Transportation Policy Analysis and Planning/Technical Tour

Transport Planning and Policy

• The Nature of Transport Policy

1. Policy and Planning: The terms "policy" and "planning" are used very loosely and are frequently
interchangeable. However, mixing them together is misleading. Policy and planning represent separate
parts of an overall process of intervention.

Transport Planning and Policy

Transport policy deals with the development of a set of constructs and propositions that are established
to achieve specific objectives relating to social, economic and environmental conditions, and the
functioning and performance of the transport system.

Transport planning deals with the preparation and implementation of actions designed to address
specific problems.

2. The Relevance of Transport Policy

Transport policies arise because of the importance of transport in virtually every aspect of economic,
social and political activities of nation-states.

Transport policy has been developed to prevent or control the inherent monopolistic tendency of many
transport modes. Unrestrained competition commonly leads to market dominance by a company
thereby achieving (close to) monopoly power.

In recent years, four trends had significant consequences over the context in which the transport policy
takes place:

•Globalization increased interactions at the international level, both for freight and passengers.

•Deregulation and privatization have been ongoing in many transport markets.

• A broader focus of policies, particularly considering intermodalism and multimodalism as well as

• A move towards social and political issues behind transport projects as opposed to technical and
engineering issues.

3. Policy Instruments

Governments have a large number of instruments at their disposal to carry out transport policy. Some
are direct, such as public ownership, but the majority are indirect such as safety standards. The most
common are:
•An extremely important instrument concerns public ownership.

•Subsidies represent an important instrument used to pursue policy goals.

•Regulatory control represents a means of influencing the shape of transportation that is widely
employed.

•Many governments are major promoters of research and development in transportation.

•Labor regulations pertaining to conditions of employment, training, and certification may not be
directed purposefully at influencing transport, but as a policy, they may exert a significant effect over
the industry since it has an impact on its operating costs.

•Safety and operating standards, such as speed limits, may have a similar effect.

4. Trends in Policy Development

Public policies reflect the interests of decision-makers and their approaches to solving transport
problems. Historical examples of private transport provision include:

•Turnpikes.

•Canals.

•Urban transit.

•Ships.

•Railways.

5. Changing Nature of Policy Interventions

The trends in transport policy in recent decades have been towards liberalization and privatization.
Controls over monopoly power are still in place, and even in the most liberal of economies there is still
strong evidence of public policy intervention:

•Ownership of ports and airports. Terminals continue to be largely under State or municipal ownership,
but concession agreements to private operators are common.

•Highway provision, upgrade and maintenance remain one of the most significant and enduring
commitments of public funds.

• Urban transit systems remain dominantly publicly owned and operated. Intercity transport is mostly
private, which brings the question about if urban transportation would gain to be privatized.
•Mergers and acquisitions between large private or public entities in the transport sector are commonly
subject to regulatory approval.

TRANSPORT PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE

There are many reasons why the results of these models should be treated with caution:

•They are only as good as the data they manipulate and many times the data is inaccurate or
incomplete.

•They are based on assumptions that the mathematical relationships between variables remain
constant.

•They can be manipulated to produce the outcome that would be the most preferred by the actors
promoting policy or a project.

1.The Purpose of Planning

Transport planning usually addresses specific problems or broad transport concerns at a local level and
has been traditionally a preoccupation of lower-tier governments (state, county, municipal). Because of
this fact, transport planning is most developed in the urban sphere, and it is there where most
experience has been gathered.

There were four major steps in this standard approach; trip generation, trip distribution, modal split,
and route selection. They involved the use of mathematical models, including regression analysis,
entropy- maximizing models, and critical path analysis.

2. Contemporary Transport Planning

Planning is commonly scale-specific and multidimensional. Just as urban planning requires the inputs of
many specialists, transport planning is beginning to utilize multi-disciplinary teams in order to broaden
the scope of the planning process. Planning is still a multi-step process, but it has changed considerably:

•Goals and objectives.

•Options.•Identification of actors, institutions, stakeholders.

•Predicting outcomes, identifying benefits, and assessing costs

• Choosing a course of action.

3. Transport Demand Management

Managing the demand for transport is made up of a large number of small interventions that
cumulatively can impact car use, but inparticular, improve the livability of cities. A sample of well-
practiced and successful interventions includes:

•Park and ride.

•Traffic calming.

•Priority lanes for buses and high occupancy vehicles.

•Alternate work schedules.

•Promoting bicycle use.

•Car sharing.

•Enhancing pedestrian areas.

•Improving public transit.

•Parking management.

4. Pricing

While planning interventions may have a positive cumulative effect in shaping transport demand, some
economists suggest that a more direct approach involving imposing more stringent cost measures on car
users is necessary. As intuitively rational as this argument may be, there are several problems with its
application:

•First, there are difficulties in measuring externalities, with considerable variations in estimates between
different studies.

•Second, there are practical difficulties in collecting these costs.

•Third, is the political difficulty of imposing such additional costs on the public.

5. Governance in Transportation

Transport policy and planning require governance, which is associated with the effective usage of
existing resources as well as better allocation of new resources.
Effective governance is complex to assess since it is not linked with a specific governance structure, but
generally conveys several advantages:

•Confidence.

•Capital costs.

•Competitiveness.

•Stability.

There are two main components of transport governance; ownership and operations. Ownership
involves who is the owner of the terminal site and facilities (including equipment):

•Public ownership is common because of the economic and strategic importance of many types of
terminals.

•Private ownership is less evident in transport terminals.

TRANSPORT SAFETY AND SECURITY

1. A New Context in Transport Security

While issues of safety and security have preoccupied transport planners and managers for many years, it
is only recently that physical security has become an overriding issue. Over this, an important nuance
must be provided between criminal activities and terrorism.

The foundation of transport security includes several dimensions and potential measures: •Dimensions.
Particularly concerning the integrity of the passengers or cargo, the route and the information systems
(IT security) managing the transport chain.

•Measures. The set of procedures that can be implemented to maintain the integrity of the passengers
or cargo, namely inspections, the security of facilities and personnel as well as of the data and the
supporting information systems.

2. Physical Security of Passengers

Airports have been the focus of security concerns for many decades. Security issues have had a negative
effect on the air transport industry as costs increased with delays and inconveniences to passengers
increasing as well. However, these delays and inconveniences are now considered part of contemporary
air travel with passengers accustomed to security requirements.

3. Freight Security
Security in the freight industry has always been a major problem. Illegal immigrants, drug smuggling,
custom duty evasion, piracy, and the deployment of sub-standard vessels (higher propensity to
accidents) have been some of the most important concerns.

TRANSPORTATION AND DISASTERS

1.Transportation and National Security

A disaster involves extensive damage to people and physical infrastructure that is unforeseen in nature,
scale and extent. It often implies that their risk of occurrence has not been properly assessed and a large
share of the damage is the outcome of a lack of preparedness.

There are several drivers that have an impact on the threats and risk level of disasters on transportation
systems:

•Increased mobility.

•Infrastructure and economic interdependency.

•Centralization and concentration of distribution.

• Urbanization.

2. Potential Threats and Risks

a. Natural disasters

Natural disasters come into four main categories:

•Extreme weather events.

•Geophysical

•Geomagnetic storms.

•Sea level rise.

b. Anthropogenic disasters

The second class of disasters concern those that are artificial, resulting from human activities, and can
be intentional or unintentional:

•Accidents.
•Infrastructure failure.

•Conflicts, terrorism and piracy.

• Economic and political shocks.

•Pandemics.

3. Transportation Disaster Planning

Although a potential disaster can never be effectively planned, and even anticipated in some instances,
there are a series of steps, known as Disasters Risk Management, which could reduce disruptions:

•Risk Assessment.

•Preparedness.

•Mitigation.•Response.

•Recovery.

4. Transportation Disaster Mitigation

a. Monitoring and assessment

b. Support for the impacted population

c. Removal of discretionary demand

d. Modal shift