Helping transport professionals fast track their success
Can you name all the key changes that have taken place over the past few years? And explain what those changes mean for you, your organisation, and for the industry as a whole? Do you fully comprehend the relationships between transport, land use and planning studies? Can you thoroughly describe the types of studies and plans that are utilised … Read more
Looking back ten years or so, and reflecting on what has transpired over the intervening years, amazing changes have taken place – many we could not have imagined, in terms of changes in society, developments in technology and economic growth … including the growth in duration and extent of traffic congestion. However, much of what … Read more
Our cities are shaped by where people live, work, learn, shop and play and how they travel around. As transport users, we want connected trips. Transport connectivity is key to enabling the best use of resources, with an emphasis on sustainability. Reducing the overall socio-economic cost of transport infrastructure and services is key to achieving … Read more
Professor Bent Flyvbjerg in his research identified two main causes of misinformation in policy and management: strategic misrepresentation (or lying!) and optimism bias (appraisal optimism). Strategic misrepresentation is the planned, systematic distortion or misstatement of fact in response to incentives in the budget process. Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be … Read more
We like to think we are rational decision-making professionals. But the research shows we all have a vast number of biases. Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of behaviour, which means we deviate from making rational judgments. Many of these biases are mental shortcuts, called heuristics, that our brain uses to help us make decisions. Wikipedia … Read more
Bus network design involves difficult choices, and trade-offs between competing objectives, within funding constraints.
At one end of the spectrum, investment in public bus services aims to achieve the strategic community outcome of moving people in an efficient manner. I refer to this as ROI or return on investment, using the commercial definition.
The Australian Infrastructure Plan released in February 2016 by Infrastructure Australia (IA) has some key findings and recommendations for public transport across Australia.
With the project growth in population to 30 million over the next 15 years, and 5.9 million of that growth occurring in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, there will be much greater demands on public transport services, and government budgets.
What is needed according to IA is high-frequency, interconnected public transport systems to move people efficiently and comfortably.
Congestion is the dominant challenge in cities and infrastructure networks [1]
Putting the customer first is top priority for most transport agencies. This requires improving the quality of service to users by providing key infrastructure improvements, offering travel choices, managing as one network and providing integrated services.
What are potential next generation road system management innovations to address ever increasing demands on major urban road networks with more and more data becoming available?
Australian road owners and operators in major urban areas, both public and private, are facing ever increasing traffic volumes and more pervasive traffic congestion, constrained funding for new infrastructure, and political hesitancy in moving towards comprehensive road user charging.