Ramp meters on trial: Evidence from the Twin Cities metering holiday

Ramp meters in the Twin Cities have been the subject of a recent test of their effectiveness, involving turning them off for eight weeks. This paper analyzes the results with and without ramp metering for several representative freeways during the afternoon peak period. Seven performance measures: mobility, equity, productivity, consumers’ surplus, accessibility, travel time variation and travel demand responses are compared. It is found that ramp meters are particularly helpful for long trips relative to short trips. Ramp metering, while generally beneficial to freeway segments, may not improve trip travel times (including ramp delays). The reduction in travel time variation comprises another benefit from ramp meters. Non-work trips and work trips respond differently to ramp meters. The results are mixed, suggesting a more refined ramp control algorithm, which explicitly considers ramp delay, is in order.     

Green walking networks for climate change adaptation

Climate change (CC) potentially affects people travel behaviour, due to extreme weather conditions. This is particularly true for pedestrians, that are more exposed to weather conditions. Introducing the effect of this change in transport modelling allows to analyse and plan walking networks taking into consideration the climatic variable. The aim of this work is to develop a tool that can support planning and design of walking networks, by assessing the effects of actions oriented to increase resilience with respect to extreme weather conditions (CC adaptation).An integrated approach is used, thus combining transport and land-use planning concepts with elements of outdoor thermal comfort and network accessibility. Walking networks are analysed through centrality indexes, including thermal comfort aspects into a general cost function of links and weighted nodes. The method has been applied to the walking network inside the Campus of the University of Catania (Italy), which includes different functions and where pedestrian paths are barely used by people. Results confirm that this tool is sensitive to the variables representing weather conditions and it can measure the influence of CC adaptation measures (e.g. vegetation) on walking attitude and on the performance of the walking network.     

A new generalized travel cost based connectivity metric applied to Scandinavian airports

This article proposes a new, generalized travel cost based method to operationalize network accessibility provided by airports. The approach is novel as it integrates features of network topology with multiple quality aspects of scheduled air transport services into one metric. The method estimates generalized travel costs for the full set of feasible travel paths between an airport and all network destinations. Rooftop modeling accounts for schedule delay and isolates the most cost-efficient travel paths per O-D relation. Respecting the assumed arrival time preference of passengers and adjusting for destination importance, connectivity scores are derived. The method is then applied to explore changes in the global connectivity pattern of Scandinavian airports from 2004 to 2018. The results suggest distinct spatial differences throughout the network, but less pronounced in size than suggested by popularly applied connectivity measures. Findings also highlight the importance of the geographical location as a determinate of an airport’s connectivity.     

Bike route choice modeling using GPS data without choice sets of paths

Concerned by the nuisances of motorized travel on urban life, policy makers are faced with the challenge of making cycling a more attractive alternative for everyday transportation. Route choice models can help achieve this objective by gaining insights into the trade-offs cyclists make when choosing their routes and by allowing the effect of infrastructure improvements to be analyzed. We estimate a link-based bike route choice model from a sample of GPS observations in the city of Eugene on a network comprising over 40,000 links. The so-called recursive logit (RL) model (Fosgerau et al., 2013) does not require to sample any choice set of paths. We show the advantages of this approach in the context of prediction by focusing on two applications of the model: link flows and accessibility measures. Compared to the path-based approach which requires to generate choice sets, the RL model proves to make significant gains in computational time and to avoid paradoxical accessibility measure results discussed in previous works, e.g. Nassir et al. (2014).     

The management of the rural transportation problem in Nigeria

In spite of the fact that about 70% of Nigeria's population live in rural areas, these areas have remained largely inaccessible. Not only do they lack motorable roads and organized public transport but also field surveys indicate that nearly all rural inhabitants do not have a private car. A Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure has been set up to manage the inaccessibility problem, among others. Whereas there are several conventional approaches to the management of the rural transportation problem, the Nigerian approach relies on the provision of roads. This restrictive approach with an emphasis on locational to the neglect of personal accessibility has various limitations which are analysed.     

Accessibility and transport infrastructure improvement assessment: The role of borders and multilateral resistance

The market potential indicator is a commonly used tool in transport planning for evaluating the potential economic effects derived from improvements in transport infrastructures. The general assumption is that exports from a given region will rise with increased accessibility, thus benefiting economic activities. However, the specification of the market potential model is typically very simple and ignores both the impact of competing rivals and the role of international borders, which leads to unrealistic results. Spatial interaction models on bilateral trade have already proved that international trade is affected by multilateral resistance, borders, adjacency, language or currency. Nevertheless, apart from some recent analyses that simply calibrate the distance decay parameter from trade datasets, these variables have hardly been integrated into research on market potential. This paper sets out to demonstrate that more realistic results are obtained by calibrating the distance-decay parameter and introducing the impact of competing rivals and border effects into the market potential formulation. The proposed model is then applied to the assessment of the accessibility impacts of new road transport infrastructure in the European Union between 2001 and 2012, which shows that the greatest improvements in accessibility were experienced by peripheral countries with high road infrastructure investment.     

Guidance for transport planning and policymaking in the face of an uncertain future

Uncertainty of outcome is widely recognised as a concern facing decision-makers and their advisors. In a number of spheres of policy, it appears uncertainty has intensified in the face of globalisation, economic instability, climate change, technological innovation and changing consumer preferences. How can planners and policymakers plan for an uncertain future? There is growing interest in, and use of, techniques that can help decision-making processes where deep uncertainty is involved. This paper is based upon one of the most recent international examples of a foresight exercise employed to examine uncertainty – specifically that which concerns uncertainty over the nature and extent of future demand for car travel. The principal focus of the paper is on the insights and guidance this examination of uncertainty brings forth for transport planning and policymaking. To accommodate deep uncertainty requires a flexible and open approach in terms of how policy and investment possibilities are formulated and judged. The paper argues for a focus upon the Triple Access System of spatial proximity, physical mobility and digital connectivity as a framework for policy and investment decisions that can harness flexibility and resilience. Uncertainty becomes an opportunity for decision-makers with the realisation that they are shaping the future rather than (only) responding to a predicted future. The paper outlines two forms of policymaking pathway: regime-compliant (in which adherence to trends and the nature of the world we have known pushes policy) and regime-testing (in which the nature of the world as we have known it is brought into question and vision pulls policy decisions). Stronger orientation towards regime-testing to assist in managing an uncertain future is advocated.     

Spatial impacts of road pricing: Accessibility, regional spillovers and territorial cohesion

Road pricing policies are gaining prominence in EU countries. These policies have positive impacts leading to mobility patterns which are socially and environmentally more desirable, but they also have negative impacts. One negative impact is to be found in regional accessibility, due to the increase in generalized transport costs. This study presents a methodology based on accessibility indicators and GIS to assess the accessibility impacts of a road pricing policy. The methodology was tested for the Spain’s road network considering two road pricing scenarios. It enables not only the more penalized regions to be identified but also negative road pricing spillover effects between regions. These effects are measured in terms of accessibility changes occurring in one region produced by charges implemented in another region. Finally, the study of accessibility disparities (by calculating inequality indexes for each of the scenarios considered), provides policymakers with useful information regarding the impact of road pricing policies from the point of view of territorial cohesion.     

Prioritizing new bicycle facilities to improve low-stress network connectivity

This paper introduces a new method to prioritize bicycle improvement projects based on accessibility to important destinations, such as grocery stores, banks, and restaurants. Central to the method is a new way to classify “bicycling stress” using marginal rates of substitution which are commonly developed through empirical behavioral research on bicyclist route choice. MRS values are input parameters representing bicycling stress associated with the number of lanes and speed limit of a street. The method was programmed as a geographic information system tool and requires commonly available data. The tool is demonstrated on three improvement scenarios that were recently proposed for Seattle, Washington. The full build-out scenario consists of 771 projects that include various new bike lanes, protected bike lanes, and multi-use trails. The tool produces priority rankings based on a project’s ability to improve low-stress connectivity between homes and important destinations. The analysis identifies specific areas and neighborhoods that can be expected to exhibit better bikeability. Transportation planners can use the tool to help communicate anticipated project impacts to decision-makers and the public.     

Non‐compatible chemicals as cargoes in industry,on road,rail, and water

Toronto is to have an urban transit system with a passenger carrying capacity which fills the gap between the capacity of the subway and the capacity of the car and bus. Correspondingly, in the words of the Premier of Ontario, the system will “make possible an attractive alternative to high‐rise, high‐density living and urban sprawl. . . .” Furthermore, the new system is sufficiently economical to provide “. . . an encouragement to growth in appropriate areas, rather than merely responding to growth as it occurs . . .”

The decision to have such a system is the culmination of some years of major transportation activities in the Province, which included the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Transportation Study (MTARTS) of 1962. This study pursued both urban expressways and public transport solutions to the movement of people in Metropolitan Toronto.

The urban expressways programmes ran into difficulties, on environmental terms, when strong opposition from community groups was met on proposed routes. A climax came when the Ontario Government halted the construction of the controversial Spadina expressway in June 1971. However, the programmes of public transport solutions met with great success. The Toronto subway and its extensions, together with the change in land values along the route, has become a classic success story. So, too, has the introduction of the GO Train Service (Government of Ontario train service). This pioneered a combination of commuter rail service and integrated feeder buses and today replaces some 14,000 cars each day along the lakeshore highways.

The success of the subway and the GO train coupled with the difficulties experienced by the urban expressways programme, gave rise to the realisation that a better city through public transport rather than the car, was practicable. However, subways were too expensive and they needed a large patronage in a narrow corridor. Accordingly, an intermediate capacity transit system was sought.

The paper describes the programme of activities involved in the choice of the system and describes the technical specification which the system will enjoy. In particular, the demonstration installation which is to be set‐up in Toronto is described in detail, together with the plans to instal some 56 miles over five routes in Metropolitan Toronto.