Error and uncertainty in travel surveys

Transportation study home interview surveys normally underestimate the amount of trip-making by residents of a study area, and the data has to be adjusted subsequently to compensate for this effect. One important reason for the shortfall appears to be the incomplete recall and reporting of travel information by respondents. The paper examines the influence of the survey instrument on recall by comparing reported travel behaviour in two surveys conducted in the same town, one using a conventional travel diary and the other an activity diary. The latter format appears to encourage a more complete response, giving rise to significantly higher reported trip rates and travel times. The paper discusses some research and policy implications of this finding and concludes with tentative suggestions for improved travel survey instruments.     

New technology and maritime training in the 21<Superscript>st</Superscript> century: Implications and solutions for MET institutions

This paper examines the impact of new technology on MET institutions in the 21^st century and discusses to what extent global MET institutions can enhance and enrich traditional practices through access to new technology and the use of innovative teaching and assessment methods within a sustainable and achievable framework. It notes the diverse standards and access to new technology by MET institutions across the globe and discusses the implications for them if they are to remain competitive and viable. The paper concludes that maritime institutions can benefit from the use of new technology, but only through rational planning and sustainable staged growth. A series of continua of technical development is provided to assist institutions, from the smallest to the largest, to plan for technical development and growth in a rational and feasible way.     

Can induced traffic be measured by surveys?

This paper addresses the feasibility of measuring induced traffic by means of appropriately designed surveys. The problems which confront any attempt to measure induced traffic are described and discussed. They include: inherent variability of traffic data, difficulty in establishing what would have happened in the absence of the scheme, uncertainties in the attribution of cause and difficulty in determining the most appropriate time to conduct surveys. Some of these problems have no solution while others can be reduced with an appropriate programme of surveys and control studies. Calculations are made of the sample sizes required to achieve various levels of target accuracy. It is concluded that, given an appropriate programme of traffic counts including control studies and extensive screenlines, it should be possible at relatively modest cost and with reasonable precision, to measure the increases in traffic associated with a scheme and to identify how much of that increase is due to rerouteing. Any further disaggregation of this extra traffic into that which is due to change of mode, change of destination and increased frequency, is much more problematic. The basic traffic counts would need to be supplemented by a programme of public transport surveys, registration plate marking and/or roadside interviews, which would add very considerably to the cost of the exercise. However, even with considerable expenditure, adequate precision may be difficult to achieve and attribution of cause impossible to make.     

Introduction to Special Issue on Tropical Coastal Management

In 1992, scientists at National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) sites proposed establishing a national coordinated monitoring program that would attempt to identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds. Known as the NERR System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), it currently consists of monitoring water quality and atmospheric variables over a range of spatial and temporal scales. Additional monitoring of ecological resources and land-water use will follow in subsequent components of the program. Water quality monitoring at NERR sites includes measurements of pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and water level. The NERR sites use data loggers that record at 30-minute intervals and relay measurements to internal memory. Standardized protocols assure that sampling, processing, and data management techniques are comparable among sites. Statistical techniques are being used to identify periodicity in water quality variables. Periodic regression analysis indicated that diel periodicity in dissolved oxygen is a larger source of variation than tidal periodicity at sites with less tidal amplitude. Tidal periodicity, however, is more important at sites with a tidal amplitude greater than 1 m. This finding suggests that natural processes controlling dissolved oxygen levels differ among sites depending upon tidal amplitude. Water quality data from the NERR SWMP have also been used to investigate occurrence of hypoxia. Results from analysis of water quality at several reserves indicate that hypoxia occurs but that the percentage of time that dissolved oxygen was less than 28% saturation varied substantially among sites and between years. Most of the hypoxic events occurred in summer but were also observed in winter and fall when low dissolved oxygen is usually not considered a problem. Without continuous monitoring by the NERR SWMP, many low dissolved oxygen events would have been missed, thus underestimating the duration and potential impact of this type of water quality variability. The NERR SWMP provides a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of how various environmental factors influence estuarine processes. Only by understanding how estuaries function and change naturally over time will we be able to predict how these systems respond to changes in climate and human-induced perturbations.     

Evaluation and implications of environmental charges on commercial flights

Environmental charges are one of the economic instruments for controlling externalities. Their application to commercial flights has become a preferred method of encouraging the sustainable development of the air transport industry. Two kinds of externalities, aircraft noise and engine emissions, both generating profound impacts on human beings and on the environment, are considered here. The hedonic price method is applied to calculate the social cost of aircraft noise during the landing and take-off stages of the flight. The marginal impact of each flight with specific aircraft/engine combinations is derived for the allocation of aggregate noise social costs. In contrast, the dose - response method is applied to estimate the social cost of each engine exhaust pollutant during different flight modes. The combination of aircraft noise and engine emissions social costs is then evaluated on the basis of several environmental charge mechanism scenarios, using Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a case study. It is shown that the current noise or engine emissions related charges at airports are lower than the actual social costs of their respective externalities. The implications of charge mechanism scenarios are subsequently discussed and evaluated in terms of their impacts on airline costs, airfares and passenger demand.     

Hinterland strategies of port authorities: A case study of the port of Barcelona

Port authorities generally focus on the development of the local port area and play a minor role in the development of port hinterlands, whereas shippers, forwarders, barge and rail operators have always been involved in the port-hinterland connection. The increasing importance of intermodal hinterland networks for the competitive position of ports has urged port authorities to become active in the hinterland. This new role has already been suggested by different academics. However, limited empirical evidence exists of port authorities taking stakes in inland terminals or developing transport services. Barcelona, as one of the leading port authorities in this respect, is used as a case study in this paper. The case study provides insight in the components and execution of the hinterland strategy of Barcelona. It shows that the strategy of the port authority of Barcelona and the consequent active involvement in the hinterland has had a significant impact on attracting container volumes from distant hinterlands and improving the accessibility of the port.     

Developing sustainable transport for the next generation: The need for a multi-sector approach

While some countries have made progress in encouraging more sustainable transport and travel patterns, there are limits as to how far this can be taken simply by looking at the decarbonisation of transport systems, since most travel is a derived demand and hence is strongly influenced by decisions taken by public and private sector agencies in different sectors. The paper first identifies some of the major non-transport sector influences on different aspects of travel behaviour. It then looks in more detail at changing patterns of grocery shopping over the last half century, and how these changes have been associated with new non-transport technologies and accompanying developments in business and social practices. Next, a simple visual spreadsheet tool is presented, that has been used by agencies to explore the main cross sector impacts (both positive and negative) of their major location and operating decisions. Finally, the paper proposes three ways in which cross sector synergies can be encouraged: (i) by giving each sector or major organisation responsibility for all CO₂ emissions associated with its activities, including those generated by the travel of its staff, customers, suppliers, etc.; (ii) by making major policy making within government a cross sector activity; and (iii) by developing a common, cross sector appraisal methodology for assessing the full range of impacts of policy proposals.     

Airline productivity redefined: An analysis of U.S. and European carriers

Productivity, in terms of net value added per man-year of labor and capital input, provides a more useful yardstick of airline efficiency than the widely used indices representing average unit costs or labor productivity. Large variations in productivity between airlines, in particular between U.S. and European airlines, can be explained almost entirely by differences in level of service, demand patterns and route characteristics. A regression model calibrated on 1975 data for fourteen U.S. and fourteen European scheduled airlines indicates that productivity could be increased by changes in network shape though a more liberal exchange of traffic rights, greater specialization (in particular the limited involvement of scheduled airlines in the very low yield charter market) and consumer choice — by offering higher frequency, multi-city services.