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.     

Effective corporatization of ports is a function of effective legislation: legal issues in the existing paradigm

Almost a decade since port corporatization was introduced in Australia it is becoming clear that initial objectives are not being realized. This paper explores some of the legal and legislative causes, the effect on port operation and investigates what necessary conditions are required to deliver an effective corporatized port business. The paper argues that effective corporatization is a product of effective legislation—one which, while emulating private sector business practices—can deliver a business model that is innovative, entrepreneurial, commercially oriented and free from self-serving political constraints.

The legislation and corporatized artifacts in Australian mainland ports have failed, in general, to deliver this. Arguably, the legislation has, in fact, created a model with inherent flaws and serious contradictions. The legislation enacted is such that while it has set in place a model that articulates commercial objectives, the model created is in fact one in which political objectives may override commercial ones; where strategy may be determined by a bureaucratic elite without the requisite skills and insights, and the resultant strategy appears ad hoc; and a corporate culture that frequently has failed to transcend that of the statutory authority and public utility model. This paper will test these assertions against the developments in the port of Melbourne.     

Corporatization: a legislative framework for port inefficiencies

It is now some five years since the restructure of Australian ports and their transformation into corporatized entities. This strategy was adopted in an endeavour to improve efficiency by distancing government from day to day operations—the element that was perceived by many to be the cause of sub-optimal performance. While there is widespread agreement that port performance has improved significantly, dissatisfaction persists with the continued political intervention which is considered to be the reason for ongoing sub-optimal performance and ports' commercial potential from being realized. This paper investigates some of these issues but argues that political intervention per se should not be the focus of research and what is widely perceived to be the cause of the problem. Rather, that political intervention is an effect of something more endemic, of a legislative framework which may not be appropriate for the operations of a commercially focused port. It is argued that the focus should therefore be on the cause, a legislative framework, rather than the outworkings, or the effects of that framework.     

降低二氧化碳要立即行动

今年的12月7日全世界的目光将聚焦丹麦首都哥本哈根．因为在这里将要举行一场与地球未来气候变化密切相关的大会各个国家都将就温室气体排放指标展开讨论．以达成一个行动指南。     

Raising commuter parking prices — An empirical study

Recently, management of parking rates has been proposed as an effective policy option to ameliorate the adverse impacts of excessive commuter automobile use in urban areas. Parking price strategies have the potential for significantly altering travel behavior in favor of high occupancy vehicles, as well as reducing congestion, energy consumption and pollution. Unfortunately, however, a paucity of empirical evidence exists regarding the impacts of parking pricing policies on travel patterns. The recent attempt aimed at eliminating federal employee parking subsidies provided a unique opportunity to take a careful look at the impacts of commuter parking price increases.In November 1979, federal employees at many government facilities in Washington, DC, and other major cities began to pay one-half of nearby commercial parking rates for government-controlled parking spaces. This paper presents the impacts of the parking price increases on commuting behavior at a sample of 15 worksites in metropolitan Washington, DC, and discusses their short term planning and policy implications. A before and after with control group survey design monitored the effects on modal shifts, automobile occupancy, and parking behavior. The results showed that removing free parking and raising parking rates (from $10 to $32 per month) influenced some significant shifts to higher-occupancy modes, but that the shifts were not uniform in direction or magnitude across the sites. In addition, the study examined how locational, travel, and employee factors influenced the modal shifts.     

Port reform in Australia: issues in the ownership debate

Australia port reform initiatives have taken on a variety of forms — from out-right sale and transfer of ownership, to the sale of particular assets of infrastructure or services, or to long-term lease arrangements; or in some cases state governments, unable to relinquish control, have opted for corporatization or commercialization strategies. Reform is driven by the belief that ownership impacts on efficiency and efficiency is perceived to suffer if governments either retain ownership or direct control. As a result a major aim of reform is to either remove or distance governments from day to day port operations. The sale of ports removes government control outright and privatized ports are subject to identical regulatory constraints as any company in the private sector. But corporatization strategies are such that government ownership is retained and ports have been transformed into statutory state owned corporations. Effectiveness of this strategy requires legislation to be such that port corporations are free to operate like their private sector counterparts. To date this has not occurred and some serious impediments are emerging which are embedded in legislation and which, rather than reduce, have indeed, increased government control.     

降低二氧化碳要立即行动

今年的12月7日.全世界的目光将聚焦丹麦首都哥本哈根,因为在这里将要举行一场与地球未来气候变化密切相关的大会,各个国家都将就温室气体排放指标展开讨论,以达成一个行动指南.     

台湾高速铁路项目GIS解决方案

论述了地理信息系统在台湾高速铁路项目的应用。提供了铁路地理信息系统（RGIS）建设的一些经验和建议。     

The dynamics of port reform: different contexts,similar strategies

Research into port reform in Taiwan and Australia indicates that reform was undertaken in different contexts while committed and adopting similar strategies. Reform in both countries has been consistent with paradigmatic shifts towards market orientation, and within this context, privatisation was considered the preferred option. In both Taiwan and Australia, however, governments, reluctant to relinquish control over their ports, opted for corporatisation models. This article discusses the dynamics and drivers of reform and examines the outcome of these strategies. Both countries commenced port reform with deregulation of dock labour employment and introduced enterprise-based employment replacing the labour pool system. Privatisation of stevedoring operations was introduced at the same time in Taiwan. In the second reform phase, Taiwan amalgamated the four major commercial ports under a single state-owned port company in March 2012, with the objective of reducing inter-port competition and creating a central port planning mechanism. Australian ports, on the other hand, have undergone restructuring with the implementation of corporatisation, privatisation and commercialisation strategies since 1990s. Reform strategies in both countries display some similarities, e.g. rationalisation strategies in both Taiwan and Tasmanian ports, but also display some distinct dissimilarities with the increasing move to privatisation in Australia, e.g. the sale of South Australian ports and in 2010 the sale of the port of Brisbane.     

Benefit-cost analysis for labor intensive transportation systems

Labor-intensive systems such as bikeways and pedestrian ways suffer in transportation planning in part because traditional benefit-cost analysis focuses on narrow, private transportation savings (e.g., reducing vehicle and time costs).Planners need benefit-cost frameworks which capture the community-wide effects of such innovative transportation systems — reduction in air pollution, less congestion, and increases in exercise and outdoor recreation. This study discusses practical methods for planners to include such categories in their analyses and applies these methods to two case studies. The analysis yields benefit-cost ratios which are much higher than those found in most public projects — suggesting negative returns to marginal automobiles in congested areas such as university campuses. The paper concludes with some suggested bikeway planning guidelines that emerge from expanded benefit-cost analysis.