Bus Rapid Transit: A Handbook for Partners, MTI Report 06-02

In April 2005, the Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) asked MTI to assist with the research for and publication of a guidebook for use by Caltrans employees who work with local transit agencies and jurisdictions in planning, designing, and operating Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems that involve state facilities. The guidebook was also to assist to transit operators, local governments, community residents, and other stakeholders dealing with the development of BRT systems. Several areas in the state have experienced such projects ( San Diego , Los Angeles , San Francisco , and Alameda County ) and DRI wished to use that experience to guide future efforts and identify needed changes in statutes, policies, and other state concerns. Caltrans convened a Task Team from the Divisions of Research and Innovation, Mass Transportation, and Operations, together with stakeholders representing many of those involved with the BRT activities around the state. Prior to MTI’s involvement, this group produced a white paper on the topic, a series of questions, and an outline of the guidebook that MTI was to write. The MTI team conducted case studies of the major efforts in California, along with less developed studies of some of the other BRT programs under development or in early implementation phases around the state. The purpose was to clarify those issues that need to be addressed in the guidebook, as well as to compile information that would identify items needing legislative or regulatory action and items that Caltrans will need to address through district directives or other internal measures. A literature scan was used to develop a bibliography for future reference. The MTI team also developed a draft Caltrans director’s policy document, which provides the basis for Caltrans’ actions. This ultimately developed to be a project within a project. MTI submitted a draft document to Caltrans as a final product from the Institute. Task team members and Caltrans staff and leadership provided extensive review of the draft Bus Rapid Transit: A Handbook for Partners. Caltrans adopted a new Director’s Policy and published the document, BRT Caltrans. The MTI “wraparound” report presented below discusses in more detail the process that was followed to produce the draft report. The process was in many ways as much a project as the report itself

A critical evaluation of road pricing in South Africa Duncan Lishman.

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.In an attempt to provide much-needed finance for road investments, the government’s national road agency has introduced numerous toll roads over the last three decades. It is currently in the process of introducing open road tolling on a network of Gauteng’s highways. Economic theory provides a rich understanding for pricing road use, particularly with regard to the pricing of externalities. By quantifying these externalities for the South African case, this paper reveals evidence of gross mispricing for road use. Specifically, the magnitude of road freight trucks’ external costs indicates that there is an absolute underpricing of road use for these vehicles. On the grounds of the externalities considered in this paper, passenger cars should, in fact, face a toll negligible in comparison to heavy vehicles. That they do not points to massive cross-subsidisation and that the relative price between light and heavy vehicles should be revisited. Appropriate pricing will improve economic efficiency by reducing cross-subsidisation. It will also rationalise the choice of freight modalities in South Africa, with the likely effect that a greater volume of goods will be carried by rail. Despite the welfare gains that the policy offers, one must be cognisant of the distortions that optimal road pricing may have

The End of Traffic and the Future of Access: A Roadmap to the New Transport Landscape

In most industrialized countries, car travel per person has peaked and the automobile regime is showing considering signs of instability. As cities across the globe venture to find the best ways to allow people to get around amidst technological and other changes, many forces are taking hold — all of which suggest a new transport landscape. Our roadmap describes why this landscape is taking shape and prescribes policies informed by contextual awareness, clear thinking, and flexibility

Transport visions network - Report 4 - Vehicles and infrastructure

This is the fourth in a series of reports to be produced by the Transport Visions Network. The Network is a novel venture to project the views of young professionals into the debate concerning the future of transport and its role in society. It is comprised of individuals who are aged 35 or under from universities, consultancies and public authorities both in the UK and overseas.This report examines how vehicles and infrastructure might be used to develop the UK’s surface transport networks of the future. In doing so, it has attempted to highlight the balance between maintaining existing systems and making the best use of technological advances to develop new vehicles and new systems. Technological advances offer the opportunity to increase the capacity that any system of infrastructure can provide. Preferably technology should be harnessed to develop systems that increase the number of people per hour that we move rather than the number of vehicles per hour. Measures such as dedicated lanes and intelligent charging can facilitate this. Similarly, greater support for car sharing and innovative forms of shared vehicle ownership could help achieve such aims. The improvements in throughput in people per hour achieved through these measures may also deliver vastly enhanced energy efficiency per kilometre moved

Investigating Transportation Policies to Reduce Air Pollution in Hong Kong

This report, prepared for Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), examined the current transportation policies in relation to air pollution in Hong Kong. The transport policies of several cities including Seoul, Singapore, and Rome were examined in relation to reduction of congestion and air pollution. The pedestrians were surveyed and observations of traffic patterns in Hong Kong were made, then the team recommended a reevaluation of the bus system, several limited traffic zones, and several changes to the cross-harbor tunnels