Helping transport professionals fast track their success
Moving people has often been considered from a mode perspective – by road or rail – rather than taking a whole of transport approach, ie integrated transport.
Now with increasing travel demand and resource constraints it is more critical that proper consideration is given to the factors that ensure integration success.
A recent report published by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia “Integrating Australia’s Transport Systems: a strategy for an efficient transport future” [1].
Todd Litman of the Canadian Victoria Transport Policy Institute, in a recent paper (December 2012) describes his view of the basic principles of transport planning.
The paper describes ‘conventional’ transport planning, with a focus on motor vehicle traffic conditions and the ‘newer’ methods for multi-modal planning and evaluation.
This may be the case for North America, but is less so in Australia. I believe that integrated and multimodal planning has been ‘conventional’ for some time here.
Transport planners are facing the competing demands of delivering better mobility vs tightening budgets.
How can we as transport professionals meet these challenges?
The key is to employ best practice integrated transport planning. This entails using a systematic, sustained and accountable framework, that clearly addresses community (customer) needs.
So what are these best practice essentials?
Successful urban public transport has to consider all aspects of the journey from origin to destination, from door to door. One component that has been largely neglected is access to, and egress from, rail and bus stations.
Access to mass passenger transport services at bus or rail stations (including bus rapid transit and light rail) is an important component in the overall traveller experience and key to improved patronage and sustained growth into the future.
We are in fiscally challenging times with demands for increasing public transport mode share and seriously constrained budgets.
It is evident that users perceptions are their reality.
So what is important to public transport users? And what are the low cost ways we can address concerns and improve the quality of service provided?
The US state of Oregon started consideration of alternative sources of road funding in 2001 when it became obvious that the existing gas tax – the primary source of US transport funding – was not future proof. Modern vehicles were becoming more fuel efficient (and new vehicles required to be more so) and a growing proportion using alternative sources of energy, e.g. electric vehicles.
After reviewing 28 different road funding options a distance based Road User Fee (RUF) pilot program was developed and findings reported in 2007. The pilot used a pay at the pump model.
A number of issues were raised, primarily about potential privacy in using a GPS based system, so in 2012 Oregon is about to trial a new model.
Two major challenges facing road agencies into the next decade will be dealing with increasing traffic congestion, and securing funding for infrastructure and services – hence the growing interest in road user and congestion charging.
As governments look for alternative sources of funding and give serious consideration to road user charging, then providing quality customer service will require a significant change in focus. Road agencies have limited opportunities for a direct relationship with their customers, the road users.
Road users, travelling in cars, buses and trucks, are being caught up in bigger traffic jams, with greater, unexpected traffic delays.
Governments are crying poor as they dont have the budget for any big fixes.
What can we do to help this problem?
Solving complex policy issues, such as improving travel time reliability, are challenges facing transport professionals. Problem analysis, however, is not a common skill among transport professionals.
Transport problems are complex and dynamic, making them difficult to comprehend fully. They usually don’t have a simple solution, and dealing with them may require a combination of solutions to resolve effectively. Consider three common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Imagine trying to drive a car where your entire view was a giant rear-view mirror. You have a great view of everything behind you, but you cant see a thing in traffic ahead.
What are the odds you will get where you are going?
Now while that may sound a little foolish, surprisingly it’s the way most people run their programs or projects.