Automation-ready framework for urban transport planning

The mission of the H2020 CoEXist project is to enable mobility stakeholders to get “Automation-ready” – which CoEXist currently defines as conducting transport and infrastructure planning for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) in the same comprehensive manner as for existing modes such as conventional vehicles, public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists, while ensuring continued support for existing modes on the same network. This definition will be fine-tuned through stakeholder engagement processes. The H2020 CoEXist project started in May 2017 and will run until April 2020. This paper introduces this project and covers its progress until January 2018, with a focus on the methodology of the “Automation-ready framework” that provides a planning framework for urban road authorities to prepare for the introduction of CAVs on the road network. The framework includes elements about strategic urban mobility planning for CAVs and a clear guide for urban transport planners with a list of concrete actions that cities can do now to plan for CAVs on their road network

The role of city geometry in determining the utility of a small urban light rail/tram system

In this work, we show the importance of considering a city's shape, as much as its population density figures, in urban transport planning. We consider in particular cities that are circular (the most common shape) compared to those that are rectangular: For the latter case we show greater utility for a single line light rail/tram system. We introduce the new concepts of Infeasible Regions and Infeasibility Factors, and show how to calculate them numerically and (in some cases) analytically. A particular case study is presented for Galway City.Comment: 22 pages. This version has more details on exact calculation of Infeasibility Factors. Accepted for publication in the Springer Journal "Public Transport

Automation and urban transport planning: Policy recommendations and best practices

Although Automation is expected to play a crucial role in the future development of transport, currently it lacks strong relations with urban mobility planning. Most types of plans such as SUMPs do not include operative references to Automation, overlooking strategic guidelines or useful measures to integrate this theme into the future vision of mobility. Such a lack represents a missed opportunity, since Automation could stimulate a more collective-oriented mobility paradigm and reduce most of the negative externalities generated by transport. The aim of this contribution is to highlight the importance for transport planning to start dealing with this process in a more rigorous way. For this purpose, the potential effects that Automation may have on transport and land use are summarized in three main types of scenarios. Then, a series of goals are identified, policy recommendations are provided, and exemplificative best practices as well as virtuous urban mobility plans are described

A participatory approach to urban transport planning in developing countries

Traditionally transport planning and policymaking has used quantitative surveys to predict future demand for public transport. However, this paper argues that a more participatory approach is required in order to better understand household activity patterns and the impacts and implications of travel on livelihoods. Such an understanding will enable transport planning and policy to support the needs of lowincome people and achieve broader poverty alleviation objectives. This paper draws on case studies undertaken in Harare (Zimbabwe), Accra (Ghana) and Colombo (Sri-Lanka) as part of a broader study carried out for the DFID Knowledge and Research Programme. The authors look at the impact of public transport on certain dimensions of poverty, consider the links between urban transport and other sectors (health, education and employment) and summarise key methods of enquiry that might be adopted in effecting a more participatory approach to transport planning

Choice f micro-mobility: Case studies of ta public bicycle sharing system in New Zealand

This study considers how to improve understanding of sustainable urban transport planning from the perspective of the Central Business District (CBD) redevelopment process for two cities, Hamilton and Christchurch in New Zealand (NZ). The most proportion of ‘Public Bicycle Share Schemes’ operate in densely populated cities as these are characterized by limited modal accessibility but high population density in the urban CBD. This situation is similar to NZ’s two medium-sized cities, in each of which the city’s population density is constantly increasing in the past years. In this study, Multinomial and Mixed Logistic regression models were used to determine the model specification, and subsequently, to test the mode choice cross-elasticities for promoting greater use of the bicycle sharing system in conjunction with public transport service. The data were gathered using stated preference surveys from 486 New Zealanders, and the modeling results indicate that the potential improvement in a modal shift towards micro-mobility, which can be enhanced by applying different policy options

Data integration for urban transport planning

Urban transport planning aims at balancing conflicting challenges by promoting more efficient transport systems while reducing negative impacts. The availability of better and more reliable data has not only stimulated new planning methodologies, but also created challenges for efficient data management and data integration. The major focus of this study is to improve methodologies for representing and integrating multi-source and multi-format urban transport data. This research approaches the issue of data integration based on the classification of urban transport data both from a functional and a representational perspective. The functional perspective considers characteristics of the urban transport system and planning requirements, and categorises data into supply, demand, performance and impact. The representational perspective considers transport data in terms of their spatial and non-spatial characteristics that are important for data representation. These two perspectives correspond to institutional and methodological data integration respectively, and are the foundation of transport data integration. This research is based on the city of Wuhan in China. The methodological issues of transport data integration are based on the representational perspective. A framework for data integration has been put forward, in which spatial data are classified as point, linear and areal types, and the non-spatial data are sorted out as values and temporal attributes. This research has respectively probed the integration of point, linear and areal transport data within a GIS environment. The locations of socio-economic activities are point-type data that need to be spatially referenced. A location referencing process requires a referencing base, source address units and referencing methods. The referencing base consists of such spatial features as streets, street addresses, points of interest and publicly known zones. These referencing bases have different levels of spatial preciseness and have to be kept in a hierarchy. Source addresses in Chinese cities are usually written as one sentence, which has to be divided into address units for automatic geo-coding. As it is difficult to separate from the sentences, the address units have to be clearly identified in survey forms. Depending on the types of address units, the referencing process makes use of either semantic name matching or address matching to link source addresses to features in the referencing base. The name-based and road-based referencing schemes constitute a comprehensive location referencing framework that is applicable to Chinese cities. The relationship between two sets of linear features can be identified with spatial overlay in the case of independent representation, or with internal linkage in a dependent representation. The bus line is such a feature that runs on the street network and can be dependently referenced by streets. In the heavily bus-oriented city of Wuhan, bus lines constitute a large public transit network that is important to transport planning and management. This research has extended conventional bus line representation to a more detailed level. Each bus line has been differentiated as two directional routes that are defined separately with reference to the street network. Accordingly, individual route stops are also represented in the database. These stop sites are spatial features with geometry that are linked to street segments and bus routes by linear location referencing methods. A data model linking base street network, bus lines and routes, line and route stops, and other bus operations data has been constructed. The benefits of the detailed model have been demonstrated in several transport applications. Zonal data transitions include three types of operations, i.e. aggregation, areal interpolation and disaggregation. This study focuses on disaggregating data from larger zones to smaller zones. In the context of Wuhan, zonal data disaggregation involves the allocation of statistical data from statistical units to smaller parcels. Given the availability of land use data, a weighted approach reflecting spatial variations has been applied in the disaggregation process. Two technical processes for disaggregation have been examined. Weighted area-weighting (WAW) is an adaptation of the classic area-weighting method, and Monte Carlo simulation (MC) is a stochastic process based on a raster data model. The MC outcome is more convenient for subsequent re-aggregation, and is also directly available for micro-simulation. An important contribution arising from this zonal integration study is that two standardised disaggregation tools have been developed within a GIS environment. The research has also explored the institutional aspect of data integration. The findings of this study show that there is generally a good institutional transport structure in the city of Wuhan and that there is also a growing awareness of using information technology. Professional cooperation exists among transport organisations, but not yet at a level for data sharing. An integrated data support framework requires data sharing. In such a framework, it should be possible to know where to get data for specific transport studies, or which kind of research an institution supports

Critical success conditions of collaborative methods: a comparative evaluation of transport planning projects

This paper explores critical success conditions of collaborative planning projects in the area of urban transport, evaluating the impact of new collaborative methods, instruments and processes on project performance. Hypothesis building is based on a comparative, empirical research design, rather than on deductive theory construction. Potential critical success conditions are derived from literature. Based on five urban transport planning projects in Gothenburg (Sweden), London (United Kingdom), Milwaukee (United States), Tokyo (Japan) and Mexico City (Mexico), a rough set analysis of the five cases reveals validated success conditions, which can be used for formulating hypotheses for further research or for policy and process improvement. The results suggest that a dedicated management of the multi-actor network, a high diversity of actors, as well as an extensive use of knowledge integration methods in combination with a high network density are critical success conditions of these planning processes. Surprisingly, the extensive use of unilateral methods also showed to be an important success condition. The traditional role of the planner will have to be complemented with the expertise of network and methodology management. The authors conclude that rough set analysis can be a valuable addition to narrative, single-case analysis of collaborative urban transport planning processe

Urban transport planning and access inequalities: A tale of two Colombian cities

Accessibility inequalities are a common trait of many Global South cities. Such inequalities are often the result of urban development trajectories and inherited practices of transport planning marked by spatial segregation and decades of car-centred development. This situation, repeated across Latin American cities, tends to affect mostly the poor in the urban peripheries. Despite available evidence of access inequalities on a case-to-case basis, comparative evidence across cities within the same region is still limited. Our paper addresses this gap by deploying a comparative accessibility assessment of inequalities in accessibility in the two Colombian cities of Bogotá and Barranquilla. Our comparison suggests that by following similar patterns of urban transport development, Bogotá and Barranquilla have reached similar accessibility and affordability patterns. Wealthier areas benefit from the triad of better transport coverage, proximity to opportunities, and higher purchasing power, while the poor in both cities face deep affordability and spatial segregation problems. Despite their similarities, our analysis reveals the effects of long-term decision-making in the number of opportunities which can be reached by different transport modes and population segments. Accessibility per capita in public transport is higher in Bogotá than in Barranquilla, and vice versa in private vehicles. These results are consistent with nearly a decade of implementation of different urban transport policies in both cities, which in Bogotá have been more public-transport-oriented than in Barranquilla. Findings also suggest that public transport-related policies can contribute to redefining urban trajectories, as both cities have experienced demographic and urban footprint increases in years. Similarities and differences in spatial and economic dimensions of accessibility serve as a mirror against which we assess transport's role in urban equality in similar global south cities. The discussion in this paper can be helpful to decision-makers as it recalls that some urban and transport policies and investments may have undesired long-term impacts in urban growth and access equality across the city

Cost-benefit analysis in urban transport planning

This dissertation sets out to examine the theory, applicability and practice of cost-benefit analysis as an evaluation technique in urban transport planning. Discussion is intended to focus on the areas of contention and possible improvement, especially with a view to incorporating distributional and social issues. Although the main field of interest is in relation to urban public transport, the general nature of the transport problem demands reference to private and inter-urban transit as well. Originally, there was to have been a second part to this dissertation, a case study to illustrate the points made in the main body of text. Unfortunately, this perhaps over-ambitious idea foundered on unavailability of information, frozen partly as a result of the 'oil crisis' and its political implications in reviving public transport schemes previously discounted as unfeasible and, therefore, ideal for student study. However, it is to be hoped that the main text will prove adequate in itself in firmly establishing the relevant issues, if in a more generalised and abstracted context