Reflections on citizen involvement in urban transportation planning: Towards a positive approach

The purpose of this paper is to explore an important and unique role which community participation and involvement can play in a revised transportation planning process. A review of diverse views about community participation, as well as a critique of the current urban transportation planning process, reveals that the former has played, primarily, ad hoc opportunistic and diverse roles, and that the latter is in desperate need for dynamic, subjective, impact information — required to assess attractive transportation systems. The contributions of several disciplines — economics, operations research, management science, political science, public administration, and others — are reviewed to assist in the development of a conceptual framework for a new community participation role, as a provider of key information to the planning process. An eclectic, experimental approach is recommended to explore the possibilities further.     

The taxi's role in urban America: Today and tomorrow

Changes in the economic and demographic characteristics of US cities over the past two decades have modified but have not diminished the need for extensive public transportation service in these areas. The vast bulk of trips to work, to shop, and for most other purposes within large American cities are still made by residents of those cities, a significant portion of whom do not own or have access to an automobile. Expensive and far-ranging programs to enhance surburban commutation to the central city by means of rail rapid transit do little to meet the needs of those who still must rely upon local, extensive service within the city.One form of public transport — the taxicab — offers the quality and flexibility of service which even those of limited means find well worth the price. As a consequence, fleet taxicabs serve almost 40 percent more passengers than all US rapid transit systems and about 60 percent as many passengers as all bus transit systems. Removal of archaic and restrictive regulations governing the number and use of taxicabs in major US cities would promote more effective and widespread use of this, the only form of public transit that still operates — at a profit — without public subsidy.     

Techniques of land use/transportation planning in Australian cities

With the publication of the Sydney Area Transportation Study, land-use/transportation studies now have been conducted in all capital cities as well as in the majority of other urban areas with populations in excess of 40.000. A review of these studies is made and a qualitative assessment is attempted of the technical phases —land-use planning, trip-generation, trip-distribution, modal-split, traffic assignment and evaluation. Full summary results of this comparative survey are presented in tabular form, although themes developed in the text are illustrated with specific examples from individual studies. The methodology of land-use/transportation studies has been attacked by some Australian writers. An attempt is made to assess the relevance of these criticisms when applied to the practical planning process in Australia.     

Timing rules for major transportation investments

The timing decision for major transportation investments – when to build – typically is made without an objective approach for considering the economic value of implementation at different times. This paper uses a model of benefit-cost analysis and derives rules for timing major transportation investments. Three sets of conditions are considered, depending on whether annual benefits of an investment are uncertain and whether the objective is to maximize net present value or simply to achieve positive net present value. The timing rules under each set of conditions are stated in three forms: benefit-cost ratio, annual benefits, and implementation time. The paper compares these timing rules analytically, discusses potential applications, and illustrates them with a numerical example. Consequences of incorrectly using the timing rules are also examined with the example. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Behavioral analysis and transportation planning: Inputs to transit planning

The purpose of this paper is to discuss various types of behavioral data of potential relevance to transit planning. In particular a distinction is drawn between behavorial information regarding feelings, attitudes, opinions, and the like and more sophisticated types of data dealing with individuals' intentions to respond in certain ways given certain configurations of stimuli (transportation variables). The former is shown to be an important input to incremental planning, i.e., where information as to system performance is desired. The latter is shown to be critical to decisions regarding manipulations of transit system parameters, i.e., where knowledge of the outcome of manipulating system parameters is desired.A methodological example as to how the first type of data — informational level data — can be collected and utilized in system planning is presented. Specifically, data collected along the lines of traditional attitude surveys is collected in an attempt to monitor changes in public satisfaction with the Iowa City, Iowa, bus system before and after major system innovations. Implications of the collection and analytical procedures are discussed.This report was produced as part of a program of research and training in urban transportation sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration of the Department of Transportation.     

Suburban congestion: Recommendations for transportation and land use responses

Transportation congestion is reaching intolerable levels in many urban and suburban areas in the US. Reliance upon traditional responses, such as transit and new highway capacity, is not working — especially in suburban areas. Although methods for dealing with suburban congestion are often different, there are a number of common features that must be considered in developing short term as well as more permanent and long lasting solutions. In proposing short term solutions, a Menu of Actions is described. It includes transportation actions (the traditional transit and transportation management options) where there are opportunities for getting more out of the existing systems; land use/growth management actions which will result in more rational land use-transportation interactions; financial incentives, to encourage or discourage appropriate actions; more comprehensive and systematic land use and transportation planning; and the organizational and institutional actions required to implement rational solutions.While the Manu of Actions provides a broad array of possible actions to provide relief in the short run, over time the growth in traffic is likely to outpace their effectiveness. Consequently, longer term and often more difficult solutions must be considered and implemented as appropriate. They could include changes in land use development and land use management policies; changes in lifestyle and business practices; improvements through technological innovation; changes in the traditional ways of providing transportation services; and greatly expanded research and development.     

The role of accessibility in basic transportation choice behavior

Accessibility measures reflect the level of service provided by transportation systems to various locations. Basic transportation choice behavior is defined to include those decisions of how many automobiles to own and how many trips to which destinations to make by automobile and by public transit. Here, these decisions are assumed to be made jointly by urban households and are conditional upon residential location decisions. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the role of accessibility as a causal factor in such basic transportation choice behavior.An economic utility theory model of choice behavior is postulated in which the benefits from making trips to specific destinations are reflected by measures of destination attraction. Through determination of utility-maximizing trip frequencies, indirect utility functions are developed which include accessibility concepts. Behavioral implications of these concepts are proposed and contrasts are drawn to accessibility measures used in conventional segregated models of trip distribution, modal choice, and automobile ownership.Sensitivity analyses of alternative empirical definitions of accessibility in the choice model are conducted using data from the Detroit Regional Transportation and Land Use Study — covering counties in southeastern Michigan. These analyses employ a multinomial logit estimation technique and focus on definitions of trip attraction. Results of these analyses indicate that more complicated attraction measures can be replaced by measures involving the proportion of either urban area population or urban area employment within a traffic analysis zone. Also, evidence is found that decision-makers in the case study area consider trips of up to 60 or even 90 minutes duration when evaluating accessibilities offered by alternative public and private transportation systems.     

The state-of-the-art in urban transportation planning or how we got here

This paper traces the development of urban transportation planning in the United States, focusing particularly on the influence that three previous conferences -Sagamore (1958), Hershey (1962), and Williamsburg (1965) - have had on the course of this development. Included also are comments on the current state of the art of urban transportation planning and observations as to its future direction.The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1934, which authorized the use of 1 percent funds for highway planning is identified as the progenitor of urban transportation planning in the U.S., and two reports based on information developed by the highway planning surveys first funded under the 1934 Act, Toll Roads and Free Roads (1939) and Interregional Highways (1944), are credited with preparing the ground for much of the urban transportation planning that was to follow.The rapid development of home interview survey techniques in the late 1940's and the full-scale introduction of computer technology in the Detroit Area Transportation Study are noted, as is the work of the National Committee on Urban Transportation, which was initiated in 1954 under sponsorship of the Automotive Safety Foundation. In addition to its substantial technical contributions, the NCUT, through its success in mobilizing the cooperative efforts of virtually every major group concerned with urban transportation, stimulated significant gains in Federal-State-local relationships and paved the way for increased Federal aid to cities in solving their local transportation problems.The impact of the 1956 and 1962 Federal-Aid Highway Acts on urban transportation planning is assessed. The substantial contributions, of the Hartford, Sagamore, Hershey, and Williamsburg conferences are discussed, as are their shortcomings. It is noted that many of our present concerns — environmental impacts, relationships between transportation and land use, need for cooperation among all levels of government, the multi-modal nature of urban transportation, and the need for citizen involvement, to name a few — were incorporated in the provisions of either one or another of the Federal-Aid statutes in the 1950's and 60's or appear in the recommendations of the several conferences. That these matters still concern us today is given as evidence that planning has not fully lived up to its promise and responsibility, that more rather than less planning is needed, and that, above all, new leadership to pick up where the old has left off must soon assert itself.     

A planning methodology for intelligent urban transportation systems

Recent developments in intelligent transportation systems pose new challenges and opportunities for urban transportation planning. To meet these challenges and to exploit these opportunities, a framework for a new transportation planning methodology has been developed. The methodology operates in a computer environment, called PLANiTS (Planning and Analysis Integration for Intelligent Transportation Systems), designed to facilitate the entire planning process form problem identification, through idea generation and analysis, on to prioritization and programming. To assist in problem identification, PLANiTS provides graphic representation of current conditions, including traffic, air pollution, accidents, and projections of future conditions. A computerized knowledge base, containing information about possible strategies and their effects, and a model base, containing transportation and other analysis models, are used to guide the user in identifying potentially effective strategies and performing the appropriate analysis. To facilitate the use of these tools, PLANiTS provides computer support of group processes such as brainstorming, deliberation, and consensus seeking. PLANiTS is designed for use in urban transportation planning at the local, regional, and state levels; it is intended to support a variety of participants in the planning process including transportation professionals, decision makers in transportation agencies (often local elected officials), citizens, and interest groups. Recognizing that transportation planning is essentially a deliberative, political process, PLANiTS is designed to inform and facilitate, but not replace, the political decision-making process.     

Urban public transport in Japan

This article describes some general features of public transport provision in the urban areas of Japan (especially the large urban areas), and some specific features of an integrated transport system currently being developed in one such area. Although there are a number of important differences between Japan and the United Kingdom — such as the degree of urbanisation, level of car ownership, the responsibilities of government organisations and the existence of private railways in Japan — there are many similarities in the role that public transport plays and the factors which influence the efficiency of public transport.The success or otherwise of the developments in urban public transport systems in Japan would seem to have important implications for the design of transport systems in the similarly dense and compact conurbations of the United Kingdom and other European countries.     

Total cost analysis: An alternative to benefit-cost analysis in evaluating transportation alternatives

This paper explains the theory in support of total cost analysis (TCA) to compare transportation system alternatives. The full costs of each alternative are first aggregated, including travel time costs and monetizable environmental and social costs. Many costs which are considered on the benefits side of the equation in benefit-cost analysis (BCA) as "cost savings" are brought over to the costs side. Total cost differences among alternatives are then traded off against their estimated non-monetized benefits or impacts, just as a consumer trades off product quality against cost before deciding which product he or she will buy. One advantage of TCA over traditional BCA is that the concept of "total cost" is more easily understood by the public and by political decision-makers than BCA concepts such as "net present worth", "benefit-cost ratio" and "internal rate of return". A second advantage is that there is no suggestion that all "benefits" have been considered; decision-makers are free to use their own value judgements to trade off total cost against non-monetizable social, environmental and economic impacts, just as they trade off quality and convenience against cost when purchasing goods and services in their roles as consumers. The TCA approach is demonstrated in this paper through a case study of two systemwide alternatives for the Baltimore, MD urban area.     

Incorporating sustainability assessment in transportation planning: an urban transportation vehicle-based approach

Environmental assessments are on the critical path for the development of land, infrastructure and transportation systems. These assessments are based on planning methods which, in turn, are subject to continuous enhancement. The substantial impacts of transportation on environment, society and economy strongly urge the incorporation of sustainability into transportation planning. Two major developments that enhance transportation sustainability are new fuels and vehicle power systems. Traditional planning ignores technology including the large differences among conventional, hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles and buses. The introduction of alternative fuel vehicles is likely to change the traditional transportation planning process because different characteristics need to be taken into account. In this study a sustainability framework is developed that enables assessment of transportation vehicle characteristics. Identified indicators are grouped in five sustainability dimensions (Environment, Technology, Energy, Economy and Users). Our methodology joins life cycle impacts and a set of quantified indicators to assess the sustainability performance of seven popular light-duty vehicles and two types of transit buses. Bus Rapid Transit receives the highest sustainability index and the pickup truck the lowest. Hybrid electric vehicles are found to have the highest sustainability index among all other passenger vehicles. A sensitivity analysis shows the proposed sustainability dimensions produce robust sustainability assessment for several weighting scenarios. The results are both technology and policy sensitive, thus useful for both short- and long-term planning.     

Policy innovations of the US intermodal surface transportation efficiency act and clean air act amendments

In combination, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) are innovative and aggressive efforts to move US cities toward integrated transportation and air quality planning. Under these complementary laws, air quality has become a major national transportation goal. In areas with serious air pollution, air quality will be a major consideration in determining the future shape of urban transportation.This paper considers how the CAAA and ISTEA combine to provide an innovative national policy approach of interest to countries seeking to encourage sustainable development in urban centers. The CAAA mandates measurable and enforceable air quality targets. Nation-wide standards are set for acceptable levels of carbon monoxide, ground level ozone, and small particulates. ISTEA includes directions for transportation planners and decision-makers to follow to reach air quality and other goals — transportation planning must emphasize system efficiency, and for cities with severe air pollution, transportation projects are expected to contribute to cleaner air. Each urban area has flexibility in how it applies this framework to reflect its priorities and solve its problems. Strict federal sanctions provide incentives for compliance with both laws.Enactment of these laws has produced a period of transition and uncertainty as well as of challenge and opportunity for planners and elected officials. The next several years, the US will provide one national laboratory and over 100 different urban laboratories for innovative approaches to integrate transportation and environmental policies to resolve major urban problems.Abbreviations CAAA Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 - CO Carbon monoxide - ECO Employee Commute Option - EPA US Environmental Protection Agency - HC Transportation hydrocarbons - I/M Inspections and maintenance program - ISTEA Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 - MPO Metropolitan planning organizations - NO_x Nitrogen oxides - PPM Parts per million - PM₁₀ Small particulate matter - SIP State Implementation Plan - TIP Transportation Improvement Program - TCM Transportation control measures - VMT Vehicle miles traveled     

Evaluation,prioritization and selection of transportation investment projects in New York City

Over the last decade, a large number of high capital cost transportation projects have been proposed for the New York City Region. Many have resulted from addressing evolving capacity needs, changes in regional demographics and economics, meeting the improvements necessitated by operating century old subway systems and recognizing the impact of moving freight in a dense region. But the catalyst for bringing all of these projects to the attention of the public and all regional agencies was the tragedy of September 11, 2001. While these projects entail massive investments ($50–$60 billion), little analytical work has been carried out to measure the transportation and economic costs and benefits they entail and to categorize them accordingly. Competition among agencies to secure adequate resources to implement any of the desired projects makes such analysis necessary; yet there still remain political, vested economic interests and agency rivalry barriers to achieving this important planning objective. This paper reports the methodological approach taken by these authors for consistent and transparent project evaluation and then presents results from the ranking and prioritizing methodology. The policy underpinnings and implications of the analysis are discussed in a subsequent paper and thus only briefly touched upon here in the concluding section.     

State-of-the-practice assessment of climate change adaptation practices across metropolitan planning organizations pre- and post-Hurricane Sandy

Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) throughout the United States are identifying goals and implementation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change through transportation adaptation initiatives. Using vulnerability assessments as well as adaptation practices that support mitigation, MPOs are beginning to integrate climate change planning into the long range planning process. Evaluating the state-of-the-practice of adaptation planning and adaptation in support of mitigation is useful in that it helps identify gaps and areas of improvement. Therefore, this research investigates the state-of-the-practice of MPO adaptation planning using the Mid-Atlantic region as a case study. Surveys, administered in 2012 and 2014, are used to identify the level of progress of MPOs with regard to climate change adaptation practices as well as barriers before and after Hurricane Sandy. A cross-sectional analysis using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) maps the results of the surveys and spatially compares regional trends. The results of the case study suggest growing interest in adaptation efforts such as floodplain area designations and efforts to enhance coordination and collaboration as transportation jurisdictions respond to the potential climate change impacts. In addition, MPOs with dense, smaller geographic areas prioritize inter-jurisdictional collaboration as high, suggesting that they are more reliant on other agencies to maintain inter-connectivity of transportation networks and further implement adaptation planning practices.     

Transportation and energy—A future confrontation

An examination of the relationship between energy supplies and transportation systems indicates that a major confrontation is forthcoming. Predictions of the world's petroleum supplies and the primary dependence of transportation systems on petroleum show that there will be a depletion of these supplies in the next 50 years unless major changes in transportation and energy planning and policy making are forthcoming. A closer examination of specific transportation systems through the use of the transportation/ energy efficiency indicates that automobiles, aircraft and intercity trucking are most inefficient on a mobility per unit of petroleum basis. Recommendations on the difficult problem of how to account for the depletion characteristics of transportation systems are given. These include coordinated transportation and energy planning, restricted petroleum and transportation toll and tax rates, research and development on propulsion systems less dependent on petroleum, and a shifting of emphasis to higher transportation/energy efficiency systems such as compact automobiles, buses and trains.     

A combined land use-transportation model when zonal travel demand is endogenously determined

A combined transportation-land use model is proposed in this paper. Unlike other existing urban land use and transportation planning models in which a “fixed demand” for services is assumed to be known at the zonal level of an urban area, zonal travel demand is endogenously determined together with link congestion costs, optimal amounts of production and resulting efficient densities of land uses, once the transportation network is given. Some characteristics of alternative solutions are demonstrated. The proposed model represents progress over previous efforts in combining land use-transportation problems since the travel choice as to origin, destination and routes as well as amounts of goods to be produced at the optimal density of land uses are integrated into a consistent mathematical programming framework.     

Assessing communicative rationality as a transportation planning paradigm

Communicative rationality offers a new paradigm for transportation planning. Drawing on the literature and lessons from transportation planning practice, this paper describes the characteristics of a “communicative” form of transportation planning and compares them with conventional practices. A communicative rationality paradigm would place language and discourse at the core of transportation planning. The paper argues that it would lead to greater attention to desired transportation ends (goals), better integration of means and ends, new forms of participation and learning, and enhanced deliberative capacity. The paper explains the implications of this paradigm for the role of the transportation planner, the purpose of planning, the planning process, communicative practices, problem framing, and the nature of planning analysis. The paper concludes with an assessment of communicative rationality's ability to promote more effective transportation planning. It seeks to create a dialogue that will support the investigation of new transportation planning processes. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Some issues of dynamics in forecasting travel behaviour — A discussion paper

In the next few years there is likely to be a large growth of interest in the dynamic modelling of travel behaviour. In order to try to avoid the eventual collapse of enthusiasm which has sometimes occurred with other new developments when they turn out not to provide transport planning with the hoped-for panacea, this paper aims to demonstrate the diversity of approaches which will be required to tackle the subject of dynamics. In particular, it identifies three overlapping but distinct levels at which dynamics interact with travel behaviour — microdynamics, which is concerned with the detailed scheduling of activities and travel within a day — macrodynamic modifiers, whereby changes in medium- and long-term behaviour which are often considered to be instantaneous are in fact subject to important phasing considerations — and macrodynamic processes, which deal with the overriding demographic processes of birth, ageing and death. The paper suggests approaches to the incorporation of these three topics into the forecasting of travel behaviour.     

AN APPROACH TO THE ECONOMIC APPRAISAL OF AVCS MAGLEV

The purpose of an economic appraisal of a transportation project is to help select an efficient transportation investment plan. Here, efficiency means achieving the best transportation service from a given investment and the generation of net benefits at least as great as the costs of the investment. In this article, three future transportation investment alternatives in the USA are compared using the benefit-cost ratio method to illustrate the economic desirability of the AVCS Maglev alternative – an advanced vehicle control system based on magnetic levitation and propulsion. For the completeness of the economic appraisal and the provision of a guide to performing non-user benefit analysis for this promising ITS technology, the socioeconomic effects of implementing AVCS Maglev in the USA are evaluated based on the US National Development Model (NDM).