A.D. May

PICABUE: a methodological framework for the development of indicators of sustainable development

SUMMARY Significant interest in the concept of sustainable development exists amongst scientists, planners, policy makers and the public, and considerable effort and expenditure is made or envisaged at local, national and international levels to promote a more sustainable society. Until ‘green accounting’ and similar systems are made available and are implemented, the sustainability indicator will be the most effective tool available for monitoring progress towards a more sustainable society. Sustainability indicators are already available but are characterized by a poor or absent theoretical underpinning. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a methodological framework that can be applied to the construction of indicators of sustainable development. In order to be consistent with widely accepted definitions of sustainable development, considerations relating to the measurement of quality of life and ecological integrity are central to the methodology. The methodological framework has relevance t...

Effects of alternative road pricing systems on network performance

Four road pricing systems, with charges based on cordons crossed, distance travelled, time spent travelling and time spent in congestion, have been tested using the congested assignment network model SATURN and its elastic assignment demand response routine, SATEASY. All tests have been based on a SATURN application of the city of Cambridge, with charges imposed inside an appropriate ring of bypasses. While initial results showed that congestion pricing achieved the greatest increase in average speed in the charged area, later analysis cast doubt on its superiority. Congestion pricing is able to distinguish more effectively the extent to which different types of journey contribute to congestion and achieves given reductions in travel at lower levels of charge. However, it is much less effective in reducing distance travelled and, by encouraging use of minor roads, may achieve far smaller environmental benefits. Time-based pricing performs better than the other systems on most indicators. Generally, the results suggest that when rerouting effects are included in the predictive modelling process the benefits of road pricing may be significantly smaller than previously expected.

ROAD PRICING, AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE.

This paper reviews experience with road pricing in Europe and Asia. It considers the objectives of road pricing, and demonstrates that differences in objectives lead to differences in scheme design and performance. It reviews the criteria for design of road pricing systems, and the development of charging structures and technologies to meet those criteria. In particular it discusses the relative merits of pre-determined and congestion-dependent charging structures, and of off-vehicle and on-vehicle charging systems. It assesses the performance of road pricing systems to date, discusses objections to road pricing and demonstrates that the role of road pricing within a wider transport strategy and the use made of the revenue generated, will be important determinants of public acceptability. Finally it assesses the relative merits of alternative approaches to implementation and argues that these will need to pay as much regard to public acceptability as to technical performance.

THE IMPACT OF CORDON DESIGN ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ROAD PRICING SCHEMES

Road pricing schemes are principally based on cordon-based pricing. Earlier studies have demonstrated that the performance of cordon schemes is critically dependent on cordon location. However, surveys of those designing such schemes indicate that they are opting for the simplest designs, in the interest of acceptability, and may well be overlooking designs which achieve greater economic benefit. A set of analytical procedures has been developed for identifying the locations for imposing charges and the charges at those points which are optimal in terms of economic efficiency. These are demonstrated on a simplified network of Cambridge. Tests on a larger network confirm that performance is very sensitive to cordon location. However, they also show that charging points selected by even a simple analytical procedure can achieve economic benefits around 50% higher than predefined cordons, and that relaxing the requirement to have uniform charges at all charging points can produce further substantial increases in economic benefits.

Research challenges in urban transport policy

1. IntroductionTransport is one of the most significant sources ofunsustainability in urban areas. In European cities alone,traffic congestion costs in excess of e100B each year, localpollution and the resultant health impacts impose costs of asimilar magnitude, and there are around 20,000 fatalities onurban roads each year. Many countries are now advocatingintegrated approaches to these problems, in which the fullrange of transport policy interventions (infrastructure,management, regulation, information and pricing) arecombined with land use, environmental and wider socialpolicy instruments (European Conference of Ministers ofTransport, 1995). Most of the constituent elements of thesestrategies are already available, but there is a serious lack ofdetailed understanding of the impacts of many of thesepolicy instruments and of their transferability to differentcontexts. Even more serious is the lack of understanding ofhow to design integrated strategies which most effectivelycombine infrastructure, management, regulation andpricing.Even where appropriately sustainable strategies areidentified, there are serious barriers to their implemen-tation. The recent ECMT report (European Conference ofMinisters of Transport, 2002) highlights poor policyintegration and coordination, counterproductive insti-tutional roles, unsupportive regulatory frameworks, weak-nesses in pricing and poor data quality and quantity asreasons for the failure of most cities to pursue the policiesadvocated in its earlier report (European Conference ofMinisters of Transport, 1995).The papers in this special issue of Transport Policy are aselection of those presented at the inaugural conference of anew Special Interest Group (SIG) of the World Conferenceon Transport Research Society, SIG-10, which focuses onthese critical issues in urban transport policy. Membershipof the SIG is open to anyone with an interest in research,teaching or practice in urban transport, and details can befound in the WCTRS section of the journal.When the new SIG was launched at the Ninth WorldConference in Seoul in July 2001, it was agreed that itsobjectives should be:† to increase our understanding of the performance oftransport policy instruments;† to determine the principles of policy integration;† to develop good practice in the monitoring and appraisalof policy instruments;† to identify good practice in the design, implementationand operation of policy instruments; and† to develop interactive information tools to aid theunderstanding of urban transport policy for students,practitioners and decision-makers.The inaugural conference, held in Leeds in July 2002,included sessions on all five of these themes, with a total of14 papers. Copies of the conference proceedings areavailable from the authors of this paper. The eight papersincluded in this special issue cover the range of themes,while in many cases addressing more than one of them. Inthis overview paper we have endeavoured to draw out thekey issues from these papers, while focusing on the researchchallenges which remain to be tackled. The structure of thepaper follows the five bullet points listed above, focusing inturn on the papers by Taylor and Ampt, Mackett et al.(Section 2); Geerlings and Stead (Section 3); Jones et al.,Nicolas et al. (Section 4); Gaffron, Ison and Rye (Section 5);and Litman (Section 6); but bringing in ideas from otherpapers where appropriate. We conclude by highlighting ourview of the key research challenges which lie ahead.2. Understanding the performance of policy instrumentsOne of the most significant developments of the lastdecade has been the emergence of a much wider range ofpolicy instruments available to the urban transport planner.

OPTIMAL TRANSPORT STRATEGIES FOR EUROPEAN CITIES

A new procedure for generating optimal transport strategies has been applied in nine European cities. A public sector objective function which reflects concerns over efficiency, environmental impact, finance and sustainability is specified and a set of policy measures with acceptable ranges on each, identified. Optimal strategies based on combinations of these policy measures which generate the optimal value of the objective function, are identified, and compared between cities. Resulting policy recommendations are presented. The results demonstrate the importance of an integrated approach to transport strategy formulation. They emphasise the role of changes in public transport service levels and of fares, and of charges for car use. By contrast, new infrastructure projects are less frequently justified. In the majority of cities the revenues from car use charges are sufficient to finance other elements in the strategy. However, private sector involvement either in initial financing or in operation may be desirable. Revised objective functions to reflect private sector involvement are specified, and optimal strategies with private sector operation of public transport are also identified. The requirement to meet private sector rates of return for public transport operation typically results in lower frequencies and higher fares; charges for car use then need to be raised to satisfy public policy objectives, but system performance is reduced.

Integrated transport strategies: a new approach to urban transport policy formulation in the U.K.

In the last four years, some 20 urban areas in the UK have commissioned or considered conducting Integrated Transport Studies, which are designed to develop a transport strategy for the next 20–30 years. Such studies represent a new approach to transport policy formulation, since they respond to a vision of the future for the area, treat a wide range of transport and land use policy instruments, emphasize synergy between those instruments, and provide a framework for facilitating action rather than a rigid blueprint for the future. They also differ from past studies in the speed with which they have been conducted, and in the analytical techniques which have made this possible. This paper reviews the background to these studies, the evaluation approach adopted, the policy instruments considered and the analytical methods developed for the studies. It concludes with an assessment of the policy implications stressing in particular the need to reduce trip length, the crucial impact of pricing as an instrumen...

Singapore: The Development of a World Class Transport System

Singapores Land Transport Authority, formed in 1995, set itself a mission of producing a world class transport system. This paper assesses the extent to which this goal is being achieved. It outlines the structure within which transport decisions are taken and indicates the freedom this gives to develop integrated transport and land‐use strategies. It demonstrates the long‐term stability in transport strategy from 1972 onwards, and the key contributions to that strategy of land‐use controls and travel‐demand management measures. The individual elements of the strategy are then reviewed and innovations identified in demand management, public transport service provision and information technology. Finally, the key attributes that have led to the success of the strategy are identified, and it is suggested that many of these are transferable to other cities of the developed world.

Urban Transport and Sustainability: The Key Challenges

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of trends in demand for urban transport, considers their implications for the achievement of a set of urban transport policy objectives, and summarizes the principal problems which are likely to arise. It notes in particular the challenge of meeting climate change goals, which is likely to dominate the development of urban transport policy over the next four decades. It considers the range of policy instruments available, and summarizes evidence on their effectiveness. On this basis it argues that a package of policy instruments is needed, and provides evidence of good practice in the design of such packages. It reviews the barriers to the design and implementation of such packages, and summarizes international guidance on ways of overcoming these barriers. Finally, in a concluding section, it identifies the principal areas in which innovations are needed in urban transport policy and, in its role in providing the context for a special issue on modeling, suggests the resulting requirements for model development.

Bounded rationality in policy learning amongst cities: lessons from the transport sector

The internationalization of policy regimes and the reorganization of the state have provided new opportunities for cities to bypass nation-state structures and work with other cities internationally. This provides greater opportunity for cities to learn from each other and could be an important stimulus to the transfer of policies across the globe. Few studies exist however which focus on the processes that shape the search for policy lessons and how they are affected by the institutional context within which they are conducted. This paper describes research conducted in the field of urban transport and planning policy across eleven cities in Northern Europe and North America which seeks to explore the motivations for and mechanisms supporting learning about new policies. Thirty policies were examined across the eleven sites using document review and interviews with key actors. The paper explores the search for lessons and the learning process and considers the influences of institutional context, organizational behaviour, and individual cognitive constraints. The process of seeking out and learning policy lessons is defined by individuals operating within a particular policy space and exhibits a number of characteristics of strongly bounded rational choice. The search parameters are significantly influenced by preconceptions of the nature of the preferred solutions and the likelihood of cities in other contexts offering meaningful learning opportunities. Trusted peer networks emerge as critical in overcoming information overload, resource constraints, and uncertainty in the potential for policy transfer. The mobility of policies seems also to be linked to the mobility of the key transfer agents. Cities adopt quite different approaches to engaging with the communities of policy mobilizers which seems likely to impact on the pace and pattern of the movement of policies.