Urban Public Transport Today


Book Description

It is widely recognised that there are many people for whom public transport is essential, particularly amongst the elderly, children and teenagers. Less obvious is the dependence of our cities for their existence on high capacity public transport. Although there is still a prevalent view that local public transport is only for those who do not have a car, we are slowly beginning to realise that we need to find ways of restricting use of the private car more severely and that will involve some transfer to public transport. There is a widening gap between what we expect of public transport and what can be delivered. Our expectations for travel are increasing, both in quantity and in the standards of speed, reliability and comfort. Out-of-town shopping, leisure parks and business parks all involve more travel than did their predecessors. Cars are becoming more like mobile sitting rooms with all the home comforts such as CD player and telephone. To give all this up for a bus or train is asking a lot. Urban Public Transport Today gives an honest appraisal of the pros and cons of new public transport technologies. It shows how public transport can be made a less unacceptable alternative to the private car than it is now. Public transport needs to be co-ordinated and planned together with land uses under the Town and Country Planning legislation; too often public transport solutions overlook the significance of town planning policies generating demand for travel. The author draws on a thorough study of many continental European countries and includes the latest Euro-legislation and recent case histories to give a comprehensive coverage of everything from policy problems (including land use decisions) to practical considerations (including road building). Urban Public Transport Today will be invaluable for all those involved in the land use/local transport conundrum, including planning officers, policy makers and transport consultants as well as students in transport studies, town planning and geography. Barry Simpson acts as an advisor to a number of public authorities and private firms in the field of public transport including the Department of Transport. He has served for 15 years as an examiner to the Royal Town Planning Institute and teaches transport studies at Aston University.




Urban Public Transport Today


Book Description

This book is about how local public transport can be made a less unacceptable alternative to the private car than it is now. It is intended for officials, politicians and others interested in the land use/local transport conundrum. It is also valuable to town planners, those working for passenger transport authorities and anyone concerned with policy making and project appraisal for local public transport.




Urban Public Transportation Systems


Book Description

This collection contains 46 papers presented at the Second International Conference on Urban Public Transportation Systems, held in Alexandria, Virginia, April 14-18, 2002.




Public Transport


Book Description

Peter White reviews current practices in urban, rural and long-distance travel by road, rail and air. The review covers the legal and organisational structure in Britain but is also applicable to many other countries.




The Robomobility Revolution of Urban Public Transport


Book Description

Over the past two decades, society has been witnessing how technological, political, and societal changes have been transforming individual and collective urban mobility. Driven both by newcomers and traditional players, by disruptive as well as incremental innovations, the main objective now is to enhance mobility and accessibility while, reducing vehicle ownership, congestion, road accidents, and pollution in cities. This transformation has been mainly enabled by the widespread adoption of internet-connected devices (e.g.: smartphones and tablets) and by the innovative business models, technologies, and use-cases that arose from this rapid digitalization, such as peer-to-peer, and two-sided markets providing several mobility schemes: car-sharing, car-pooling, bike sharing, free-floating (cars, bikes, electric scooter), ridesharing and ride hailing either for long distances as well as for urban and micro-mobility. The book presents – in a holistic perspective – how this revolution is happening and what are the major cornerstones for the implementation of robomobility. It aims at answering several substantial issues, such as: What is robomobility and what does it imply for the different stakeholders of the public transport ecosystem? How do policy makers integrate this innovation and how ready the regulations are? How do citizens take part in this transformation? What is the level of user acceptance for this new type of mobility? What are its environmental impacts? What is the economic impact of deploying these shuttles in a local ecosystem?




Green Finance and Investment Promoting Clean Urban Public Transportation and Green Investment in Kyrgyzstan


Book Description

This report discusses the main results of a project on how an influx of funds could spur development of cleaner public transport, and reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in large urban centres in Kyrgyzstan, by providing an analysis for designing a green public investment programme in this sector.




Urban Transport XVII


Book Description

" ... the 17th International Conference ... held ... in Pisa, Italy."--Pref.




The Local (Public) Transport Plan as an Approach to optimize Urban Public Transport Planning in Iran


Book Description

In many countries, the exclusive concentration on a simple extension of the road based transportation network led to growing individual car traffic hence to additional demand for roads and striking external effects of transport. All issues have a severe negative impact on the living and working conditions within many urban centers. In the last decade, especially in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, municipalities tried to restrict continuous growth of car traffic and intensified their efforts in supporting alternative concepts with focus on environmentally-friendly mobility approaches. However, many of these approaches were quite ambitious and innovative but often rather implemented in a disintegrated way. The transport research activities that have been conducted during the project runtime of the Young Cities in Iran project within in the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Research and Education) funded Megacities program investigated the urban transport sector of the MENA region in general and the one of Iran in detail. The researchers revealed that the Iranian urban public transport planning system is lacking coordination between the level of the Urban Transportation Masterplan and the level of public transport operators. This publication analyses the tool of the Local (Public) Transport Plan which is already used in many agglomerations worldwide to define fixed quality and service standards for urban public transport. It, moreover, investigates the Iranian urban transport planning system and suggests a way how to adapt the tool to fit with Iranian conditions. In vielen Städten weltweit hat die alleinige Ausrichtung der Verkehrsplanung auf die Erweiterung der straßenbasierten Verkehrsinfrastruktur zu einem weiteren Anstieg des motorisierten Individualverkehrs geführt. Die wachsenden externen Effekte des motorisierten Individualverkehrs haben sich zunehmend negativ auf die Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen in vielen urban Zentren ausgewirkt und diese nachhaltig beeinträchtigt. In der vergangenen Dekade haben zahlreiche Stadtverwaltungen, insbesondere jene der MENA (Mittlerer Osten, Nord Afrika) - Region dem Wachstum des motorisierten Individualverkehrs Einhalt zu gebieten. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden vor allem Anstrengungen unternommen die Umsetzung alternativer Planungskonzepte mit Fokus auf umweltverträglicheren Verkehrsträgern zu befördern. Viele dieser Ansätze waren sehr ambitioniert und innovativ wurden jedoch häufig nur in einer sehr desintegrierten Weise umgesetzt. Die Verkehrsforschungsaktivitäten die während der Projektlaufzeit des vom BMBF geförderten Young Cities Projektes unternommen wurden, konzentrierten sich vornehmlich auf die Verkehrsentwicklung der Städte in der MENA Region im Allgemeinen und die des Iran im Besonderen. Eine Erkenntnis dieser Aktivitäten war dass es dem iranischen Planungssystem an Koordination zwischen der Ebene des Verkehrsentwicklungsplans und den semi-privaten Unternehmen öffentlichen Verkehrsunternehmen mangelt. Diese Publikation analysiert das Werkzeug des in vielen Städten weltweit angewandten „Local Transport Plan“ dahingehend ob es geeignet wäre diese Koordinierungslücke zu füllen und verbindliche Standards für Qualität und Angebot im öffentlichen Nahverkehr iranischer Städte zu setzen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch das iranische städtische Verkehrsplanungssystem genauer beleuchtet und es werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt dieses Werkzeug in das iranische Planungssystem zu integrieren.




Urban Transportation Systems


Book Description

This exciting new volume covers the most up-to-date advances, theories, and practical applications for non-motorized transportation (NMT) systems, geographic information system-based transportation systems, and signal processing for urban transportation systems. This book will allow readers to readers to identify traffic and transport problems in cities and to study mass transportation systems, and modes of transportation and their characteristics, focusing on transportation infrastructure which includes green bays, control stations, mitigation buildings, separator lanes, and safety islands. From this, readers will be able to study urban public transport systems and gain some background into intelligent transportation and telemetric systems, including techniques for designing transport telemetric systems and applying them to urban transportation. Applications include advanced traffic management systems, advanced traveler information systems, advanced vehicle control systems, commercial vehicle operational management, advanced public transportation systems, electronic payment systems, advanced urban transportation, security and safety systems, and urban traffic control. From this, an artificial Intelligence-based transportation system design using genetic algorithms and neural networks is discussed, to show applications in designs. These models and their studies are further extended in signal processing systems and geographic information systems (GIS) to improve transportation system design, and to apply this to the design of non-motorized transportation models, while ensuring pedestrian safety. All these models are further analyzed for environmental impact assessment, which include structural audits, analysis of site selection procedure, baseline conditions and major concerns, green building and its advantages, the description of potential environmental effects, and many more interesting topics.




Trains, Buses, People


Book Description

What are the best transit cities in the US? The best Bus Rapid Transit lines? The most useless rail transit lines? The missed opportunities? In the US, the 25 largest metropolitan areas and many smaller cities have fixed guideway transit—rail or bus rapid transit. Nearly all of them are talking about expanding. Yet discussions about transit are still remarkably unsophisticated. To build good transit, the discussion needs to focus on what matters—quality of service (not the technology that delivers it), all kinds of transit riders, the role of buildings, streets and sidewalks, and, above all, getting transit in the right places. Christof Spieler has spent over a decade advocating for transit as a writer, community leader, urban planner, transit board member, and enthusiast. He strongly believes that just about anyone—regardless of training or experience—can identify what makes good transit with the right information. In the fun and accessible Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit, Spieler shows how cities can build successful transit. He profiles the 47 metropolitan areas in the US that have rail transit or BRT, using data, photos, and maps for easy comparison. The best and worst systems are ranked and Spieler offers analysis of how geography, politics, and history complicate transit planning. He shows how the unique circumstances of every city have resulted in very different transit systems. Using appealing visuals, Trains, Buses, People is intended for non-experts—it will help any citizen, professional, or policymaker with a vested interest evaluate a transit proposal and understand what makes transit effective. While the book is built on data, it has a strong point of view. Spieler takes an honest look at what makes good and bad transit and is not afraid to look at what went wrong. He explains broad concepts, but recognizes all of the technical, geographical, and political difficulties of building transit in the real world. In the end,Trains, Buses, People shows that it is possible with the right tools to build good transit.