Transport Developments and Innovations in an Evolving World

We are living in the Information Age with ever-more complex societies acting in global networks. The impacts of ICTs (information and communication technologies) embrace not only faster and denser communication but also a reorganization of value chains, firms, labour relations and management structures, and consequently of spatial forms and developments. Our daily activities, and therefore travel demand, are influenced directly by our own use of new ICT devices and indirectly by the above-mentioned changes in our society. Also the transport supply side is influenced directly through the application of ICTs and indirectly through demands arising from changing society. We have to remember, however, that: i) transport still is for improving accessibility, i.e. overcoming distances, and ii) because of the current huge volumes of motorized transport, serious safety and environmental problems have emerged together with local or even regional congestion.

Many transportation and telecommunication innovations were proposed over the course of the last century. They include new technologies, new ways of organization and new ways to manage these systems. Overall, the innovations that were adopted have changed the way we conduct our affairs, as the cost and effort associated with overcoming distance plummeted. Yet, many additional options were proposed, but never adopted, or were adopted only in a very limited and modified form. In some cases, innovations were first adopted and later abandoned. These observations raise the question: Why have certain innovations been adopted while others have not?

Personal computers, mobile phones and the Internet are conquering the world apace. A few figures will illustrate this. Mokhtarian (1998) estimates that, at present, about 6 percent of the American workforce is telecommuting, while Nilles (1995) forecasts that, in the year 2020, 60 million American full-time employees will telecommute full-time or part-time. In 2001, the revenues of worldwide e-commerce were US$ 400 billions, probably 20 percent of which can be classified as business-to-consumer traffic. The revenue in the year 2003 is estimated at US$ 1.3 trillion (Golob and Regan 2001). Viswanathan and Goulias (2001) expect 15 percent to 20 percent of all shopping in 2010 in the USA to be labelled as e-commerce. These developments are being equipped technologically by faster and cheaper microchips, increased transmission speeds on the Internet, growth in the number of web pages on the Internet, small and portable wireless equipment, and so forth, (Golob and Regan 2001).

The globalization of economies is generating new maritime transport flows. In particular, the container shipping industry has benefited from this development. However, shipping a container from shipper/consignor to consignee sometimes involves over 60 documents. Hence, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has always been important in this sector. Shipping companies have embraced Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and Electronic Data Processing (EDP-)systems have been widely implemented. However, e-commerce, i.e. the marketing, selling and buying of products and services via the Internet, has been far less applied.

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in commercial transactions and work has grown tremendously since the mid-1990s. Most transactions using electronic commerce have been in business-to-business commerce, but business-to-consumer commerce is likely to play an expanding role in the coming years. An explanation of the popularity of the Internet and ecommerce can be found in network externality theory (e.g. Katz and Shapiro 1985; Capello 1994; Economides 1996).The positive network effects include increasing returns and first-mover advantages. In addition, various critical transaction and co-ordination advantages can be observed (e.g. Wigand 1997).

This chapter reports on a behavioural experiment of commuting behaviour. We apply a stated preference method to assess commuters’ mode preferences. The aim of this study is to identify whether variables other than the standard variables in mode choice models, including travel time and costs, have a significant effect on the preference ordering of alternatives.1 More specifically, we analyze the effect of current behaviour on preference elicitation.

Recently, the question of how to achieve a sustainable transport system has attracted wide interest (OECD 1997; SCAST 1999). More kilometres are travelled by motorized vehicles every year, with consequently more fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. As transportation statistics from many countries reveal, many of these kilometres are travelled for leisure activities. Nevertheless, as a review of the literature shows, little research has been undertaken on leisure travel, either on a European or a national level (ECMT 1998; Braunolte et al. 1999; Lanzendorf 2001).

The supply and pricing of parking places and facilities in city centres have an important effect on travel demand in general and modal split and trip distribution in particular. While parking cost and some other parking-related variables are standard elements in urban travel demand models, there are important gaps in our knowledge of the ways in which different parking policy measures affect travel demand. Discrete choice models provide powerful and theoretically attractive tools for impact analysis. Nevertheless, there are problems in modelling that are partly related to supply-side and partly to demand-side information about parking. The present study is an attempt to fill some of those gaps.

For a variety of reasons, economists strongly recommend the implementation of differentiated pricing strategies in transport as well as in other domains of every day life. Technological research has already solved many of the practical requirements for the introduction of flexible urban transport pricing schemes. However, apart from technological and legal problems, the lack of public acceptability is recognized as one of the main obstacles to the implementation of road pricing measures. Likewise, the acceptability of systems is assumed to be a major factor influencing effectiveness of the implementation of a system (Van der Laan 1998). Numerous studies indicate the rejection of pricing measures by a majority of car drivers (e.g. Bartley 1995; Jones 1991a, 1991b; Luk and Chung 1997). For instance, results of the TransPrice-study¹ show that — with only little variation between cities — car drivers most accept public transport improvements, followed by the provision of more park and ride facilities and, surprisingly, then by access restrictions for inner cities (Schlag and Schade 2000). Reducing parking space has much lower acceptability, but least accepted generally are fees concerning both the stationary traffic (parking fees) and, most strongly refused, driving on urban roads (distance-based pricing), even if it is only imposed at times with high traffic density (congestion pricing/peak-load pricing).

It is hardly surprising that space matters in terms of industrial organization, not only in terms of mere physical distance in relation to accessibility to supplies and markets (Weber 1909), but also in terms of accessibility to general socioeconomic resources (Dicken 1992). Analyses of the spatial organization of industries and networks of firms often focus on production and distribution systems formed by the material flows of production and distribution units. However, the significance of transport operations and activities, connecting the individual production units together in a network of material flows, is often underestimated, and transport seen only as a derived demand activity.

Intermodal transport is the transport of unit loads by the combination of at least two modes of transport in a single transport chain. Goods are transported with most of the route travelled by rail, an inland waterway system or via an oceangoing vessel, with the shortest possible initial and final journeys by road. Due to environmental and congestion pressures this type of transport has received much attention over the last few years. Intermodal terminals, necessary for the transhipment of unit loads from one mode to another, are very important in this transport chain. In recent years, several new terminal projects have started up in Belgium (see Macharis and Verbeke 1999).

Shunting yards are important exchange nodes for those intermodal freight flows that are too small for frequent direct point-to-point shuttle connections. To maintain a daily or more frequent shuttle service, trains need to have a certain minimum length and loading degree to be economical. However, by bundling such small freight volumes (consolidation), it is still possible to achieve a frequent connection. Such bundling networks could be line networks, hub-and-spoke networks or collection-and-distribution networks (Figure 12.1). At the start and end points of these networks, trucks take care of drayage to and from the shipper or receiver.

In NW Europe, we can discern a time-honoured pattern of urbanization characterized by polynuclear urban regions in which the cities — with the exception of London and Paris — do not reach the level of global cities. Such areas as the Randstad, the Rhine-Ruhr Area, the Flemish Diamond, the British Midlands and Central Scotland incorporate networks of cities and smaller municipalities which lack any strong hierarchy.

Tel Aviv is the largest metropolitan area in Israel and serves as the country’s main financial and cultural centre. The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Areal stretches over 1,475 square kilometres and is inhabited by 2.6 million people, of which 90 percent are living in urban areas. Data from 1999 show that the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area produced 50 percent of the GDP and was responsible for 46.4 percent of the jobs in Israel. Because of its geographical position and for historical reasons, the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area is a transportation focal point. All traffic between the north and the south of Israel, as well as traffic connecting the main cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheba) to each other, must pass through the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. Thus, the metropolitan transportation infrastructure must fulfil two major functions: a) supply the demand for transportation on the national level; and b) supply the demand for transportation within the metropolitan area on the regional and local levels.

In the French context of the regional authorities’ responsibility for the rail passenger transport system, this contribution focuses on the relations between collective transport networks and regional planning in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. Beyond the analysis of the existing situation, we want to build a prospective approach, in order to propose some modifications to the transport system which can respond to identified regional planning stakes. Through a modelling of the transport system it is possible to simulate these modifications of the supply and to measure their potential consequences.

This chapter is written as a comment on current practice in the multi-modal evaluation of transport projects. In particular, it attempts to trace the recent development of ideas underlying practical transport evaluation, during a period which has seen changes in methodology in many countries.