Integrated smartcard solutions: do people want one card for all their services?

Smartcard technologies offer the potential for bringing transport and citizen services onto a single smartcard platform – referred to henceforth as an integrated ‘Transport-Citizen’ (TranCit) card. One question never fully addressed thus far is whether the general public see the integration of services onto a single card as desirable. Based upon research undertaken through the Yorcard project trials, this paper presents the analysis of a series of three focus groups and responses to a public questionnaire which investigated the general desire for multi-application, integrated smartcards. Our findings suggest there is potential for an integrated TranCit card, facilitating easier access to services and travel options across boundaries, even at the international level. A number of operational, technical and data security issues exist which need to be resolved before there would be a greater acceptance of an integrated TranCit card, from both the traveller and the service provider perspective.     

The Use of Science in Collaborative Management of Marine Environments

Collaboration has become a common alternative to traditional top-down approaches to environmental management and conservation. One critique of collaborative processes is that science is not sufficiently linked to conservation actions. To better understand how science is used in collaborative decisions, we asked how the use of science is affected by the structure of collaborative processes, paying specific attention to the role of explanatory variables such as stakeholder engagement, how information is gathered, and how decisions are made. Case survey methods (a form of systematic review) were used to analyze 30 case studies of collaborative management of marine, estuarine, and coastal systems across the United States. We found that increased stakeholder participation (i.e., two-way flow of information between parties), face-to-face communication among stakeholders, increased contribution of information from academic stakeholders, careful consideration and selection of participants (e.g., stakeholder analysis), participants' ability to influence decisions, and structured methods of collecting and aggregating information were all positively associated with the use of science in collaborative processes. These findings suggest ways to improve the structure of collaborative processes to enhance the use of science for environmental management and conservation.     

Out of sight is not out of mind: Public opposition to ocean incineration

Abstract

During the early 1980s, ocean incineration emerged as one of the hottest issues in the field of hazardous waste management. Ocean incineration involves the thermal destruction of liquid hazardous wastes on specially designed ships and was promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency and powerful industry groups as part of the solution to liquid hazardous waste disposal. Attempts to adopt ocean incineration led to heated debate and apparent defeat of efforts to introduce this technology. The arguments advanced by proponents and opponents are examined. Success of environmental groups opposed to ocean incineration is explained with reference to technical, environmental, socio‐political, and legal factors. Ocean incineration, promoted as a solution to “not‐in‐my‐backyard”; opponents, instead ran afoul of region wide opposition by coastal residents for whom the sea is a common backyard.     

村务公开与村民参与需一体化协调发展

在不断推进社会主义新农村建设的时代背景之下,村民民主管理本村事务早己不再陌生,而出现在点军区桥边镇黄家棚村的村务公开与村民参与度的不对称现象却十分引人注目。村务公开与村民参与的背离是我国农村基层工作中出现的一个不可忽视的问题,本文将本着理论联系实际的方式讨论两者之间的关系,以点军区黄家棚村为蓝本,作出具体论述,以探寻解决之道。     

A hybrid model of fuzzy and AHP for handling public assessments on transportation projects

Having an effective public participation in transportation planning and project development processes has been a major concern for developed countries. In the United States, for instance, all state Departments of Transportation are subject to the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) that formally requires public involvement in transportation planning. Since transportation planning involves public resources and values, judgments by the public should play a key role in determining final decisions. Therefore, all these agencies are required not only to disseminate information to the public, but also to solicit and consider public opinion in forming transportation policy. This work presents a decision support model, with public involvement and public oversight, to help policy makers select appropriate transportation projects for implementation. Since focus groups will face multiple objectives and inexact information in the process, a hybrid model of fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed. A set of ‘if–then’ rules based on Weber’s psycho-physical law of 1834 is presented to reason from fuzzy numbers to capture essential subjective preferences, pairwise, among the alternatives. The AHP is then incorporated to estimate preference allotments among alternatives. An example application of the suggested method is provided seeking public approval of an appropriate public bus transportation system choosing between one run by municipal authorities and one run by private agencies to show how this procedure works.

试论城市交通应遵循公平原则

本文通过对公平性原则在城市交通中含义的解释指出了当前城市交通在交通基础设施的规划、建设与管理,交通政策,交通管理等方面存在的问题,并据此提出了引入公众参与程序和实施公交优先的建议。     

无车日活动公众参与的引导策略及信息传递

为了制定引导公众意识与行为转变的策略,尤其是对无车日的规划以及为将其应用于其他可持续性城市交通措施中提供指南.介绍了几种有关引导公众对于公共交通与其他可持续性交通方式的意识与行为转变的策略,重点介绍了公众目前与将来可以使用的可持续性交通方式,以及公众尤其是决策者对于城市交通问题的态度及其对于可持续性交通解决方案(如步行、骑自行车与使用公共交通工具等)的看法.最后,提出媒体是提高公众对于可持续性交通活动意识的有效渠道.     

简论道路综合敏感性设计理念

道路设计应该在保证安全通畅的同时,处理好自然环境与人文环境等方面的关系,以达到设计的综合最优化。目前,在美国大力提倡和应用的综合敏感性设计理念,正是在这样的要求和背景下产生的。综合敏感性设计理念,强调设计规范中的灵活性与创造性地处理具体设计细节等思想;提倡多学科专业人员和公众对设计项目的参与,以形成一种在满足公众权益的基础上于安全性和通畅性之间达致平衡的处理方法。通过对综合敏感性理念核心内容的分析,展示了其优越性和效益。通过实例分析,对比我国道路建设现状,提出了在我国应用的前景和问题。     

An analysis of children’s leisure activity engagement: examining the day of week, location, physical activity level, and fixity dimensions

This paper presents a detailed analysis of discretionary leisure activity engagement by children. Children’s leisure activity engagement is of much interest to transportation professionals from an activity-based travel demand modeling perspective, to child development professionals from a sociological perspective, and to health professionals from an active lifestyle perspective that can help prevent obesity and other medical ailments from an early age. Using data from the 2002 Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper presents a detailed analysis of children’s discretionary activity engagement by day of week (weekend versus weekday), location (in-home versus out-of-home), type of activity (physically active versus passive), and nature of activity (structured versus unstructured). A mixed multiple discrete-continuous extreme value model formulation is adopted to account for the fact that children may participate in multiple activities and allocate positive time duration to each of the activities chosen. It is found that children participate at the highest rate and for the longest duration in passive unstructured leisure activities inside the home. Children in households with parents who are employed, higher income, or higher education were found to participate in structured outdoor activities at higher rates. The child activity modeling framework and methodology presented in this paper lends itself for incorporation into larger activity-based travel model systems where it is imperative that children’s activity-travel patterns be explicitly modeled—both from a child health and well-being policy perspective and from a travel forecasting perspective.