Small city waterfront restoration

Abstract

Redesign and reuse of waterfronts are a common experience today. Small cities presented with a deteriorating waterfront are faced with formidable economic and institutional impediments to their efforts to reverse the decline. This paper presents some design principles that if followed provide a framework for developing restoration plans. It also describes the efforts of the California State Coastal Conservancy to apply these principles to assist three small cities along California's coast to revitalize their waterfronts. Their experience indicates that in an era of limited budgets waterfront redevelopment can occur with substantial economic benefit where limited funds are applied to often small but crucial elements that result in creating waterside amenities.     

Transit subsidies and regulation: Lessons from the Israeli experience

The Israeli transport sector, like those of many other countries is subject to complete government control with regard to fares, entry into the market, terms of operation and subsidies. It is unique, however, in that the fares charged are remarkably low and that the major transit mode, buses, is operated by privately owned companies. This paper explores what makes this low level of fares possible and in doing so examines the principal characteristics of the sector. It shows that this phenomenon cannot be explained by the amount of subsidy given to the operators but must be attributed to other factors, mainly the efficiency in the production of the services which is motivated by the profit maximization objective of the operators. The paper further argues that government policies regarding subsidy and regulation are generally inefficient as they cause misallocation of resources.     

Network-based real option models

Building on earlier work to incorporate real option methodologies into network modeling, two models are proposed. The first is the network option design problem, which maximizes the expanded net present value of a network investment as a function of network design variables with the option to defer the committed design investment. The problem is shown to be a generalized version of the network design problem and the multi-period network design problem. A heuristic based on radial basis functions is used to solve the problem for continuous link expansion with congestion effects. The second model is a link investment deferral option set, which decomposes the network investment deferral option into individual, interacting link or project investments. This model is a project selection problem under uncertainty, where each link or project can be deferred such that the expanded net present value is maximized. The option is defined in such a way that a lower bound can be solved using an exact method based on multi-option least squares Monte Carlo simulation. Numerical tests are conducted with the classical Sioux Falls network and compared to earlier published results.     

Selatm — a GIS based program for evaluating the safety benefits of local area traffic management schemes

Particular safety problems relate to traffic on local streets. Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) schemes are often implemented with the objective of counteracting these safety problems. One analytical difficulty in appraising the effectiveness of LATM in dealing with safety problems has been the ‘footloose’ nature of accident locations in a local street network. Seldom are there distinct ‘blackspot’ locations. An area‐wide approach is needed and the interaction between the system and arterial road network must be considered. The paper describes the development of a Safety Evaluation Method for Local Area Traffic Management (termed SELATM). It is a GIS‐based program for analysing accident patterns over time and the evaluation of the safety benefits of LATM schemes. The evaluation is perform at different network levels for various accident variables. The thrust of the program involved the integration of network data with data on accidents and the installed devices to generate summary accident statistics for the various network levels allowing for before and after comparison with a control area. This program as developed is applied to a LATM scheme at Enfield, a suburb in metropolitan Adelaide.     

Estimating the environmental costs of port related emissions: The case of Kaohsiung

This study estimates the emission costs of ships and trucks in the Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, focusing mainly on particular matter and volatile organic compounds. By calculating annual ship and truck emissions we find that the major contributors are tankers, container ships and bulk ships and trucks. Using a bottom-up methodology, the combined environmental costs of ships and trucks are estimated to be over $123 million per year.     

The implications of travel profiles for transportation investment: The Bronx Center Project

Investment in transportation infrastructure is generally regarded as an effective means for inducing economic growth and employment in a region. However, the ability of such investments to achieve these objectives, to a large extent, depends on the degree to which travel results from these investments support or conflict with present travel patterns and needs in this region. Using this view as a basis, this paper analyzes travel conditions and choices in the Bronx New York, where large scale transportation and other development projects (commonly called the Bronx Center Project) are presently taking place. Using a large data base, composed of census tract information on socio-economic and travel behavior, the paper first examines the travel profile of the Bronx population, by estimating travel choice elasticities. On the basis of these elasticities it then assesses the impact of the Bronx Center Project on travel patterns and trends.     

Marine Shoreline Management—A 35-Year Evaluation of Outcomes in San Juan County,Washington, US

In 1976, Washington became the first state to implement the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) primarily through the 1971 WA Shoreline Management Act (SMA). However, there has been little effort in Washington to evaluate outcomes of shoreline protection programs post SMA. In 2006–2008, we characterized shoreline conditions in San Juan County over three time periods spanning pre and post SMA and engaged community members to improve effectiveness of shoreline protection. We found modest improvements in forest retention on marine shorelines between pre and post 1977, but few other improvements through time. While we could not measure shoreline construction rates, construction practices for shore armor and overwater structures (docks) have changed very little, despite the increased regulatory standards. The vast majority of shore armor constructed post SMA occurred without mandatory county or state permits likely due to: widespread perception that permits were unnecessary and that permit standards were arbitrary and inconsistently applied; poor understanding of shoreline ecology by community members; lack of county or state enforcement authority and shoreline monitoring programs; and poor permit tracking systems.