Identifying preferences for public transport investments under a constrained budget

As urban areas face increasing demands for new transport infrastructure to promote a sustainable future with an increasing reality of constrained government budgets, the debate on whether we should focus on rail or bus-based investments continues unabated in many jurisdictions. Associated with the debate is an emotional (or ideological) bias by communities in favour of one mode, especially rail, which carries much sway at the political level as if there is no budget constraint. This paper presents a stated choice experiment to investigate this context as two unlabelled options described by 20 potential drivers of community preferences for improved public transport, where each choice scenario is conditioned on an estimated construction cost and a total annual transport infrastructure budget for the relevant geographical jurisdiction. This is followed by a labelling of each alternative to reveal whether the option is bus rapid transit (BRT) or light rail (LRT) and to establish whether this additional information influences preference revision. Data is collected in all eight capital cities of Australia in mid 2014. Mixed logit models with heteroscedastic conditioning in terms of the cost of the project infrastructure and whether the alternative is labelled BRT or LRT, provide new evidence on the nature and extent of community modal bias in a budget-constrained choice setting. The conclusions are twofold. On the one hand, if a fully compensatory choice rule is assumed (as is common in all previous modal comparison studies), LRT is predominantly preferred over BRT despite budgetary constraints, similarities in quality of service attributes and the opportunity to choose a greater network coverage for a given construction cost. However, when we allow for attribute non-attendance (a semi-compensatory choice rule), the modal bias is no longer a significant driver of preferences.     

Residential built environment and walking activity: Empirical evidence of Jane Jacobs’ urban vitality

This study intends to empirically verify Jacobs’ urban vitality theory, which was based on the observations of her New York City neighborhood in the mid-20th century. To examine the relationship between the residential built environment and walking activity, we used telephone survey data consisting of 1823 valid samples from across Seoul, a city characterized by a high population density and a well-established public transportation system. Respondents were asked questions about their residential location, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and their walking activities. This study then used geographic information systems to measure objective indicators of built environment variables within 500-meter buffer areas based on the home addresses of the respondents. Then, this study constructed multilevel regression models with walking activity as the dependent variable. Our results indicated that walking activity is associated with Jacobs’ six conditions for urban vitality, including land use mix, density, block size, building age, accessibility, and border vacuums.     

Historic vehicles: an overview from a transport policy perspective

Historic vehicles (HVs) are the heritage of road transport that have surprisingly received little attention in the academic literature. This study presents an overview of the literature on HVs, focusing on the three topics that dominate the policy debate on transport: environmental, safety and congestion impacts. We observed that polluting emissions of HVs are per kilometre much higher (often a factor 5 or more) than those of moderns vehicles. The annual average mileage per vehicle per year of HVs is much lower than other vehicles. The lower active and passive safety levels of HVs are compensated by the way these vehicles are driven, resulting in the risk factors per kilometre being roughly equal or lower than other vehicles. The contribution of HVs to congestion is negligible. However, the transport policy discourse is divided on the topic of HVs. More comprehensive and effective laws and regulation are needed to protect this aspect of the heritage of road transport whilst concurrently avoiding or limiting the problems caused by them.     

Cooperation in transit delivery in West German metropolitan areas

West Germany is densely populated, averaging 245 inhabitants/km², but varying widely between urban agglomerations and rural areas. Transport volume has increased by 40% since 1970, with virtually all growth due to private automobiles. Since 1981 public transit has been suffering from decreasing demand.A 1964 Expert's Report to the German federal government was the stimulus for initiating an effective funding mechanism for new public transit construction. In 1965 Germany's first federated transit authority was founded for the region of Hamburg.Principal among the goals of any cooperative agreement among transit companies are improvements for the passengers and improvement of revenues for the companies. To attain these ends, two distinct forms of transit aggrements have been developed in Germany: transit cooperative (Verkehrsgemeinschaft) and transit federation (Verkehrsverbund). The former is more suitable for smaller to medium-sized towns, while the latter is more suitable for larger cities. The two types are described in this article.German transit federations during the 1970s succeeded in significantly increasing ridership, while during the 1980s patronage has either remained steady or has declined. Yet transit federations showed much better perfomance than did public transit in general. In terms of costs and revenues, no public transit organization in Germany is able to break even; deficits vary between 42% and 55%. The author concludes, however, that hidden subsidies for automobile traffic are far higher, because of environmental damage and the high social cost of traffic accidents.     

无核密度仪在沥青路面工程质量控制中的应用技术研究

无核密度仪是一种可实现大样本、高效、实时、无损、安全测定沥青面层压实度和非均匀性的新型检测仪器.根据无核密度仪检测方法的基本原理,分析该法测值精确度的影响因素,并提出现场检测时的操作建议及注意事项.阐述无核密度仪在沥青路面压实过程中的压实控制、压实效果评价、压实方案和工艺比选,提出改善沥青面层压实效果的措施,并探讨无核密度仪在沥青面层非均匀性检测中的应用技术.     

基于AHP-模糊综合评价的路面预防性养护措施决策研究

预防性养护是一种在路面状况尚处于良好情况下采取的对现有道路系统进行有计划的、基于费用效益的养护策略。养护措施的选择应针对不同路况采取不同的策略。以唐山市某国道工程为实例,介绍采用AHP-模糊综合评价法得到路面预防性养护的最佳措施。     

专用小学生校车座椅及其车辆固定件公告检测及存在的主要问题

结合GB24407-2009和GB24406-2009介绍专用小学生校车座椅及其车辆固定件强度的技术要求,对目前国内专用小学生校车座椅产品公告检测中存在的主要问题进行分析,并提出相应建议。     

浅谈气水脉冲清洗技术及其应用

该文介绍非开挖管道修复技术的发展现状及前景,阐述了其中气水脉冲清洗技术原理,并结合具体事例说明了气水脉冲清洗技术在大口径给水管线中运用的效果和意义。     

新安江流域综合规划:兼谈流域防洪与生态保护

针对普遍存在的流域防洪和生态保护问题,该文以新安江流域为例,提出站在流域综合规划的高度来统筹防洪与生态保护,采取综合措施来调控洪峰流量和生态基流、采用低影响开发理念减少城市化对水文过程的影响,以及减小河流大型水利设施对生物多样性的影响等4点建议,可为流域综合管理提供参考。     

新时代、新景观、新河道——淄博市猪龙河综合整治工程设计浅谈

碧水清波,长河流转,改造完成的猪龙河正以崭新的容颜逐渐成为淄博中心城区的一条亮丽风景线,成为市民休闲、娱乐、健身的理想之所。该文通过对猪龙河综合整治工程设计的简要描述,提出了新时期河道治理的思路和方向,对类似河道的治理有一定借鉴作用。