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Public Transport (public + transport)
Selected AbstractsRoads to Poverty Reduction?DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2008Exploring Rural Roads' Impact on Mobility in Africa Within current poverty reduction programmes, focus on the social-welfare millennium development goals is widening to embrace a concern with infrastructural investment, particularly for remote areas. The previously popular assumption that rural disadvantage can be remedied by road-building is resurfacing. Using survey data from Ethiopia, Zambia and Vietnam, this article explores how effective such investment is in addressing mobility and social-service accessibility in rural areas. The findings indicate that, in extremely remote areas, road improvements may catalyse the expansion of social-service provision, as evidenced in Ethiopia. However, given the poor's relative lack of motor vehicles and ability to pay for public transport, they are, by no means, a sufficient condition for enhancing the mobility of the rural poor. [source] Transport and environment: policy directions for europeENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2001Robert Tinch Transport externalities are among the most important environmental problems affecting quality of life in Europe. Forecasts suggest that past environmental improvements may now be rolled back by traffic growth, and current traffic trends are not sustainable. The theory of environmental policy proposes pricing external costs at their marginal social costs as one solution. Although full marginal social cost pricing is impracticable, advances in tolling technology and environmental valuation mean that it is now a viable option to approximate such charging. There are signs that the European Commission and other bodies are starting to favour pricing over regulatory instruments. However, often overlooked is the potential for non-convexities in the transport sector or between transport and the rest of the economy. For example it may be that small increases in resources for public transport would not result in welfare gains, whereas large increases would. Non-convexities would mean that market forces under marginal social cost pricing might lead away from the optimal transport system. This is one reason why pricing instruments cannot in themselves be a panacea for transport externalities or bring about a sustainable transport system. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source] New regionalism in five Swiss metropolitan areas: An assessment of inclusiveness, deliberation and democratic accountabilityEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007DANIEL KÜBLER In the first, theoretical, part it draws upon the debate on old and new routes towards regionalism in order to identify four different types of metropolitan governance. It then develops two working hypotheses , an optimistic and a pessimistic one , in order to analyse the implications of various types of metropolitan governance on inclusiveness, modes of decision making and democratic accountability. In the second part, these hypotheses are tested on the basis of comparative case studies on twenty schemes of area-wide policy coordination in five Swiss metropolitan areas in the fields of water supply, public transport, social services for drug users and cultural amenities. The results suggest that ,governance' is superior to ,government' in terms of inclusiveness, that it cannot be seen as significantly linked to the fostering of deliberative decision making, and that it can present serious flaws in terms of accountability. It is noted, however, that a shift ,from government to governance' does not intrinsically imply democratic drawbacks. Contextual factors play a strong conditioning role. [source] Analysis of work trips made by taxi in canadian citiesJOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION, Issue 1 2010Lina Kattan Abstract This paper presents two regression models for work trips made by taxi for the year 1996 and the year 2001, respectively for 25 Canadian cities. These regression models indicates the primary factors that influence work commuting by taxi. Two major factors are identified: the total number of work trips made by public transit and the total number of low-income households. The 2001 regression model indicates an increase of the value of the transit commuter's coefficient from its 1996 figure. These results highlight the important role that taxis play in: (i) decreasing the demand for parking especially in urban cores and (ii) serving the transportation disadvantaged population especially in outlying areas poorly served by public transport. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Passenger route guidance system for multi-modal transit networksJOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION, Issue 3 2005Hong K. Lo In many public transport oriented cities in the world, especially Asian cities, the public transport system has been developed extensively, to the extent that it has become increasingly difficult to navigate. Although inter-modal transfers are common and often necessary, a complete set of the routes across transport modes is generally not presented in a form that is accessible to travelers, as each operator would only publish its own routes. Moreover, the common nonlinear fare tables together with inter-modal fare discounts pose challenges to travelers in deciding their best routes. This study develops a multi-modal passenger route guidance system, called eFinder, to aid travelers with their combined mode-route choices. We discuss the architecture and features of this system in this study. This system forms a platform for disseminating public transit information and should complement further development and use of the public transport network by enabling travelers to make informed choices. [source] Equity in Regional Service ProvisionJOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2001Alan T. Murray Most transportation agencies stipulate that an important planning goal is to provide equitable and just public transport services. However, who is to be served and the type of service that should be provided has been ambiguous. This paper develops a methodology for examining equity in the provision of public transportation services. An approach for identifying areas in need of public transport is developed based upon the use of socio-demographic and economic information. Public transport need is then related to levels of access to service. This approach makes it possible to establish the degree to which public transport services may be considered equitable in relation to need and suitable access. A detailed analysis of the southeast Queensland region of Australia illustrates how this approach may be used to inform public transport decision making. [source] Making People More Responsible: The Blair Governments' Programme for Changing Citizens' BehaviourPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2010Perri A distinctive feature of the three Blair New Labour governments' domestic policy was the effort to change citizens' behaviour. Variously explained using such slogans as ,something for something', ,responsibility' and, in combating antisocial behaviour, ,respect', behaviour change was presented by the PM's Strategy Unit as an overarching strategic framework for policy. This included conditionality in welfare to work, health promotion campaigns, a ban on smoking in public places, measures to combat antisocial behaviour and enforce school discipline, home,school contracts, community cohesion and neighbourhood renewal programmes, measures to encourage car sharing and use of public transport, and others to promote domestic waste recycling. This article examines how far the two principal explanatory theories available predict that programme's characteristics. It uses a structured data set on the policy instruments, target groups and content of initiatives undertaken by eight central government spending departments. We find that indeed the strong (more coercive) tools are markedly concentrated on initiatives targeting the poor and low-income working strata. The expectations derived from the two theoretical traditions are not strongly supported. [source] Regulating Public Transit Networks: How do Urban-Intercity Diversification and Speed-up Measures Affect Firms' Cost Performance?ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004Giovanni Fraquelli In this study we estimate a translogarithmic variable cost function to assess the behaviour of returns to scale and the impact of network characteristics. The analysis is based on a sample of 45 Italian municipal companies observed from 1996 to 1998 and including both specialized and mixed transit operators. Results confirm previous evidence on the existence of natural monopoly in the industry and support a regulation introducing competitive tenders to access to the market. In addition, we provide insights about the advantages associated with urban-intercity diversification and with the improvement of network commercial speed. Cost benefits can then be achieved by promoting mergers between neighbouring firms, so as to create new companies operating on integrated local networks and supplying in combination urban and intercity public transport. Implications of such a strategy for the design of tender mechanisms are also underlined, together with the need for a regulatory policy which takes more care of speed-up measures. [source] Transport scenarios in a company strategyBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1 2004Otto Andersen The environmental company strategy of the case company Oslo Sporveier includes scenarios for the development of person transport in Oslo up to year 2016. The basis for three different scenarios is described. This paper presents the use of scenarios as background for environmental reporting. Emissions, energy, land and time use from person transport in the three different scenarios were determined. The scenarios were (i) a private car scenario, where the main growth in person transport is to be met with a strong increase in the use of private cars, (ii) a public transport scenario, where the increase in person transport is to be taken care of with a strong increase in the public transport, and (iii) the sustainability scenario, with a reduction in total person transport, increased share of public transport and walking/bicycling, and reduced share of private car use. The total energy use, CO2 emissions, NOx emissions and particle emissions from person transport in Oslo are reduced in all three scenarios compared with the situation in 1996. The reduction is smallest in the private car scenario and largest in the sustainability scenario. The land use increases in the private car scenario and the public transport scenario, while there is a reduction in land use in the sustainability scenario. The total time consumption connected to person transport increases in all three scenarios. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||