European Transport / Trasporti Europei (2009) 41/XIV

This paper addresses the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on sustainable transport by examining the direct application of ICT in urban transport. Following a discussion of various negative externalities of transport, the paper examines the extent to which existing and potential ICT applications in the transport sector can assist in making urban transport more sustainable than it is at present. The focus of analysis is on qualitative and quantitative impacts of several ICT applications on travel behaviour (including fatalities), factors that influence adoption, and impacts of adoption including potentially secondary effects. The literature suggests that ICT innovations are most effective in fatality reduction, but it seems that these are also quite effective in reducing fuel consumption through fuelintelligent vehicles.

The efficiency of the public transport system in any city depends on integration of its major public transport modes. Suburban railway and public buses are the modes normally used by the majority of commuters in metropolitan cities of developed and developing countries. Integration of these two services reduces overall journey time of an individual. In this research, a model is developed for operational integration of suburban trains and public buses. The model has two sub models: a Routing Sub Model and a Scheduling Sub Model. In the Routing Sub Model, feeder routes are generated for public buses which originate from a railway station. A Heuristic Feeder Route Generation Algorithm is developed for generation of feeder routes. In the Scheduling Sub Model, optimal coordinated schedules for feeder buses are developed for the given schedules of suburban trains. As a case study the Dun Laoghaire DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) (heavy rail suburban service) station of Dublin in Ireland is selected. Feeder bus services are coordinated with existing schedules of the DART on the developed feeder route network. Genetic Algorithms, which are known to be a robust optimization technique for this type of problem, are used in the Scheduling Sub Model. Finally the outcome of the research is a generated feeder route network and coordinated services of feeder buses on it for the DART station.

This study reviews regulatory instruments designed to reduce environmental externalities from the transport sector. We find that the main regulatory instruments used in practice are fuel economy standards, vehicle emission standards and fuel quality standards. While industrialized countries have introduced all three standards with strong enforcement mechanisms, most developing countries have yet to introduce fuel economy standards. The emission standards introduced by many developing countries to control local air pollutants follow either the EU or U.S. standards. Fuel quality standards, particularly for gasoline and diesel, have been introduced in many countries mandating 2 to 10 percents blending of biofuels, 10 to 50 times reduction of sulfur from 1996 levels and banning lead contents. Although inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs are in place in both industrialized and developing countries to enforce regulatory standards, these programs have faced several challenges in developing countries due to a lack of resources. The study also highlights several factors affecting the selection of regulatory instruments, such as countries’ environmental priorities and institutional capacities.

The purpose of this paper is to present an outlook on the future research for a specific mixed model transportation network referred to as Foliated Transportation Networks (FTN). FTN is thus far a conceptual model that is based on the idea of foliating a direct shipment and a hub-and-spoke structure in order to achieve higher fill rates without an increase in the total traffic work at the same time. The conclusion is that the two principal areas of research are areas of planability (i.e., the ability to in advance and on a sufficient level of detail and precision determine the capacity requirements of the system) and network optimization (i.e., the optimization of the distribution of goods and resources between the different layers of the network).

Using data from a Bank of Italy survey, this paper analyzes the Italian taxi market and its recent changes. Local regulations are rather homogeneous, while there is a widespread disproportion, within municipalities advisory committees, between the number of taxi drivers representatives and that of consumers’; indicators of service adequacy are seldom used. Service costs are rather homogeneous across Italian provinces, while there is great variance as to supply and fares. The instruments provided to municipalities by the new Bersani law have been used mainly in major cities. Service increase, achieved mainly through additional shifts rather than through the provision of (free) additional licenses, was often obtained in exchange for fare increases; the use of traffic policies has been almost absent. It is difficult to evaluate the adequacy of local decisions, given the lack of non-occasional information on market structure.