Helping transport professionals fast track their success
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.
Why is understanding the linkages between land use and transport so important for transport and planning professionals?
Transport is a primarily a derived demand, we travel in order to get to a destination, to undertake an activity and to carry goods. Land use is a key determinant of the need, when, how, and where to travel.
So learning how to influence land use and develop integrated transport plans means you will become one of the critical few transport and planning professionals who have this knowledge and know what an be done.
Understanding the essence of transport integration is the first step to building a successful transport system.
The term “integration” gets used a lot by transport planners. But what does it really mean?
Let us consider the importance of integration from a user’s perspective. It can be distilled down to issues pertaining to time, cost, and quality of transport.
Smart growth aims to improve the quality of life in communities, with a strong sustainability emphasis, aiming to conserve energy and protect environmental quality.
A key smart growth theme is efficiency – reducing the socio-economic cost per-capita of infrastructure and services.
This requires transport and planning professionals to plan future land use patterns which are compact and provide a range of transport options, to reduce the need to travel, the number and length of trips and car dependance.
Value capture funding allows a government to raise additional revenue by identifying the real beneficiaries of an investment, and enforcing a mechanism which recoups some that value to the government investor.
For transport investments, some of the primary benefits occur for lands in the project catchment. Benefits include the improved accessibility conferred on a site, and possibly improved amenity experienced by its inhabitants.