Information needs of the continuing urban transportation planning process

Urban transportation is identified as a functional element in the broader context of urban facilities and services. From this point of view, the relative merits of separate information systems for transportation planning and general urban planning, as contrasted to unified systems for all urban management functions, are discussed. The overriding need to make the most effective use of urban resources argues strongly for the unification of urban information systems to the greatest possible extent consistent with the special data requirements of various functional programs. The need to identify and correlate data items for very small areal units and to keep current records of the constantly shifting patterns of social and economic activities in urban areas present difficult, but not insurmountable technical problems. However, the most serious barrier to the development and implementation of comprehensive urban information systems is concluded to be institutional, rather than technical, in nature.     

Port managment development—a strategy for the provision of a training capability in developing countries

The absence of formal career-development programmes and the apparent low priority given to the development of human resources in the ports of developing countries has led to a severe shortage of suitably qualified and experienced managers. At the centre of this problem lies the formidable barriers to the establishment of a local training capability to meet the diverse and often specialized needs of this industry. This paper examines the nature and scale of the management-training requirements of the ports of developing countries. Further, it briefly describes the background to UNCTAD's role in the field of management training and outlines the objectives of its training strategy for the 1980s. An important component of this strategy is the 'Improving port performance project which is designed to prepare structured learning materials using audio-visual techniques and is proposed as one solution to establishing a local training capability in developing countries.     

Aesthetic and ecological disharmonies of highways

This paper discusses the aesthetic and ecological effects of highways. Little is known about the subject at the present time, and thus this treatment cannot be considered in any sense definitive.Part I offers a definition of aesthetic quality and considers its relevance to highway planning. It is noted that, although the principles of rural freeway design (curvilinear alignments, variable medians, etc.) generally accord with the aesthetic character of rural areas, freeways are infinitely more difficult to integrate aesthetically into urban areas. Comparisons are made in this regard among basic types of freeways.Part II notes that the effect of man's presence on the earth's ecology has resulted in new systems and processes to which man is now subject. Highways, as works of man, affect him and his environment in ways which are known only imperfectly. Nevertheless, there are steps which can be taken to minimize the more obvious forms of damage to the environment which can result from highway building.Part III discusses procedures for incorporating aesthetic and ecological considerations into highway planning. No method yet proposed is in itself sufficient, and none leads to a decision on an objective basis. A generally acceptable method must await further research. In the meantime, every effort must be made to assure full and fair consideration of environmental effects on an ad hoc basis.     

The design of liner shipping serives: the problem of feeder services versus multi-port-calls

In this paper, the authors outline the structure of liner shipping systems with special emphasis on the question of whether feeder services are superior in economic terms to the more traditional and commonly-used multi-port-calling system. They describe the theoretical advantages of the former over the latter, and develop a model by which the optimal conditions both operate in may be determined. This model is then applied to a real situation to ascertain whether the theory works in practice. They conclude that the shuuttle/feeder system is worthwhile only in exceptional circumstances when specific route characteristics—low trade density; hinterland generated cargo; inland position of port; and heavy congestion—coexist. Despite the expense of multi-port-calling, it remains the most practical solution to the thin trade problem.     

A study of the environmental impacts of intelligent automated vehicle control at intersections via V2V and V2I communications

This article presents a novel intersection traffic management system for automated vehicles and quantifies its impact on fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of CO₂ relative to traditional traffic signal and roundabout intersection control. The developed intelligent traffic management (ITM) techniques, which are based on a spatiotemporal reservation scheme, ensure that vehicles proceed through the intersection without colliding with other vehicles while at the same time reducing the intersection delay and environmental impacts. Specifically, the spatiotemporal reservation scheme provides each vehicle a collision-free path that is decomposed into a speed profile along with navigational instructions. The integration of the developed microscopic traffic simulator with instantaneous emission model, provides improved assessments of the environmental impact of traffic control strategies at intersections. The simulator architecture integrates several ITM algorithms, vehicle sensors, V2V/V2I communications, and emission and fuel consumption models. Each vehicle is modeled by an agent and each agent provides information depending on the specific vehicle sensors. The ITM system is supported by V2V and V2I communications, allowing the exchange of information among vehicles and infrastructure. The data include the estimated vehicle position and speed. Compared with traditional traffic management techniques, the simulation results prove that the proposed ITM system reduces CO₂ emissions significantly. The research also shows that these reductions are more significant when the traffic flow increases.