Collaborative urban transportation : Recent advances in theory and practice

We thank the Leibniz Association for sponsoring the Dagstuhl Seminar 16091, at which the work presented here was initiated. We also thank Leena Suhl for her comments on an early version of this work. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.Peer reviewedPostprin

Opportunities for short-sea shipping in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region: evidence based on discrete choice modelling

The thesis investigates the development of short-sea shipping (SSS) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region by studying the determinants of SSS, the stated choice preference of shippers and freight forwarders and the stated intentions of maritime carriers for SSS. It is purported the introduction of SSS in SADC could reduce socio-environmental problems currently faced such as road damage, road congestion, pollution and transport related accidents. Discrete choice modeling (DCM) is employed as the main methodology to study shipper and carrier behavior. Discrete choice modeling permits the construction of general utility functions incorporating various decision maker characteristics and choice attributes to elicit preference of respondents. The general postulate in DCM is that utility is derived from the properties of things rather than the actual thing per se. A particular benefit of DCM in this study is the elicitation of preference for services and interventions that have not been introduced by SSS. The first step in the study is a theoretical investigation of the potential of SSS in the SADC region. It highlights the policy initiatives, the barriers and enablers related to the development of SSS. The proposed SSS system would have three main roles: to offer an alternative mode of freight transport service between port cities, to serve as the main leg in an intermodal transport network, and to serve feeder services between hub-and-spoke ports. The findings reveal that, SSS has the theoretical potential to work in the SADC region, given the large geographic region, projected freight volumes and customs and trade policies the SADC region is pursuing. The second step in the study involves an a-priori study conducted to develop a general understanding of freight transport in SADC. For this purpose, a uniquely developed online survey was conducted across the SADC region to ascertain in particular: who the decision maker is in terms of freight mode choice; and what the significant attributes that influence freight mode choice are. The results reveal that both the shipper and the freight forwarder are involved in mode choice decisions, however the shipper being the dominant decision maker. Furthermore, the results of the exploded logit model reveal that the top five modal attributes that shippers consider most important are: reliability, transport cost, risk of damage, frequency of service and transit time. These results were subsequently employed to inform the shipper and carrier behavior studies. The third step entails the assessment of shipper behavior, where trip specific mode choice decisions are studied along five intra-urban origin-destination (O-D) paired routes (which would form the study corridors). Three of these corridors considered unimodal SSS, and the two considered intermodal SSS. Unimodal SSS was studied along the following corridors: Cape Town (South Africa)~ Walvis Bay (Namibia), Walvis Bay (Namibia) ~ Luanda (Angola) and Durban (South Africa) ~Beira (Mozambique); and intermodal SSS was studied along the following corridors: Durban (South Africa) ~ Harare (Zimbabwe) and Cape Town (South Africa) ~ Windhoek (Namibia). To develop the choice scenarios, d-efficient stated choice experiments were uniquely developed for each of the corridors with the following key modal attributes systematically varied and analyzed across respondents: service frequency, reliability in terms of arriving on time, expected delay, transport cost and transport time. Subsequently, the following choice models were developed: Binary Logit, Mixed Logit and Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Structure models for the unimodal corridors; and Multinomial Logit, Nested Logit and Cross Nested Logit models for the intermodal corridors. The results highlight that in addition to the modal attributes, mode choice decisions are driven by shipper characteristics and situational characteristics. Moreover, the unimodal SSS study reveals that underlying latent perceptions also influence freight mode choice decisions; while the intermodal SSS study reveal strong correlations in the intermodal SSS alternatives, which requires improved intermodal capability if SSS is to become competitive. The fourth step in the study entail the assessment of maritime carriers preference for SSS given varying levels of maritime conditions that include: dedicated freight volumes, income from freight, port dues discount, terminal handling fees discount and ship registration requirements. The results of an ordered logit model reveal that ship registration provisions and terminal handling charges are the most important to the development of SSS from a carrier side. Moreover, ship registration and maritime cabotage provisions require visitation to boost the participation of carriers in SSS. The last step of the study revisits the modeling results and considers their implications through the estimation of willingness-to-pay and attribute elasticities. The results were then employed to suggest policy actions and interventions to develop SSS

Audit Template for Inland Port Sustainability

This report serves as an assessment of port sustainability and its potential applications for the inland river ports of Kentucky and the surrounding region. The report discusses and defines sustainability, both generally as it relates to business and industry and specifically as it relates to the port industry. Given the unique nature of the inland port industry, the report reviews lessons learned from 11 port site visits conducted by Kentucky Transportation Center in 2012, primarily at major U.S. coastal ports but also representative inland ports. KTC’s analysis identifies the sustainability challenges facing various domestic and international ports, and what policy and operating initiatives are being undertaken to meet these challenges. This report then discusses KTC’s progress in tailoring the sustainability process identified during these visits to the inland port industry. Field visits to 13 public ports along the Ohio River were conducted in order to develop a sustainability self‐assessment tool, which took the lessons learned at coastal ports and large‐scale inland ports and applied them to the inland ports of Kentucky and the surrounding region. From these visits and the associated research, an audit template has been developed that allows inland port operators to assess and improve sustainability levels. The wealth of information compiled in this report, along with the associated appendices, will prove invaluable to the inland port industry. The research relayed to the industry has already proven to be a boon to the ports that participated in the project. The preliminary results indicate that ports along the region’s inland waterways would have little difficulty improving their sustainability profiles at low expense, so long as they follow the advice laid out by this report and the audit template

The Rhetoric of Urban Renewal: Redevelopment in Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District

Cities throughout the United States have attempted to rehabilitate their neglected urban neighborhoods. These efforts have been the result of rhetorical struggles that involve the stakeholders of the neighborhoods - residents, governments and businesses. In this dissertation, I argue that the rhetoric surrounding contemporary urban renewal efforts has been constrained by the neoliberal occupational psychosis. I specifically examine how the discourses of these stakeholders have shaped the identity, infrastructure, and resources of the Crossroads Arts District, an urban neighborhood in Kansas City. This neighborhood was founded by artists who were seeking affordable spaces for living and working. However, this identity changed when developers began building upscale condominiums and apartments within the neighborhood. This change can be attributed to what Maurice Charland (1987) calls constitutive rhetoric. As the neighborhood was populated, its infrastructure also evolved. In doing so, the city strived to establish what Michel de Certeau (1984) refers to as a place. Not only did the city shape the neighborhood's infrastructure, but it also provided tax incentives for developers. To receive these incentives developers relied on what Aune (2001) calls "the rhetoric of economic correctness.

The Design, Planning and Execution of Sustainable Intermodal Port-hinterland Transport Networks

Globalization has led to a tremendous growth of international trade over the last century amounting to $18.8 trillion in 2014. Approximately 90% of non-bulk cargo is transported in shipping containers. The dominant mode in container transportation is maritime, in which containers are transported from a seaport to another seaport around the globe. Import containers are discharged in seaport container terminals and are destined to inland locations, a reverse process happens for export containers. The inland terminals can be close or far away from the seaport terminals where the containers were discharged. The container transport between the seaport and the inland locations is called port-hinterland transportation. Given the specific physical characteristics and infrastructure of each area this part of the transportation chain can be performed via trucks, trains or river vessels. The sequential use of multiple transport modes in port-hinterland transport is called combined transport. The main aim of this study is to analyze the port-hinterland transportation process and to develop models that support the design, planning and execution of port-hinterland transportation networks with high capacity modes such as barges and trains

Sustainable Mobility and Transport

This Special Issue is dedicated to sustainable mobility and transport, with a special focus on technological advancements. Global transport systems are significant sources of air, land, and water emissions. A key motivator for this Special Issue was the diversity and complexity of mitigating transport emissions and industry adaptions towards increasingly stricter regulation. Originally, the Special Issue called for papers devoted to all forms of mobility and transports. The papers published in this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics, aiming to increase understanding of the impacts and effects of mobility and transport in working towards sustainability, where most studies place technological innovations at the heart of the matter. The goal of the Special Issue is to present research that focuses, on the one hand, on the challenges and obstacles on a system-level decision making of clean mobility, and on the other, on indirect effects caused by these changes