Jose Manuel Viegas

Effects of transportation accessibility on residential property values: hedonic price model in the Lisbon, Portugal, metropolitan area

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the availability of transportation infrastructure and services and the pattern of house prices in an urban area and to assess whether public investment in transportation can modify residential property values. This study was developed for the Lisbon, Portugal, metropolitan area (LMA) as part of a broader study that intends to develop new value-capture financing schemes for public transportation in the LMA. The paper focuses on three central municipalities in Portugal (Amadora, Lisbon, and Odivelas), where these effects could be more easily measured because of the existence of a significant variability of public transportation services. The paper tries to determine, with different spatial hedonic pricing models, the extent to which access to transportation infrastructure currently is capitalized into house prices and isolates the influence of three different transportation infrastructures: metro, rail, and road. The results suggest that the proximity to one or two metro lines leads to significant property value changes. Results further indicate that the classic hedonic price model (ordinary least-squares estimation) leads to similar coefficient values of the local accessibility dummy variables compared with the spatial lag model and thus provides a steady basis to forecast the property value changes derived from transportation investment for the study area in the absence of a significant property value database.

A mesoscopic simulation modelling methodology for analyzing and evaluating freight train operations in a rail network

Abstract This paper includes a mesoscopic simulation modelling methodology developed for analysing and evaluating freight train operations in a rail network. The product of this methodology is a simulation rail network model implemented using an event-based simulation computer package called SIMUL 8. For simulation modelling purposes a decomposition approach is used. This approach allows us to separate the rail network under study into its components such as rail lines, rail yards, rail stations, rail terminals and junctions. The components of the rail network are thought of as interconnected queuing systems that interact and influence one another, so that the global impact of freight train operations in a rail network is captured. The products presented in this paper are of interest to rail freight tactical management, where global benefits are pursued.

Widening the scope for bus priority with intermittent bus lanes

In the search for improved flowing conditions for buses, many cities have introduced bus lanes and incorporated bus priority schemes in their traffic control systems. However, these two instruments are insufficient in themselves, since bus lanes are not justified with a low frequency of buses but without such lanes buses frequently have to travel in congested conditions in extended parts of their routes. This paper presents the concept of Intermittent Bus Lane (IBL), suggests that it could be physically implemented with longitudinal traffic lights, discusses its fields of application and points to the mathematical solution of some of the most relevant control problems associated with it.

A simulation modelling methodology for evaluating flat-shunted yard operations

Abstract Provided, in this paper, is a simulation modelling methodology for analysing and evaluating flat-shunted yard operations. Created and implemented is a yard simulation model using a computer package for event-based simulation, SIMUL’8. The main idea behind the simulation modelling approach is to simulate the flat-shunted yard operations dividing the yard into segments so that the behaviour of each segment can be described and analyzed separately. The simulation model takes the shape of queuing network. The components of the queuing network are interconnected queuing systems that interact and influence one another, so that the global impact of freight train operations is captured. The queuing systems replicate the preliminary specified segments that consist of a set of work centres (i.e., servers) and/or storage areas (i.e., capacity limitations). This modelling approach allows us to study the processing capabilities of the yards. In the shape of “Case Study”, we demonstrate how the proposed approach is implemented in terms of “real world” case.

Effects of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem on the Delineation of Traffic Analysis Zones

Transportation analysis is typically thought of as one kind of spatial analysis. A major point of departure in understanding problems in transportation analysis is the recognition that spatial analysis has some limitations associated with the discretization of space. Among them, modifiable areal units and boundary problems are directly or indirectly related to transportation planning and analysis through the design of traffic analysis zones (TAZs). The modifiable boundary and the scale issues should all be given specific attention during the specification of a TAZ because of the effects these factors exert on statistical and mathematical properties of spatial patterns (ie the modifiable areal unit problem—MAUP). The results obtained from the study of spatial data are not independent of the scale, and the aggregation effects are implicit in the choice of zonal boundaries. The delineation of zonal boundaries of TAZs has a direct impact on the reality and accuracy of the results obtained from transportation forecasting models. In this paper the MAUP effects on the TAZ definition and the transportation demand models are measured and analyzed using different grids (in size and in origin location). This analysis was developed by building an application integrated in commercial GIS software and by using a case study (Lisbon Metropolitan Area) to test its implementabiity and performance. The results reveal the conflict between statistical and geographic precision, and their relationship with the loss of information in the traffic assignment step of the transportation planning models.

Finding shortest paths in the plane in the presence of barriers to travel (for any lp - norm)

Abstract This paper develops an efficient algorithm for the computation of the shortest paths between given sets of points (origins and destinations) in the plane, when these paths are constrained not to cross any of a finite set of polygonal (open or closed) barriers. It is proved that when distances are measured by an 1p - norm with 1 It is also shown that optimal solutions when distances are measured according to the rectilinear or max-norm (i.e. lp-norm with p = 1 or p = ∞) can be deduced from the results of the algorithm.

Challenges to implementing motorways of the sea concept—lessons from the past

Establishing a European wide high-quality shipping links and integrating them with the trans-European Transport networks has been the vision of the European Commission (EC) to reduce land transport congestion under the Motorways of the Sea (MoS) concept. However, in spite of strong political backing and favourable policy initiatives, MoS projects have met with limited success. Establishing MoS is complex because of its international scope and involvement of a number of public and private stakeholders with conflicting objectives and goals. The paper attempts to identify critical factors for establishing viable MoS projects. The paper reviews the development of the MoS concept to understand the expectations of the EC and the concerns of the important stakeholders. The present status of these policy actions is reviewed and their possible effect on the performance of MoS projects is estimated. Case studies of short sea shipping initiatives in different parts of Europe and the world are reviewed to learn from their successes and failures. This knowledge is applied to find critical factors for the success of MoS projects in the European context.

Analysis and Evaluation of Double-Ended Flat-Shunted Yard Performance Employing Two Yard Crews

The yards are facilities that reassemble inbound freight train cars into outbound freight trains. These facilities play an essential role for providing the freight transportation service by rail, however, they are nonrevenue producing elements for the railway freight companies and therefore keeping them unutilized is not acceptable. In this paper, a double-ended flat-shunted yard has been studied by discrete-event-based simulations. The results obtained demonstrate significantly low utilization levels of the subsystems of this yard. Therefore, a possible reduction of floating resources is investigated.

Applying a structured simulation-based methodology to assess carpooling time–space potential

Abstract Increasing urban traffic congestion calls for the study of alternative measures. One such measure is carpooling, a system in which a person shares his private vehicle with one or more people in a commuter trip. In principle, this system could lead to potentially significant reductions in the use of private vehicles; however, in practice it has achieved limited success. In this paper, we apply a simulation-based methodology that uses aggregated data from commuter trips in an urban area to create compatible and feasible random trips. These are then analyzed through a heuristic process recursively to find grouping possibilities, thus producing indicators of carpooling potential such as the percentage of matched trips. Using this methodology, simulations are run for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal) and results show that an increase in the number of participants in a carpooling scheme will only increase the probability of matching up to a certain point, and that this probability varies significantly with time–space trip attributes.

High-speed railway and the European peripheries: Opportunities and challenges

The analysis covers the organization of economic activities and how the supply of transportation systems influences the definition of markets. From a spatial perspective, competition and collusion in a high-speed railway (HSR) based network are examined at three levels: (a) the chain of regions served; (b) the chain of cities (railway stations) served; (c) the (chain of) transportation modes involved. Finally, the theoretical part of the analysis looks at the strategic importance of a sequential implementation of network links. The empirical part addresses three cases of peripheries with distinctly different characteristics. It shows that the arguments developed in the first part provide a solid approach to solve the problems leading to different configurations of the recommended system.