Transport Planning and Policy Quiz

Transport Planning and Policy

• Transport policy deals with creating a set of ideas and guidelines to achieve social, economic, and environmental goals for transportation systems.
• Transport planning involves developing and implementing actions to address specific transport issues.
• Transport policy is crucial in every aspect of national life, preventing/controlling monopolies in various transportation modes.
• Globalization increases international interactions, impacting freight and passenger transport.
• Deregulation and privatization are ongoing in many transport markets.
• Policies are increasingly considering intermodalism, multimodalism, and logistics.
• Political and social considerations are gaining more importance in transport projects, alongside engineering aspects.

Policy Instruments

• Governments use a range of direct and indirect instruments for transport policy.
• Direct instruments include public ownership.
• Indirect instruments include safety standards.
• Subsidies are a crucial tool for achieving policy objectives.
• Regulatory control influences transport industry operations.
• Government research and development in transportation are common.
• Labor regulations, such as those concerning employment, training, and certification, can indirectly impact transport.

Trends in Transport Policy Development

• Public policies reflect decision-maker priorities and approaches to transport problems.
• Historical examples of privately-provided transport (turnpikes, canals, urban transit, ships, and railways) are relevant for understanding trends.
• Recent trends in transport policy generally favor liberalization and privatization.
• Government ownership of ports, airports, and terminals persists, though concession agreements with private operators are common.
• Highway provision, maintenance, and upgrading are key public-funded responsibilities.
• Public transport in cities (buses and subways) is predominantly government-owned and operated. Intercity transportation is mostly privately managed.

Transport Planning and Governance

• Transport planning addresses specific concerns at local levels and is predominantly a responsibility of lower-tier governments.
• Planning often uses localized solutions based on specific issues.
• Types of transport planning include strategic, tactical, and operational planning.
• Contemporary transport planning is multi-dimensional and utilizes various specialisms, including a multi-disciplinary approach.
• Goals, objectives, options, identification of stakeholders, outcome predictions, and choosing a course of action are essential planning stages.
• Strategies for transport demand management aim to reduce/redistribute travel demand and improve efficiency without building more infrastructure.

Transport Safety and Security

• Physical security in transportation involves security measures for passengers and freight.
• Cybersecurity in transport is a developing concern.

Transportation Disaster Planning

• Disaster planning and mitigation are crucial for handling disruptions.
• Strategies involve risk assessment, public preparedness, and disaster mitigation.
• Strategies include monitoring and assessment, support for impacted regions, removal of discretionary demand, and modal shifts (transportation choices).

Highway Safety and Accident Analysis

• Accident rates are measured per 100 million vehicle miles travelled (HMVM).
• Accident rates are calculated per million entering vehicles (MEV) for intersections.
• Severity ratios are measures of accident impact severity.
• Time mean speed and space mean speed are measures of average vehicle travel speed.
• Density of traffic and rate of flow relate to traffic volume on roads.

Design Hourly Volume and Peak Hour Volume

• Design hourly volume estimates traffic volumes during busy hours for road design.
• Peak hour volume analyses traffic flow during busy periods and related factors including peak hour factors.
• Variance about space mean speed is a measure of vehicle speed variability.
• Spacing of vehicles reflects the distance between consecutive vehicles.