Candian port administraion: its future structre

The administration, management and development of ports in Canada is a Federal government responsibility. This centralist control of ports has been the subject of criticism by many for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it is not responsive enough to the affairs of the local level. This problem, along with others, has resulted in the introduction in the Canadian Parliament of proposed legislation over the past five years to alter port administration and development in Canada. The proposals culminated in the recent passage of the Canada Ports Corporation Act which, among other things, will see the abolition of the National Harbours Board. A review of the administrative structure the new Act replaces, along with a review and assessment of the Act itself and the proposed legislation which predated it, forms the basis of this paper. It will be seen that because of the new Act the centralist approach to port administration is maintained, but greater local autonomy and financial self-sufficiency will also be available to ports. However, the central administration will still have the problem of co-ordinating the development of Canadian ports, since ports will continue to be constituted under at least four different pieces of legislation.     

Rehabilitating the Mangrove Resources of Cogtong Bay,Philippines: A Comanagement Perspective

The local management of mangrove resources in Cogtong Bay, Philippines, dates back to the 1940s and 1950s when some families informally designated mangrove areas under their care and management. The 1960s and 1970s saw several exogenous events that led to the progressive denudation of mangrove stands and the decline in fish catch per fishing trip. This article draws attention to the forces that prompted coastal villages and external agents to collaborate with the national and local government units in resource rehabilitation. It also assesses the performance of a coastal resources comanagement project at Cogtong Bay.     

Factors that affect the ability of people with disabilities to walk or wheel to destinations in their community: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

It is essential that the pedestrian environment accommodates all users so they can participate in everything the community has to offer. However, people with disabilities (PWDs) often find it difficult to navigate this environment because of physical and social accessibility factors. While we know a great deal about which factors act as barriers and facilitators to mobility, we do not know enough about how they influence navigation (i.e. planning a route, en route decisions, and route learning) or how they can be improved. A scoping review was conducted to identify these factors, assess their implications, and suggest future directions. In total, 3394 studies were found and screened, 163 full-text articles were reviewed, and 37 articles met the inclusion criteria for the final review. These studies focused on those with visual impairments, navigating crosswalks, and the cognitive elements of navigation. Future research is needed that includes more types of disabilities, considers the navigational process from planning to arrival, and evaluates interventions.     

Bicycle commuting in an automobile-dominated city: how individuals become and remain bike commuters in Charlotte,North Carolina

Transportation - In Charlotte, North Carolina less than one half of 1% of commuters ride a bicycle to work despite several decades of public investment in bicycle infrastructure and planning. Like...     

Flight schedule punctuality control and management: a stochastic approach

The insufficiency of infrastructure capacity in an air transport system is usually blamed for poor punctuality performance when implementing flight schedules. However, investigations have revealed that ground operations of airlines have become the second major cause of flight delay at airports. A stochastic approach is used in this paper to model the operation of aircraft turnaround and the departure punctuality of a turnaround aircraft at an airport. The aircraft turnaround model is then used to investigate the punctuality problem of turnaround aircraft. Model results reveal that the departure punctuality of a turnaround aircraft is influenced by the length of scheduled turnaround time, the arrival punctuality of inbound aircraft as well as the operational efficiency of aircraft ground services. The aircraft turnaround model proposed is then employed to evaluate the endogenous schedule punctuality of two turnaround aircraft. Model results, when compared with observation data, show that the operational efficiency of aircraft ground services varies among turnarounds. Hence, it is recommended that the improvement of departure punctuality of turnaround aircraft may be achieved from two approaches: airline scheduling control and the management of operational efficiency of aircraft ground services.     

Unintended environmental impacts of nighttime freight logistics activities

In recent years, the reduction of freight vehicle trips during peak hours has been a common policy goal. To this end, policies have been implemented to shift logistics operations to nighttime hours. The purpose of such policies has generally been to mitigate congestion and environmental impacts. However, the atmospheric boundary layer is generally more stable during the night than the day. Consequently, shifting logistics operations to the night may increase 24-h average concentrations of diesel exhaust pollutants in many locations. This paper presents realistic scenarios for two California cities, which provide diesel exhaust concentration and human intake estimates after temporal redistributions of daily logistics operations. Estimates are made for multiple redistribution patterns, including from 07:00–19:00 to 19:00–07:00, similar to daytime congestion charging polices, and from 03:00–18:00 to 18:00–03:00, corresponding to the PierPASS program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Results for these two redistribution scenarios indicate that 24-h average exhaust concentrations would increase at most locations in California, and daily human intake is likely to worsen or be unimproved at best. These results are shown to be worse for inland than coastal settings, due to differences in meteorology. Traffic congestion effects are considered, using a new graphical method, which depicts how off-peak policies can be environmentally improving or damaging, depending on traffic speeds and meteorology.     

Evidence of land use impacts of rapid transit systems

This paper draws from the findings of published empirical studies and observations of the impacts of rapid transit systems on urban development. Analysis is based on comparisons of impact findings by different researchers and for different cities. An initial set of key issues is proposed, against which available information is arrayed and compared. It is concluded that rapid transit can have substantial growth-focusing impacts, but only if other supporting factors are present.     

Modeling schedule recovery processes in transit operations for bus arrival time prediction

Many existing algorithms for bus arrival time prediction assume that buses travel at free‐flow speed in the absence of congestion. As a result, delay incurred at one stop would propagate to downstream stops at the same magnitude. In reality, skilled bus operators often constantly adjust their speeds to keep their bus on schedule. This paper formulates a Markov chain model for bus arrival time prediction that explicitly captures the behavior of bus operators in actively pursuing schedule recovery. The model exhibits some desirable properties in capturing the schedule recovery process. It guarantees provision of the schedule information if the probability of recovering from the current schedule deviation is sufficiently high. The proposed model can be embedded into a transit arrival time estimation model for transit information systems that use both real‐time and schedule information. It also has the potential to be used as a decision support tool to determine when dynamic or static information should be used.