A survey of Hungarian transport policy

Abstract

In its introductory part this article discusses the principles of the transport policy approved in 1968, followed by the reasons behind the advances on this policy approved in 1978.

It then goes on to review the Hungarian transport pattern and organization, including the roles played by the railways, the road transport companies, the state‐owned enterprises as well as cooperatives, urban transport, shipping, air transport, pipelines, and private transport.

In discussing the division of labour (or market sharing) in transport it concludes that passenger transport is increasing slowly, while the proportion of private transport is continuing to rise. A moderate increase is expected in goods transport with a decline in the share of the railways and a rise in that of the other transport branches. This division of labour is being influenced by economic, not administrative, means.

The main target of the advanced transport policy is to shape a transport system which corresponds to socioeconomic requirements. This means that goods transport capacities must be put to more efficient use, which involves improving development, organizational and planning operations. In passenger transport priority must go to public transport while the proportion of private transport must be defined in keeping with demand and economic possibilities.

In the development of the infrastructure and investments, the need to improve energy use and protect the environment must be stressed.

The rest of the article presents the detailed reasoning behind the measures already taken and scheduled to be taken to achieve these main targets.     

综合交通线网规划方案合理性评价内涵探讨

文章从合理性的一般哲学解释出发,论证出综合交通线网规划方案合理性存在的必然性,然后分别从多方式合理分工、各交通线路分阶段整体推进、交通线网投资实施总体控制、交通网络构建符合OD分布规律、以及线网规划目标考虑资源消耗限制等方面,深入分析合理的综合交通体系应具备的特征,并由此推荐系列评价指标集,从而为综合交通线网规划方案合理性评价提供理论依据。     

Urban public transport in Europe: Technology diffusion and market organisation

Technological change and incremental technology, at various levels, are believed to have played an important role in the success of urban public transport in Europe. In this paper, a historical overview of the evolution of different transport modes across different European cities is presented. Our major concern is with the processes of diffusion of urban transport modes in European cities and, in particular, with the factors, mainly of an economic nature, that may explain their rates of adoption across Europe. Among these factors, special attention is given to the role played by the dimension and organisation of public transport markets in the rates of adoption of different public transport modes. The main conclusion of the paper is that the success of the introduction of a new transport mode appeared to be mainly related to its ability to provide cheaper and more reliable transport services compared with previous transport modes, and that, in the case of the electric tram, this was achieved by transforming of the structure of the market relating to this urban transport mode into monopolies.     

Impacts of combining partial and general equilibrium modelling in freight transport analyses – a forest sector case study from Norway

Abstract

The forest sector in Norway is very transport intensive, accounting for approximately 14% of total domestic freight transport traffic on Norwegian roads. This paper presents an analysis linking a general equilibrium freight transport modelling tool with a partial equilibrium model of the forest sector. The freight transport model predicts transport costs, modal split and transport patterns, and the results are treated as inputs to the forest sector model. The objective of the paper is to analyse the modelling effect of taking forest sector model effects back into the freight transport model and treated as new demand. Compared to a base scenario for the year 2020, we compare analyses with and without this new demand from the forest sector model back into the freight transport modelling tool.     

An environmental economic analysis of the new rail link to European main port Rotterdam

After a long policy debate it has been decided to built in the near future a new rail link (Betuwe line) in the Netherlands to handle the rapidly increasing volume of goods to be transported from Rotterdam harbour to the centre of Europe. This study analyses its economic and environmental aspects and compares rail transport with road transport and transport on inland waterways. It is shown that transport by water will compete strongly with transport on the new railway and that water transport is attractive economically and environmentally.     

高铁时代下广西道路客运企业面临的机遇与挑战探析

文章从高铁时代下高铁运输对传统道路运输的冲击入手,结合区域经济发展情况,分析道路运输企业所面临的挑战和发展机遇,探讨了高铁与道路客运的优劣性,提出道路客运企业应对挑战、走出困境、持续发展的对策。     

Transport infrastructure and regional economic growth: evidence from China

This article develops a multi-dimensions measurement of transport infrastructure and examines the linkage between transport infrastructure and regional economic growth. A panel data model is estimated using data from a sample of 31 Chinese provinces from 1998 to 2007. The results provide strong evidence that transport infrastructure plays an important role in economic growth. Both land transport and water transport infrastructure have strong and significant impacts, while the contribution of airway transport infrastructure is weak. Furthermore, land transport infrastructure contributes more to economic growth in locations with poor land transport infrastructure, while the investment in water transport infrastructure contribute positively to economic growth only after the investment scale exceeds a threshold level. These results are robust to a variety of alternative methods, the exclusion of possible outliers, and consideration of endogeneity. A retrospective analysis shows that uneven distribution of transport infrastructure is an important reason behind economic disparities across Chinese regions.     

What influences satisfaction and loyalty in public transport? A review of the literature

Public transport ridership retention is a challenge for many cities. To develop comprehensive strategies aimed at retaining riders, it is necessary to understand the aspects of public transport that influence users to become loyal to the system. This paper analyses relevant literature regarding the causes of satisfaction and loyalty in public transport. We find that the service factors most associated with satisfaction are on-board cleanliness and comfort, courteous and helpful behaviour from operators, safety, as well as punctuality and frequency of service. On the other hand, loyalty is associated with users’ perceptions of value-for-money, on-board safety and cleanliness, interactions with personnel and the image and commitment to public transport that users feels. Furthermore, the results elucidate that the concept of loyalty is best defined based on users’ intentions to continue using the service, their willingness to recommend it to others, their overall satisfaction, but also and most importantly, their image of and involvement with public transport. Public transport users who have a positive image of the agency and consider public transport an integral component of city life are more likely to demonstrate loyalty and act like ambassadors for public transport agencies.     

Environmental benefits from better freight transport management: freight traffic in a VAR model

Most macro empirical studies on the price elasticity in the freight transport sector focus on the demand for transport. However, most of the external costs from the freight transport sector are more closely linked with the traffic volumes. In the paper an explicit distinction between traffic and transport demand is made by regarding traffic as an input in the shippers’ production of transport services, while transport demand is derived from firms’ production of output. An empirical analysis based on aggregate time series is carried out in a VAR model, where the stationary long run relationships are estimated using the so-called ‘Johansen Procedure’. The estimated price elasticity with respect to traffic (−0.81) is considerably higher than the elasticity with respect to transport (−0.47).     

Vulnerability and resilience of transport systems – A discussion of recent research

The transport system is critical to the welfare of modern societies. This article provides an overview of recent research on vulnerability and resilience of transport systems. Definitions of vulnerability and resilience are formulated and discussed together with related concepts. In the increasing and extensive literature of transport vulnerability studies, two distinct traditions are identified. One tradition with roots in graph theory studies the vulnerability of transport networks based on their topological properties. The other tradition also represents the demand and supply side of the transport systems to allow for a more complete assessment of the consequences of disruptions or disasters for the users and society. The merits and drawbacks of the approaches are discussed. The concept of resilience offers a broader socio-technical perspective on the transport system’s capacity to maintain or quickly recover its function after a disruption or a disaster. The transport resilience literature is less abundant, especially concerning the post-disaster phases of response and recovery. The research on transport system vulnerability and resilience is now a mature field with a developed methodology and a large amount of research findings with large potential practical usefulness. The authors argue that more cross-disciplinary collaborations between authorities, operators and researchers would be desirable to transform this knowledge into practical strategies to strengthen the resilience of the transport system.     

Scientific research about climate change mitigation in transport: A critical review

This paper seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the research on climate change mitigation in transport. We suggest that work to date has focused on the effects of improvements in transport technologies, changes in the price of transport, physical infrastructure provision, behavioural change and alternative institutional arrangements for governing transport systems. In terms of research methodologies, positivist and quantitative analysis prevails, although there are signs of experimentation with non-positivist epistemologies and participatory methods. These particular engagements with climate change mitigation reflect mutually reinforcing tendencies within and beyond the academic transport community. We first draw on a revised version of Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science to explore the path dependencies within transport studies, which are at least partly responsible for the predisposition towards quantitative modelling and technology, pricing and infrastructure oriented interventions in transport systems. We then employ the governmentality perspective to examine how transport academics’ engagements with climate change mitigation depend on and align with more general understandings of climate change in UK society and beyond. The analysis makes clear that ecological modernisation and neo-liberal governmentality more generally provide the context for the current focus on and belief in technological, behaviour change, and especially market-based mitigation strategies. While current research trajectories are important and insightful, we believe that a deeper engagement with theoretical insights from the social sciences will produce richer understandings of transport mitigation in transport and briefly outline some of the contributions thinking on socio-technical transitions and practice theories can make.     

Urban Space Distribution and Sustainable Transport

In many cities of the world, road space is increasingly contested. Growing vehicle numbers, traffic calming and the development of new infrastructure for more sustainable transport modes such as bicycles have all contributed to pressure on available space and conflicts over the allocation of space. This paper provides the first assessment of urban transport infrastructure space distribution, distinguishing motorized individual transport, public transport, cycling and walking. To calculate area allocation, an assessment methodology was developed using high-resolution digital satellite images in combination with a geographical information system to derive area measurements. This methodology was applied to four distinctly different city quarters in Freiburg, Germany. Results indicate that space is unevenly distributed, with motorized individual transport being the favoured transport mode. Findings also show that if trip number to space allocation ratios are calculated, one of the most sustainable transport modes, the bicycle, is the most disadvantaged. This suggests that area allocation deserves greater attention in the planning and implementation of more sustainable urban transport designs.     

Transport planning for urban areas: A retrospective look and future prospects

This paper examines the evolution of urban transport planning since the 1960′s, identifies the key trends that have influenced such planning, describes the current state of urban transport planning, and speculates on the important characteristics that will influence urban transport planning over the next several decades. Fifteen planning conferences since 1957 are reviewed to show the changing perspectives on planning from the professional community. Ten areas are identified that will provide special challenge to future transport planners—demographic changes, the importance of economic production and market forces for transport system performance, multimodal perspectives for transport planning, adopting an operations focus, an important role for technology, developing a sense of community, laying the groundwork for pricing, integrating transport decision making with growth management, transport planning within a sustainability framework, and providing greater accountability of the decision making and planning processes.     

Modal-split effects of climate change: The effect of low water levels on the competitive position of inland waterway transport in the river Rhine area

Future climate change is expected to affect inland waterway transport in most main natural waterways in Europe. For the river Rhine it is expected that, in summer, more and longer periods with low water levels will occur. In periods of low water levels inland waterway vessels have to reduce their load factors and, as a result, transport prices per tonne will increase. One possible consequence of these higher transport prices is a deterioration of the competitive position of inland waterway transport compared with rail and road transport, and thus a change in modal split. We study this issue using a GIS-based software model called NODUS which provides a tool for the detailed analysis of freight transportation over extensive multimodal networks. We assess the effect of low water levels on the costs of transport operations for inland waterway transport in North West Europe under several climate scenarios. It turns out, that the effect on the modal split is limited. Under the most extreme climate scenario, inland waterway transport would lose about 5.4% of the quantity that is currently being transported annually in the part of the European inland waterway transport market considered. The very dry year of 2003 can be seen as an analogue for this scenario.     

Review of Road Hauliers' Measures for Increasing Transport Efficiency and Sustainability in Urban Freight Distribution

This paper analyses a set of measures for transport efficiency improvements from the perspective of the road haulier, particularly regarding improvements suitable for urban distribution and their effects. The first part of the paper addresses literature within the area of transport efficiency. The second part reviews potential transport efficiency improvements with respect to environmental impact and the number of actors involved in the decision. The third part presents results from interviews with the CEOs of two road hauliers regarding their opinions of the transport efficiency measures. Finally, the conclusions about transport efficiency measures are summarized in a matrix, taking into account whether these measures can be considered as costs or benefits for the actors involved. The results show ambiguous and often intricate relations with regard to costs and benefits for the actors in the system. They also explain part of the inertia to change within the freight industry. However, an increasing number of transport operators are now offering more sustainable transport solutions and this service might gain them a competitive advantage in the future.     

Does transport help people to gain employment? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence

ABSTRACT

The role of transport in providing access to employment has received considerable attention. Since transport policies may be motivated by assumed effects on employment probability outcomes, it is important to establish the nature of the relationship between transport and employment outcomes. While the majority of the empirical evidence suggests a positive association, it is not conclusive or consistent and often shows mixed results. To address this confusion, our study has systematically reviewed this evidence base and synthesised it through meta-analysis. We first identified 93 studies that quantitatively assessed the impact of transport on employment outcomes. By systematically merging the empirical evidence, this study establishes a positive association between transport and employment outcomes, with varying effects for four identified categories of transport measures (or combinations thereof): car ownership, public transport access, commute times, and job accessibility levels. This positive association persists in studies that control for endogeneity between transport and employment, but a larger evidence base is needed to establish a more robust relationship, in particular for cities and smaller (rural) areas outside the US-context and with regard to public transport. We then selected 20 methodologically comparable studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Our meta-regression models clearly demonstrate that car ownership significantly increases individual employment probabilities, in particular among welfare recipients. Young drivers benefit from access to household cars when these are not in use by their parents, and they are more sensitive to the time and cost implications of longer commutes. While our systematic review suggests that better access to public transport and higher levels of job accessibility increases employment probabilities, meta-regression analysis requires more consistent transport measures. The findings in this study are important for policymakers in that they imply that job seekers may benefit from public policies targeted at improving their access to public transport, in particular for people without access to cars and in areas with fewer job opportunities.     

Physical characteristics of paratransit in developing countries of Asia

Paratransit modes play a significant role in the urban transport sectors of developing countries since in many cities more than half of the total public transport demand are carried by them. Rapid increase in urban population, per capita income, along with inadequate existing transport infrastructures have stimulated their usage as cheap and convenient public transport modes. This paper examines their present role and physical characteristics in a comparative form to provide a basic data for discussion of urban transport issues in developing cities.     

Intermodal freight transport planning – A receding horizon control approach

This paper investigates intermodal freight transport planning problems among deep-sea terminals and inland terminals in hinterland haulage for a horizontally fully integrated intermodal freight transport operator at the tactical container flow level. An intermodal freight transport network (IFTN) model is first developed to capture the key characteristics of intermodal freight transport such as the modality change phenomena at intermodal terminals, physical capacity constraints of the network, time-dependent transport times on freeways, and time schedules for trains and barges. After that, the intermodal freight transport planning problem is formulated as an optimal intermodal container flow control problem from a system and control perspective with the use of the proposed IFTN model. To deal with the dynamic transport demands and dynamic traffic conditions in the IFTN, a receding horizon intermodal container flow control (RIFC) approach is proposed to control and to reassign intermodal container flows in a receding horizon way. This container flow control approach involves solving linear programming problems and is suited for transport planning on large-sized networks. Both an all-or-nothing approach and the proposed RIFC approach are evaluated through simulation studies. Simulation results show the potential of the proposed RIFC approach.     

Traffic Noise in Europe: A Comparison of Calculation Methods,Noise Indices and Noise Standards for Road and Railroad Traffic in Europe

The demand for inland freight transport in Europe is mainly met by road transport, leading to unsustainable impacts such as air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion. Since rail transport has lower externalities than road transport, a modal shift from road to rail is an accepted policy goal for achieving a more sustainable and competitive transport system. However, intermodal road–rail transport is mainly competitive for long-distance transport, and as a consequence, the potential for modal shift is limited. The cost efficiency of road–rail intermodal transport is particularly sensitive to pre- and post-haulage (PPH) costs, since this activity typically has a larger cost compared with its share of the total distance in the transport chain. For intermodal transportation over shorter distances, for example, below 300 km and where there are substantial PPH activities at both ends of the chain, the competitiveness of the intermodal transport system compared with that of direct road is low. Improving the efficiency of PPH activities is, therefore, of utmost importance for the competitiveness of the intermodal transport system. This paper looks into the issue of improving the cost efficiency of an intermodal transport chain by implementing an innovative and flexible legal framework regarding the PPH activities in the chain. By extending the legal framework with exemptions for longer vehicles in PPH, the cost efficiency could be greatly improved. The purpose of such a framework is to allow and enable, for PPH exclusively, the use of 2?×?40 foot or even two semi-trailers using only one vehicle in the context of the Swedish regulatory framework. This paper develops a strategic calculation model for assessing and investigating the consequences of such a framework and investigates the framework's potential in terms of cost efficiency. The model in combination with a sensitivity analysis of input variables gives a comprehensive understanding of the effects of PPH under different circumstances. From the results, it is evident that there are substantial positive effects associated with a PPH framework of longer vehicles. Results indicate that a typical shipper may experience cost reductions of about 5–10% of the total costs of the intermodal transport chain. In summary, a more innovative and flexible legal framework regarding vehicle length in the PPH links can contribute to a greater modal shift, improved cost efficiency and more environmentally friendly transportation systems.     

An overview of transport in Kuwait

Abstract

Kuwait is a relatively small country located at the top of the Arabian Gulf with population in 1980 amounting to 1.355 millions. Kuwait occupies an area of approximately 17 800 square kilometres. Kuwait's main source of national income is oil export. Income from oil export and other sources has resulted in Kuwait having the highest per capita income in the world. Consequently vehicle ownership is very high and traffic is ever growing and extending. Kuwait is self‐sufficient in only a few commodities and has a shortage of local labour. This means that transport has a fundamental role to play at the national and international level for the development of Kuwait's economy.

This paper provides a brief statement of transport in Kuwait. It starts by describing Kuwait's national setting and touches on the economic and social aspects in Kuwait that have an influence on transport patterns and needs. It describes the national transport system and covers road, air, rail and ports. Urban development planning in Kuwait is described and issues related to stages of urban development planning. The Kuwait City Master Plan and new town initiatives are presented. The urban transport system in Kuwait Metropolitan Area is described. In particular the characteristics of the urban road network and public transport facilities are outlined along with recent transport planning studies and new initiatives in the urban transport system.

The paper ends with a statement on organizations involved in the transport sector in Kuwait and a note on transport finance.