European Transport / Trasporti Europei (2010) 45/XV

Gap maintaining behavior significantly affects the traffic flow modeling under heterogeneous traffic conditions. The clearance between two adjacent moving vehicles varies depending on several traffic conditions. From the data collected on the gap maintaining behavior it has been observed that vehicles maintain different gaps when travelling under different traffic conditions and this is also influenced by lateral position of the vehicle. Mallikarjuna (2007) has found that this variable gap maintaining behavior can be explained using a macroscopic traffic characteristic called area occupancy. In this study, these relationships would be used in deciding the cell width which is the basic input for cellular automata (CA) based heterogeneous traffic flow models. It is proposed that the dominant vehicle in the traffic stream, its lateral position, and lateral gaps on either side are the governing factors in deciding the cell width. Cell width has been finalized based on this input and it is found to be varying when area occupancy is varying from 3 to 15%.

The rise of logistics is explained by three factors. The first factor is an economic one: The development of a mass consumption society. In European countries, one can observe mass motorization and a gradual expansion of the motorway networks between 1960 and 1990. These networks facilitated truck transport, leading to the development of cheap transport, warehousing and distribution of consumer goods. This development is part of a mass consumption society, i.e. logistics enable the development of mass consumption societies. Another driver towards transportation and logistics was the European traffic policy. In the 1950s, it enabled trucks to cross borders with full loads and to transit certain countries. Prior to 1980, the quotas for international truck traffic were regulated by bilateral agreements. But these quotas remained small. In the 1980s and 1990s, the European Union pursued a policy toward attaining a uniform market in the European Union. This pertained to the exchange of goods and for truck transportation services. The third factor refers to innovations in the parcel industry. In the 1990s, logistics and transportation changed fundamentally. We can almost speak of a logistics revolution caused by a cooccurrence of various developments, much like the liberalization of the transport and telecommunications industries, the proliferation of internet technologies, the unification of Europe and the dissipation of communism, leading to a new orientation of logistics in the European market.

The purpose of the article is to discuss the operations of the public bus sector and the impacts of its privatization in Tirana, the capital of Albania. In addition to a synopsis of public transport operations in post-communist East Europe, the first part of this article presents an overview of public transport operations in Tirana from 1990 to the present day. The second part of the article discusses the findings of three sets of transportation surveys.

Now, 10 years after the first plans, we analyse in this paper what has happened with Underground Logistic Systems (ULS). The major question in this paper is: Which barriers and enablers led to the failure of ULS and what ULS spin-offs can be found nowadays? Several factors can be classified as barriers or enablers. The main conclusions that can be drawn are that the opportunities for try-out were too limited; political support could have been gained on higher levels; the costs were too high, the catchment area was too limited; ULS in itself is a very promising system, but there was no one clear goal. In particular, the lack of a thorough and positive business model in combination with a lack of sufficient freight volumes almost immediately guaranteed the failure of the initiative. The spin-offs seem to have taken place in different directions: ranging from rather soft impacts (e.g. scientific knowledge) to more hard developments (adopting and developing transport and tunnelling technologies), and, although difficult to quantify, they are of great value.

The awarding of port services to private operators has become one of the most important tools for port authorities to retain some control on the organization and structure of the supply side of the terminal market. This paper discusses the awarding of terminals in European ports from an EU legal and policy context. It also seeks to provide in-depth information on current practices and perceptions of port authorities around Europe on tendering and contractual arrangements linked to the awarding of terminals. The relevant issues relate to the terminal awarding processes, the duration of the terminal award contract and the contract stipulations. The paper also seeks to understand whether the practices are influenced by factors such as terminal size, the competitive environment in which the port operates and the geographical location.

Importance of warehousing has increased during the recent decade and among cost issues, these outlets have become value adding centers; responding to market changes with maximized corporate profitability. Our research concerns Finnish and Swedish companies, and their warehousing decisions in larger Europe. According to our longitudinal survey results, warehousing location in Finnish companies is more weighted towards East, while Swedish companies focus on West. Warehousing size itself will continue to increase, but smaller units have future too. However, most significant changes appear in the location criteria; most of the new establishments will consider road transportation connection, low distribution costs, infrastructure enabling intermodal transportation and availability of third party solutions. Among these assembly and manufacturing plant location plays important role. Overall from survey results it is seen that emerging economies of Europe are explaining quite many development paths, especially among Finnish respondents.