Definitions, Indicators, and Metrics

Addressing the sustainability of transportation systems is an important activity as evidenced by a growing number of initiatives around the world to define and measure sustainability in transportation planning and infrastructure provision. This paper reviews major initiatives in North America, Europe, and Oceania. The purpose is to characterize the emergent thinking on what constitutes transportation sustainability and how to measure it. While there is no standard definition for transportation system sustainability, it is largely being defined through impacts of the system on the economy, environment, and general social well-being; and measured by system effectiveness and efficiency, and the impacts of the system on the natural environment. Frameworks based on important causal relationships between infrastructure and the broader environment, infrastructure impacts on the economy, environment, and social well-being; and the relative influence of agencies over causal factors, are largely being used to develop and determine indicator systems for measuring sustainability in transportation systems. Process-based approaches involve community representatives and other stakeholders in planning and present opportunities to educate the public and influence collective behaviors. These frameworks can be used collectively to help agencies refine their visions as well as develop policies, planning procedures, and measurement and monitoring systems for achieving sustainable transportation systems.

The Worst of All Worlds

Los Angeles, California, is generally considered the archetypal sprawling metropolis. Yet traditional measures equate sprawl with low population density, and Los Angeles is among the densest and thereby the least sprawling cities in the United States. How can this apparent paradox be explained? This paper argues that the answer lies in the fact that Los Angeles exhibits a comparatively even distribution of population throughout its urbanized area. As a result, the city suffers from many consequences of high population density, including extreme traffic congestion, poor air quality, and high housing prices, while offering its residents few benefits that typically accompany this density, including fast and effective public transit, vibrant street life, and tightly knit urban neighborhoods. The city's unique combination of high average population density with little differentiation in the distribution of population might best be characterized as dense sprawl, a condition that embodies the worst of urban and suburban worlds. This paper uses Gini coefficients to illustrate variation in population density and then considers a number of indicators–-most relating either to the provision of transportation infrastructure or to travel behavior–-that demonstrate the effects of low-variation population distribution on the quality of urban life in Los Angeles. This approach offers researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in Los Angeles and in smaller cities that are evolving in similar ways a useful and user-friendly tool for identifying, explaining, measuring, and addressing the most problematic aspects of sprawl.

Consolidating Power: Technology, Ideology, and Philadelphia's Growth in the Early Republic

Few contemporary American issues are more controversial than the powerful role of corporations (both business and municipal) in society, politics, and the economy. Yet strikingly, few scholars have investigated the deepest historical roots of American corporate power. Most historians who have considered this issue have focused their research on the Gilded Age and beyond because of the post-Civil War rise of industrial capitalism, the increased prominence of corporations on the national scene, and the dramatic growth of city governments in the context of late nineteenth-century large-scale immigration and the provision of citywide service and transportation infrastructure. Consequently, they have minimized the origins of American corporate power in the first decades of the republic, a crucial issue in the development of American business, American cities, and the nation.

Consolidating Power: Technology, Ideology, and Philadelphia's Growth in the Early Republic

Few contemporary American issues are more controversial than the powerful role of corporations (both business and municipal) in society, politics, and the economy. Yet strikingly, few scholars have investigated the deepest historical roots of American corporate power. Most historians who have considered this issue have focused their research on the Gilded Age and beyond because of the post-Civil War rise of industrial capitalism, the increased prominence of corporations on the national scene, and the dramatic growth of city governments in the context of late nineteenth-century large-scale immigration and the provision of citywide service and transportation infrastructure. Consequently, they have minimized the origins of American corporate power in the first decades of the republic, a crucial issue in the development of American business, American cities, and the nation.

District road-network planning

The provision of transport infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, is a key area of development policy, as physical access is seen as a way of improving economic generation opportunities in remote areas. This paper reviews the Pilot Labour-Based District Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance Project (PLRP) in Nepal and its contribution to the preparation of a district transport masterplan. In Nepal, as elsewhere, there is a trend towards decentralised development planning as a way of strengthening rural development at a district level. This decentralisation in Nepal has resulted in district development committees, and rural road-network planning is one of their responsibilities. The PLRP has generally been regarded as a successful way in which to strengthen rural road planning, grassroots involvement and the overall development of districts in Nepal.

Job Decentralization and Central-City Well-Being

To contribute to the understanding of the relationship between job decentralization and central-city well-being, this study undertakes some statistical tests using intermetropolitan-level data for the United States. Unlike previous studies, the relationship is tested here with sectoral data. A strong negative association between job decentralization and economic well-being of central-city residents is observed in terms of almost all indicators of well-being. This association is stronger when decentralization is considered in the low-wage sectors, such as retailing. The research findings have serious policy implications in regard to location of activities and provision of transportation infrastructure and facilities.

Accessibility, Network Efficiency, and Transport Infrastructure Planning

Most accessibility measures reported in the literature do not meet certain requirements of transport planners, as the results offered by these indicators are heavily influenced by the geographic location of the places. Peripheral locations invariably figure as being of low accessibility and consequently as possible receptors for new investments, even though they may already have a very good provision of transport infrastructure. In this paper an accessibility indicator is formulated that neutralizes the effect of geographic location. To this end, the customary notion of distance (length, time, or costs) is substituted by another which expresses the ease of access in terms of network efficiency. This indicator can be useful to assist decisions to invest in transport networks, as it is more sensitive than the potential model to the transport infrastructure needs of each individual region. It has been tested by application to the current Spanish Infrastructure Master Plan.