Urban Transport Planning

Theory and Practice

John Black

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781138478398
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351068581
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Originally published in 1981, Urban Transport Planning explains how the systems approach has been applied in the planning of multi-modal transport planning and to demonstrate how a city may be represented by land use zones superimposed with a transport network. It discusses theoretical developments and demonstrates their application to practical problems of planning by using actual case studies. By treating the urban area as a system, and recognising the fundamental interactions between land use, traffic and transport, the study shows how it is possible to predict the future demands for travel, how transport requirements are determined and how alternative plans are formulated and evaluated.

PREFACE

Urban Transport Planning: Theory and Practice – reissued

The re-issue of this book in 2018 coincides with 50 years of conducting transport research. In 1968, as an undergraduate at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, I collected field data on truck vehicle generation rates from industrial premises in Southeast London, calibrated a regression model and predicted what were, at best, primitive environmental and social impact assessments of freight movements. My doctoral research was on the topic of, what today we call, a “benchmarking study” of the modelling techniques of British land-use and transport studies undertaken in the 1960s and early 1970s. Its comprehensive international literature review (predominantly US research) covered best practice at that time.

When I gave my first university lecture to final year civil engineering students in January 1970 on the theory it was clear from student feedback that I needed to include more case studies, and this omission was again reinforced when I was appointed as a lecturer in 1975 at in the Postgraduate School of Transportation and Traffic at UNSW Sydney. Previously, I had been a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Australian National University where kindly mentors introduced me to the key players in government and consultancy in the field of land-use and transport planning. Some of these people are acknowledged in the original Preface. Whilst my graduate students appreciated the demonstration of how theoretical concepts (primarily from the USA) found their way into professional practice, it was Sir Alan Wilson on listening to a couple of my lectures at UNSW Sydney who suggested that a book should be structured into “theory” and “practice” (Canberra as a case study).

Over the years I have been approached variously to write a second edition to this book, to collaborate in an updated version in Japanese and Farsi (it was translated into Chinese in 1987) but my experience in writing second editions convinced me all of that was a lot of work and I should write a new book. I never did. Therefore, this offer from the publisher came as a pleasant surprise. I felt as a minimum contribution I should include here a few observations for teachers who may use the book as a basis for instruction, as well as for students, and where they should look for contemporary information.

Today, I continue to argue for the application of the relevance and power of the systems way of thinking when dealing with complex, and interrelated issues, such as urban transport and its impact on the economy, on society and on the environment. All quantitative models are based on assumptions and the contemporary relevance of this book (especially Chapter 3) are the explicit comments on the purpose of models as a guide to decision making, the structure of the model equations, and how data best supports the calibration of these models. The contemporary literature on modelling is now of wider international origin than when the research for this book was conducted, so instructors can readily design student exercises that incorporate recent theoretical developments. Also, the business case for any transport infrastructure project development requires the understanding of traffic forecasting methodologies because demand risk represents a significant part of all project risks.

Part Two of the book shows at varying spatial scales the application of such models in urban multi-modal transport planning practice. The Australian capital of Canberra is the case study but this is now nearly 40 years out of date. Readers are recommended to carefully study Transport for Canberra Policy (www.transport.act.gov.au), complemented by the ACT Planning Strategy, which will reinforce the contemporary importance of transport being linked to accessibility, social inclusion, health and well-being. Mees (2014) has summarised 100 years of transport planning in Canberra.¹

The greatest changes in government approaches since the publication of this book are undoubtedly the inclusion of the environmental and social dimensions of transport, and greater stakeholder involvement in the formulation of project goals and objectives. In Australia, this is now recognised in national and state (territory) government legislation – referred to as “Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD).” The other great innovation, not mentioned in the book, is the role of visualization, or, more specifically, in the transport context, geographical information systems (GIS). This has allowed a plethora of transport modelling tools as computer-based commercial software, from micro- to macro-level models to be developed over recent decades – all with their persuasive graphical outputs.

There are omissions in this book. Students might wish to pursue some of the following topics: sustainable transport planning; the development of airports and maritime ports; city logistics; micro-simulation models and agent-based modelling, including MATSim;² the financing of infrastructure, especially the modality of public-private partnerships (PPP); and technological improvements in vehicles and communications (intelligent transportation systems).³ Despite all of the limitations of the book, it was written for students as an introduction to the fundamentals of land-use and transport interaction and how urban transport planning studies are conducted.

	John Black
	University of New South Wales, Sydney
	9th November 2017

Notes

1Mees, Paul (2014) A centenary review of transport planning in Canberra. Progress in Planning, 87, January, 1–32.

2Horni, A., K. Nagel and K. W. Axhausen (eds) (2016) The Multi-Agent Transport Simulation MATSim. Ubiquity Press, London. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/baw

3www.ieeesplore.ieee.org

TABLES

1.1Transport Supply Characteristics for a Simple Network

1.2Land-use—Transport Performance Measures

2.1Practical Minimum Mean Headways for Public Transport Systems

2.2Passenger-carrying Capabilities of Public Transport Modes

2.323 Design Capacities of British Urban Roads

3.1Recommended and Minimum Sample Size for Dwelling Units in a Home Interview Survey

3.2Category Analysis Household Trip Rates—an Example

3.3Distribution of Link Travel Times for an Example of a Multi-path Assignment

5.1Parameters of the Zonal Traffic Production Model, Canberra, 1961

5.2Parameters of the Traffic Distribution Model, Canberra, 1961

5.3Daily Mean Trip Rates for Households, Canberra, 1976

5.4Parameters of the Traffic Distribution—Modal-split Model, Canberra, 1976

6.1Measures of Transport Performance—Canberra General Concept Plan and Alternative Options

7.1Discounted Costs and Benefits of Inter-town Public Transport Systems, Canberra, 1979–2000

7.2Attitudes to Prepared Statements about Public Transport, Canberra, 1966

8.1Estimated Performance Measures of Area Traffic Control Schemes in Canberra

8.2Calibration Parameters for Journey-to-work Modal-choice Behavioural Model, Canberra, 1975

9.1‘Level of Service’ Concept for Footpaths

9.2Probability of Rejection for Selected Traffic Loads and Parking Spaces

9....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface 1
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part One: Theory
• 1. Fundamentals of Land-use—Transport Planning
• 2. The Analysis of Transport Supply
• 3. The Analysis of Travel Demand
• 4. Forecasts, Plans and Evaluation
• Part Two: Practice
• 5. Conventional Land-use—Transport Planning Studies
• 6. Long-term, Strategic Transport Planning
• 7. Planning for Public Transport
• 8. Short-term Transport Planning
• 9. Local Area Transport Planning
• 10. Overview and Future Directions
• References
• INDEX