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.     

New approaches to transportation forecasting models

In 1992, the Federal Highway Administration awarded small research contracts to four teams of transportation researchers to design alternative approaches for improving the urban travel demand forecasting process. The purpose of these contracts was to enable each research team to explain how transportation planning models could and should be improved to meet the new forecasting requirements brought on by recent legislation, to address the impacts of new transportation technology, and to exploit the travel behavior theories and methodologies that have developed over the past two decades.This paper presents a summary and synthesis of the ideas which emerged from the four research reports. Its purpose is to identify common themes suggested by several of the research teams, to point out what appear to be critical elements missing from some approaches, and to combine the best aspects of the four approaches into a research plan for improving the current generation of travel demand models.Abbreviations CAAA Clean Air Act Amendments - FHWA Federal Highway Administration - GIS Geographic Information System - IIA Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives - IT Information Technology - IVHS Intelligent Vehicle Highway System - SUE Stochastic User Equilibrium - TCM Transportation Control Measures - UTPS Urban Transportation Planning System - VMT Vehicle Miles of Travel The paper was prepared as a report for the Federal Highway Administration.     

A review of the evidence for induced travel and changes in transportation and environmental policy in the US and the UK

This paper reviews recent research into the demand inducing effects of new transportation capacity. We begin with a discussion of the basic theoretical background and then review recent research both in the UK and the US. Results of this research show strong evidence that new transportation capacity induces increased travel, both due to short run effects and long run changes in land use development patterns. While this topic has long been debated amongst transportation planners, the fundamental hypothesis and theory has long been apparent in studies of transportation economics and planning that evaluated different issues (e.g. travel time budgets and urban economic development effects). We summarize much of this work and relate the theoretical issues to recent empirical research. We then proceed to examine recent changes in transportation and environmental policy in the US and the UK. The role of the new knowledge of induced travel effects would be expected to lead to changes in the conduct of transportation and environmental policy. Changes in policy and implementation of those policies are still occurring and we provide some suggestions on how to move forward in these areas.     

A typology of relationships between telecommunications and transportation

This paper defines the relationship between telecommunications and transportation, by expanding on linkages already identified in the literature, by identifying additional relationships, and by putting these relationships into a robust conceptual framework. There are conceptual, physical, analytical, and regulatory parallels between telecommunications and transportation. Telecommunications affects the demand for, and supply of, transportation — and vice versa. In the broadest sense, all communication requires transportation in order to occur: transportation either of people, of objects, or of electronic impulses. In other words, communication takes place via one or more of those three modes. It is suggested that “communication breeds communication.” That is, the easier it is to communicate (whether through travel or communications), or the more that one or another form of communication takes place, the more that communication as a whole is stimulated. The relative shares of each of the three modes of communication may vary as one mode partially substitutes for another, but the absolute amounts of communication via each mode are likely to increase. Two empirical studies are summarized, one illustrating that teleconferencing increased travel, the other illustrating that telecommuting decreased travel. Other implications for transportation planning are highlighted.     

Ontologies for transportation research: A survey

Transportation research relies heavily on a variety of data. From sensors to surveys, data supports day-to-day operations as well as long-term planning and decision-making. The challenges that arise due to the volume and variety of data that are found in transportation research can be effectively addressed by ontologies. This opportunity has already been recognized – there are a number of existing transportation ontologies, however the relationship between them is unclear. The goal of this work is to provide an overview of the opportunities for ontologies in transportation research and operation, and to present a survey of existing transportation ontologies to serve two purposes: (1) to provide a resource for the transportation research community to aid in understanding (and potentially selecting between) existing transportation ontologies; and (2) to identify future work for the development of transportation ontologies, by identifying areas that may be lacking.     

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.     

Public/private-sector cooperation in urban transportation: Lessons from ridesharing experiences in Connecticut

An important characteristic of urban transportation policy and planning today is the increasing role that the private sector is playing in identifying and implementing transportation projects. For example, a recent examination of the possible forms of such involvement found that there were four major categories of action that could be used to classify recent private-sector efforts in urban transportation: (1) aid to and/or provision of transportation services; (2) formation of advocacy or advisory groups whose purpose is to influence public policy; (3) sponsorship of transportation studies; and (4) provision of management assistance to public agencies (Gordon, 1982). In many of these efforts, the successful implementation of a project or program required close cooperation between public and private-sector officials. The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of this interaction and explore the implications for transportation planning and policy.Examples of public/private-sector interaction in two Connecticut cities, Hartford and Stamford, are used to illustrate the characteristics of successful transportation program implementation. Although the examples are limited to two cities, and are mainly concerned with one major category of action (ridesharing), the characteristics of the process used and of the results can be applied to other situations where public/privatesector interaction is desired.     

Modelling the impact of weather conditions on active transportation travel behaviour

Three weather sensitive models are used to explore the relationship between weather and home-based work trips within the City of Toronto, focusing on active modes of transportation. The data are restricted to non-captive commuters who have the option of selecting among five basic modes of auto driver, auto passenger, transit, bike and walk. Daily trip rates in various weather conditions are assessed. Overall, the results confirm that impact of weather on active modes of transportation is significant enough to deserve attention at the research, data collection and planning levels.     

An eigenmodel for iterative line planning,timetabling and vehicle scheduling in public transportation

Planning a public transportation system is a multi-objective problem which includes among others line planning, timetabling, and vehicle scheduling. For each of these planning stages, models are known and advanced solution techniques exist. Some of the models focus on costs, others on passengers’ convenience. Setting up a transportation system is usually done by optimizing each of these stages sequentially.In this paper we argue that instead of optimizing each single step further and further it would be more beneficial to consider the whole process in an integrated way. To this end, we develop and discuss a generic, bi-objective model for integrating line planning, timetabling, and vehicle scheduling. We furthermore propose an eigenmodel which we apply for these three planning stages and show how it can be used for the design of iterative algorithms as heuristics for the integrated problem. The convergence of the resulting iterative approaches is analyzed from a theoretical point of view. Moreover, we propose an agenda for further research in this field.     

Sustainability: A vital concept for transportation planning and development

The current pattern of metropolitan transportation and land development in the majority of countries around the world appears to be increasingly unsustainable from both an economical and environmental perspective. Many factors point to the need for adoption of a new paradigm for sustainable transportation and development in both high and low income countries—burgeoning populations, growing air pollution, limits on global petroleum reserves, limited physical and economic capacity to expand automobile-based transportation systems without community destruction, and the urgent need to limit global CO₂ emissions to slow the pace of global warming. This paper outlines some of the conceptual differences between the current paradigm for transportation planning and an emerging paradigm for sustainable transportation and land development. It compares the US and European patterns of transport and land development, which often inspire transportation decision-makers and planners in developing countries. The paper reviews the patterns of development in the cities of several developing countries, identifying policies than can enhance sustainability.     

Poverty,policy, and public transportation

By all appearances, the circumstances surrounding employment and income distribution in the United States have remained notably the same over the past 30–40 years. At the same time, policies for improving the conditions of low-income persons have remained relatively unchanged. Relevant published accounts continue to cite poorly integrated residential and employment location patterns and poor public transportation service as critical obstacles to improving the economic and social conditions of low-income persons. The relationship between poverty and public transportation was researched extensively during the late 1960s and the early 1970s; however, little recognition has been given to these efforts by more recent research efforts. To learn from the past we should review public transportation policies from 1960 to 2000 to highlight federal policies that affected urban areas during this time period, especially in relation to low-income transportation mobility.     

An integrated transportation decision support system for transportation policy decisions: The case of Turkey

From the point of view of the feasibility of providing growth in road capacity parallel to the predicted growth in traffic as well in terms of impact on the environment and health, current trends in transportation are unsustainable. Transport problems are expected to worsen due to the fact that worldwide automobile ownership tripled between 1970 and 2000, and the movement of goods is projected to increase by 50% by 2010. Similar trends can be seen in an even more dramatic way in Turkey. The Turkish transport network has not followed a planned growth strategy, due to political factors. There is no transportation master plan which aims to integrate the transport modes in order to provide a balanced, multimodal system. This study proposes a decision support system that guides transportation policy makers in their future strategic decisions and facilitates analysis of the possible consequences of a specific policy on changing the share of transportation modes for both passenger and freight transportation. For this purpose, based on the wide spectrum of critical issues encountered in the transportation sector, several scenarios have been built and analysed.     

A land use and transportation integration method for land use allocation and transportation strategies in China

In this paper, we will first review literature of the land use and transportation interaction and then develop a new land use allocation methodology called Three Stages-Two-Feedback Method (Integration Method) for both land use allocation and the transportation policy options with a practical implementation. Then we apply this method in an urban general planning project in China with more than 1.2 million populations. In this project, we evaluated three land use allocation strategies and three transportation policy options using two application tools (with and without feedbacks) using this method implemented in a land use planning system UPlan and a transportation planning system Emme. The results show that the use of the feedback method (Application Two) results in a vehicle distance reduction and the increase in the service coverage area of transit bus stops at the same time. Due to the use of transportation accessibility and the congestion measures with a MSA implementation, the accessibility measure shows a convergent process over iterations. This nice feature can be used for alternative comparisons. Future research subjects are also discussed.     

Factors associated with proportions and miles of bicycling for transportation and recreation in six small US cities

The majority of bicycling in the US is for recreation rather than transportation purposes but few studies have examined the question of bicycling purpose. We use data from an online survey conducted in 2006 in six small cities in the western US to examine factors affecting bicycling for transportation compared to bicycling for recreation. The results indicate that individual, social-environment, and physical-environment factors have important influences on the balance between transportation and recreational bicycling and on miles of bicycling for each purpose. Bicycling comfort and an aversion to driving are associated with more transportation bicycling. A culture of utilitarian bicycling and short distances to destinations are also key factors for transportation bicycling. Bicycle infrastructure appears to play an indirect role through its effect on perceived bicycling safety and through the self-selection effect, by attracting bicycling-inclined people to bicycling-supportive communities.     

An integrated model of facility location and transportation network design

Network location models have been used extensively for siting public and private facilities. In this paper, we investigate a model that simultaneously optimizes facility locations and the design of the underlying transportation network. Motivated by the simple observation that changing the network topology is often more cost-effective than adding facilities to improve service levels, the model has a number of applications in regional planning, distribution, energy management, and other areas. The model generalizes the classical simple plant location problem. We show how the model can be solved effectively. We then use the model to analyze two potential transportation planning scenarios. The fundamental question of resource allocation between facilities and links is investigated, and a detailed sensitivity analysis provides insight into the model's usefulness for aiding budgeting and planning decisions. We conclude by identifying promising research directions.     

Resilience in transportation systems: a systematic review and future directions

ABSTRACT

The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative was introduced by the Chinese government to promote the worldwide economic development and multilateral cooperation between China and the associated countries. As a crucial part of global supply chains, transportation plays a key role to ensure the implementation of the B&R. Safety is one of the issues with great importance in transportation research. However, its foci have been expanded from traditional risk through security to resilience and sustainability. Resilience has attracted considerable interests from both researchers and practitioners across different research domains in recent years. Various studies have been conducted on transportation resilience from different perspectives. Consequently, different definitions have been developed to define and describe resilience. This paper presents a systematic review on transportation resilience with emphasis on its definitions, characteristics, and research methods applied in different transportation systems/contexts. It aims to figure out what transportation resilience is and what kind of essential characters it usually has. More importantly, research challenges are analysed and a future research agenda on the resilience of transportation systems is proposed. This paper will provide comprehensive insights into understanding the transportation resilience, as well as establish new horizons for relevant research topics within the context of the B&R.     

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.     

Local organization of transportation planning activities in the United States

This study provided an examination of the alternative means used by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to carry out transportation planning activities in different areas of the U.S.A. This has been done by first developing a general profile of the nature and functions of the MPOs in the 100 largest regions in the U.S. and by an in‐depth analysis of seven regions. The purpose of these activities was to examine similarities and differences between MPOs and to identify factors that appear to lead to the effectiveness or non‐effectiveness of MPOs in different areas. From the analysis, it is evident that there are wide differences between MPOs in their organization, function, and degree of effectiveness in carrying out transportation planning. These differences do not appear to be related to any structural characteristics of MPOs, but rather are the result of past history and the attitudes of people involved.     

Identifying the most critical transportation intersections using social network analysis

Traffic congestion negatively impacts our society. Most of the traditional transportation planning techniques – though effective – require rigorous amounts of data and analysis which consumes time and resources. This paper uses social network analysis (SNA) to analyze transportation networks, and consequently corroborate the effectiveness of SNA as a complementary tool for improved transportation planning. After creating the connection between the language and concepts of SNA and those of transportation systems – as well as developing a model that utilizes different SNA centrality measures within the transportation context – the authors utilize SNA to investigate traffic networks in three case studies in the state of Louisiana, analyze the results and draw conclusions. To this effect, with minimal cost and time, the model identifies the most critical intersections that should be further investigated using traditional techniques. These results are in agreement with the findings of Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development.