Developing Transport Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa through Public–Private Partnerships: Policy Practice and Implications

In contemporary times, Public–Private Partnership (PPP) in transport infrastructure has gained considerable attention in developing regions following its success in the developed countries. However, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is among the developing regions with few transport PPP projects and among the regions with high number of failed projects. Meanwhile the region's transport infrastructure need far exceeds it current provision. This paper therefore aims to examine the project experiences (success and failure factors) of three highly profiled transport PPP projects, namely the Lekki toll road concession project (Nigeria), N4 toll road (South Africa/Mozambique) and Port of Maputo (Mozambique) in order to develop policy measures for effective future implementation. The experiences of the three projects show that transport PPP policy is indeed feasible in SSA. However, to realise its full applicability, proper policy actions and measures must be carefully observed and these include effective and efficient stakeholder management, transparent and competitive tendering process, high participation of local investors, stable macro-economic conditions and strong government commitment and regulatory framework. The projects experiences and policy actions developed are impactful in accelerating transport infrastructure development through PPP approach in SSA. Hence it is hoped that policy-makers and practitioners would be informed on the key strategies to employ in implementing future projects.     

Anatomy of a systems failure: Dial-a-ride in Santa Clara County,California

Late in 1974 and early in 1975 the Santa Clara County Transit District initiated, operated, and then discontinued a demand responsive dial-a-ride system within a -month span. This systems failure was primarily the result of poor systems planning. Specifically, four major mistakes were made that led to the death of the system. They were: (1) Inadequate Customer Communication System, (2) Starting the Entire System at Once, (3) Inadequate Number of Vehicles, and (4) Taxicab Buyout.Each of these four mistakes is discussed in detail. Recommendations for instituting dial-a-ride systems are made. Getting through the difficulties of the start-up period is emphasized. Costs are discussed, and some relevant cost data are presented.     

模腔注射模拟显式算法中对流项作用的评估

为研究Navier-Stokes方程中对流项对粘性流注射模拟结果的影响,在基于矢量化显式算法模拟软件中加入对流作用项.应用修正后的软件模拟两个典型的注射填充过程的算例,并与相应的实验比较.对模拟和实验结果的比较表明,对流项对粘性流注射填充过程和的其中的自由表面形状的模拟结果影响可以忽略.     

轻轨车辆噪声评价标准初探

根据轻轨车辆噪声的现状及特点,本文认为轻轨车辆的噪声仍以A声级评价为宜,但需规定容许的倍频程带声压值,以抑制低频噪声对人体的影响,同时提出了轻轨车辆噪声的控制标准。最后还指出了A声级评价总体的缺陷,建议应以人体工程学为基础,综合考虑噪声对人体的多方面危害,以制定出更完善的轻轨车辆噪声评价标准。     

Rail policy in Britain — What next?

The 1974 Railways Act set British Rail (BR) the rather vague objective of providing a passenger service broadly comparable with that then existing within a given level of support. For the first few years under the Act, BR succeeded in operating within the financial constraints imposed, but only by considerable increases in charges and by negotiating wage settlements which implied declining real wages. From 1978 on, rising labour costs and reduction in traffic led to a rapidly developing crisis in BR's financial position.The position of each section of BR's business is discussed briefly. It is shown that the designation of some sectors as being purely commercial is inappropriate, since this means that benefits to users and to the community at large are ignored in decision-making. Similarly, the direction to maintain social passenger services at a given level means that finance and investment are concentrated unduly on preservation of the existing pattern of service, rather than on providing value for money. In both sectors, the likelihood is that in general fares are too high and services too frequent.At an operational level, the criterion of maximising the (weighted) volume of traffic carried is advocated as a practical way of choosing between alternative fare and service-level packages. More broadly based strategic studies would be needed to decide on the weights to be adopted, the level of finance to be made available, and the overall strategy.     

Development of multimodal performance measures for transit systems in New York State

The New York State Department of Transportation was required to certify as to the economy and efficiency of transit operators participating in the State's public transportation operating assistance program. This paper describes the efforts undertaken to meet this mandate.Discussed are past efforts to link performance measures to funding programs; reasons for modifying measures which had been used in previous efforts; and some of the problems and issues raised by the use of such criteria. The paper identifies 15 performance measures being used by New York State in its evaluations, the actual ranges encountered in the transit operations being funded through the state program, and tentative acceptable and desirable levels of those measures which the Transportation Department is using in its evaluation. The role these measures play in the state's operating assistance policy decision process is also described.     

Role of the built environment on mode choice decisions: additional evidence on the impact of density

Density is a key component in the recent surge of mixed-use neighborhood developments. Empirical research has shown an inconsistent picture on the impact of density. In particular, it is unclear whether it is the density or the variables that go long with density that affect people’s travel behavior. Many existing studies on density neglect confounding factors, for example, residential self-selection, generalized travel cost, accessibility, and access to transit stations. In addition, most still use a single trip as their observation unit, even though trip chaining is well recognized. The goal of this paper is to assess the role of density in affecting mode choice decisions in home-based work tours, while controlling for confounding factors. Using the dataset collected in the New York Metropolitan Region, we estimated a simultaneous two-equation system comprising two mutually interacting dependent variables: car ownership and the propensity to use auto. The results confirm the role of density after controlling for the confounding factors; in particular, employment density at work exerts more influence than residential density at home. The study also demonstrates the importance of using tour as the analysis unit in mode choice decisions. The study advances the field by analyzing the role of the built environment on home-based work tours. New knowledge is obtained in the relative contribution of density vs. a set of correlated factors, including generalized travel cost, accessibility, and access to transit stations.

The effect of the London congestion charge on road casualties: an intervention analysis

The introduction of the congestion charge in central London on the 17th of February, 2003, led to a reduction in congestion. One factor that has not been fully analysed is the impact of the congestion charge on traffic casualties in London. Less car travel within the charging zone may result in fewer traffic collisions, however, as the number of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists increased after the introduction of the congestion charge, the number of traffic casualties associated with these groups may also have increased. Reductions in congestion can also lead to faster speeds. Therefore, there could be increases in injury severity for those crashes that do occur. An intervention analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of the congestion charge on traffic casualties for motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, both within the charging zone and in areas of London outside the zone. This was done for killed and serious injuries (known as KSI in British terminology) and for slight injuries to examine whether there were any shifts in severity outcomes. Our results suggest no statistically significant effect for total casualties in London, but within the charging zone there has been a statistically significant drop in motorist casualties, and possibly an increase in cyclist casualties. There is an associated effect of an increase in casualties of motorcyclists and cyclists in some areas outside the charging zone, suggesting that changes in the design of the congestion charge may be needed to achieve reductions in casualties.

Benefits and challenges of controlling a LED AFS (adaptive front-lighting system) using fuzzy logic

The vehicular illumination system has undergone considerable technological advances in recent decades such as the use of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) Adaptive Front-lighting System (AFS), which represents an industry breakthrough in lighting technology and is rapidly becoming one of the most important innovative technologies around the world in the lighting community. This paper presents AFS control alternatives using fuzzy logic (types 1 and 2) to determine its operating parameters taking into consideration the road conditions in the state of São Paulo (Brazil). Fuzzy logic is a well-known extension of the conventional (Boolean) logic that enables the treatment of uncertainty present in the information through the definition of intermediary membership values between the “completely true” and the “completely false”. This technique or modeling strategy is particularly important when a multi-parameter decision must be taken or the decisions are based on the human knowledge. The results show the potential of the methodology proposed and its suitability for light control providing safer nighttime driving.     

Évaluation de mesures d’urgence potentielles en cas de pic de pollution atmosphérique en Alsace

Ten years after their implementation, the Alsatian prefectorial orders concerning emergency measures applied in case of exceedance of alert thresholds for ozone, nitrogen dioxide and, a pioneer feature of the French region, the PM, required an update. In 2007, the ASPA was mandated by the Bas-Rhin and the Haut-Rhin Prefectures to define and assess new emergency measures. The Alsatian emissions inventory first identified the activity sectors which would be potentially targeted by the measures, and then calculated the associated emission reductions. In association with the transportation agency, 3 scenarios were retained for concentration simulation: limitation of the speed limit at 70 km/h on freeways and major urban roads, alternated traffic in towns, and a combination of both measures. Then, an integrated modelling chain, including the CHIMERE and ADMS-Urban models, was allowed to simulate, for the three scenarios, the variation of ozone during the heat wave of 2003, and the variation of nitrogen dioxide and the PM during wintry episodes, for the cities of Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse. Finally, the urban cartographies of the impact of the scenarios on the concentrations were crossed with the georeferenced residence data to estimate the population affected by threshold exceedances in each case. A weak impact was obtained for speed limit reduction, while it was significant for the alternated traffic; for the PM, the concentrations fell about 10 μg/m³ and the population exposed to threshold exceedance fell by a factor 4; for nitrogen dioxide, the concentrations were lowered by several dozen μg/m³ and the exposed population fell by a factor 2; whereas for ozone, we noted a slight increase in the concentration and the exposed population. At the same time as the implementation of the newly developed emergency measures, the evolution of knowledge and modelling shows that it would be technically justified to differentiate the measures, pollutant by pollutant.