Transportation Systems Issues & Challenges

Dr. TALEB M. AL-ROUSAN

Introduction The transportation system exist to meet

perceived social and economic needs. As changes occur to these needs and as the

transportation system evolves, situations arise is which transportation is regarded as a “PROBLEM” (i.e. being inadequate to serve the public interest or possibly threatening it).

These problem areas serve as challenges to the transportation engineering profession, posing both the threat of diminished public support and the opportunity to contribute to the solution of perceived social problems.

Challenges

1. Managing Traffic Congestion.2. Improving Traffic Safety.3. Providing Equal Access.4. Protecting the Environmental.5. Incorporating New Technology.6. Securing financial Resources.7. Developing Adequate Institutional

Arrangements

Traffic Congestion

Traffic congestion exist wherever demand exceeds the capacity of the transportation system.

Mostly in Urban highway system (on major freeways and at intersection on arterial streets.

Congested airspace at commercial airports, or some times congestion due to inadequate terminal facilities.

Congestion of facilities is rare for other modes. Overcrowding in individual vehicles is a

common problem for mass transit systems.

Managing Traffic Congestion/ Highways

Build more capacity (this approach is limited due to shortage of funds, lack of space, and environmental impacts).

Using the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): Automatic control of individual vehicles by reducing time gaps between vehicles in the traffic stream (i.e. increase capacity).

Improvement of traditional form of traffic controls (Timing and coordination of urban arterial signal system).

Better urban land use planning. Application of various economic incentives such as

congestion pricing (i.e. prices vary with the level of congestion).

Preferential parking for carpool. Special HOV facilities.

Managing Traffic Congestion/ Air Transportation

Airspace congestion can be solved by increasing airport capacity or relocating it (might be faced by lack of funds because of high cost or by political and environmental objections).

Controlling accessing to the congested airports.

Holding flights on the ground when the destination airport is congested.

Restructuring of the air traffic network (new hubs (airports with high concentration of transfer trips) are constructed by individual airlines).

Improving Traffic Safety Traffic accidents are of concern for all modes of

transportation, but are more visible in highways and commercial air.

Improvements of safety for all modes have taken place by observing the rate of accidents as a measure.

Rate of accidents decrease due to improvements highway design and maintenance, improved vehicle design, driver education and law enforcement activities.

Fatality rate for commercial aviation are very low compared to those for motor vehicles. But it varies from year to year since a single accident can make a big difference.

Frequent concerns about rail traffic safety especially where transportation of hazardous materials is involved.

Improving Traffic Safety Cont. Organizational responsibilities

USDOT include the following agencies involved is transportation safety issues : Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), Federal Railway Administration (FRA), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

NHTSA: carry out programs that focus on improvement of safety of vehicles, traffic safety, safety research and development, and collection of accident data.

NTSB: investigate selected accidents involving all transportation modes, identify safety problems, ..etc.

Legal concerns: increased legal liability for safety problems.

Improving Traffic Safety Cont.

Challenges: Public expectation of improving safety. Increased tendency of accidents as

congestion increase. Increased public impatience with

measures that may or may not improve safety but are seen as intruding on personal freedom.

Providing Equal Access Continuing challenge to provide adequate access to

the transportation system for all sorts of people. Groups of people underserved:

1. The poor (they are captive riders….used to count on mass transit but their numbers are declining because of increasing transit fares and increasing automobile ownership (old and unreliable, and air pollutant cars).

2. The elderly3. The physical handicapped.

Many of elderly and handicapped are unable to operate automobile and some barriers exist to use public transport by those whose physical ability is limited.

Providing Equal Access Cont. By law and guideline of ADAAG (The Americans with

Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines) all public transportation systems must be fully accessible to both wheelchair users and pedestrians.

This require installation of wheelchair lifts on public transit vehicles, provision of curb cuts and wheelchair ramps at intersections of streets with sidewalks, and provision of wheelchair access by means of ramps or elevators at facilities such as airports and rail transit stations.

Challenges: design and financing of accessibility features such as wheelchair ramps, financial challenge to provide wheelchair lifts on vehicles.

Protecting The Environment Environmental impacts and impact of

economic activities (land development) are the most important challenges to the transportation system.

Current approaches to deal with it: Broad national policies. Laws and Regulations. Economic incentives and disincentives. Specific laws aimed at particular impacts. Planning and documentation of environmental

impacts of specific transportation-related actions.

Environmental Impacts Large –scale impacts due to the system as a whole

(system-level impact ….most important): Air quality. Energy consumption. Land use.

Small-scale impacts due to specific transportation facilities and activities (Site-specific impacts): Displacement of residence and businesses due to

construction of transportation facilities. Noise. Impacts on wildlife. Impacts on water quality. Visual impacts. Temporary impacts during construction (noise, dust,

reduced water quality due to erosion of side slopes, etc.).

Environmental Impacts Cont. Impacts of constructing new transportation facilities in

environmentally sensitive areas: Areas that are habitats for threatened or endangered species. flood plains. Wetlands. Coastal zones. Prime agricultural lands. Historical or archeological sites. Wild or scenic rivers.

New land development is often seen as having an adverse impact on the transportation system by increasing the highway congestion.

Congestion is seen as negative impact (inconvenience to existing users, energy consumption, and air quality).

Environment Protection Measures

Site-specific impacts: Specific laws and regulations. Documenting environmental impacts by

preparing Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for any environmentally significant action taken by the government.

System-level impacts: Broad national-level laws and regulations

New Technology In the past, the introduction of new technology has often

had a revolutionary impact on transportation systems. Examples:

Steamship and railroad … early 19th century. Automobile…late 19th century. Airplane… early 20th century.

In these cases new types of physical facilities, control systems, and institutional systems all had to be devised to accommodate the new type of vehicles.

In addition to the revolution of the vehicular technology, innovations in system concepts (example: containerized freight shipping) has also led to changes in the operation of the system.

Challenge: Transportation technology continues to evolve, so that adjustment of the transportation system to new technology is needed.

New Technology Cont. In recent years the innovations in the vehicle technology is

quite. Last major change to achieve wide spread implementation

was the introduction of commercial jet aircraft in the late 1950s.

Attempts continue to develop high speed ground transportation.

The major technological development for the past 20 years was to take advantage of the rapid advances in electronic technology.

These technologies (known as ITS) include: Information processing. Communication Control systems

Involved parties: Government, business, academic, and research organizations.

New Technology Cont. Goals of ITS programs

Improve safety. Reduce congestion. Improve mobility and accessibility. Reduce the environmental impact of the transportation system

and increase energy efficiency. Improve economic productivity. Create a domestic ITS industry.

These goals can be achieved through: Improved traffic control systems. Improvements in the provision of information about the

transportation system to its users. Automation of administrative and regulatory functions. Improved systems for warning users to hazards. New vehicle control systems Other applications of electronic technology.

ITS Adopted Classifications ITS user Services:

Travel & transportation management. Travel demand management. Public transportation operations. Electronic payment services. Commercial vehicle operations. Emergency management. Advanced vehicle control and safety systems.

ITS functional systems groups Advanced traffic management systems (ATMS). Advanced traveler information system (ATIS). Advanced vehicle control system (AVCS).

New technology Cont. Major technical concern in the development

of ITS has been achieving compatibility among the various components of the system.

In many cases, ITS involves applications of components in environments that are different from those they were originally designed for.

As a result, problems in system integration arise due to lack of compatibility between various types of hardware, software, or combinations of hardware and software.

Funding Securing adequate financial resources is another

challenge facing both public agencies providing transportation facilities and for private-sector firms providing transportation services.

Public agencies lack support for not being considered priority, thus the major source of financing is fuel tax, fares, and tolls.

Fuel tax disadvantages as a revenue source: Fixed amount per gallon, thus no automatic

adjustment for inflation. Its revenue may be diminished by increased energy

efficiency and, since specific fuels are taxed, by use of alternative fuels.

Subjected to Vicissitudes of politics (i.e. Looked upon as convenient sources of revenue for non-transportation purposes.

Funding Cont. Private-sectors face difficulties in maintaining profitability

when transportation activities involves declining marginal costs.

In case of scheduled transportation services, the cost of carrying an additional passenger or ton may be very low and may decrease with the volume of traffic, therefore transportation firms tend to practice price-discrimination (Charge different prices to different customers)

Challenges to transportation funding include: Controlling construction and operating cost. Securing public support for adequate levels of user charges and

for spending them. Maintaining proper balance between public interest and profits in

provision of privatized facilities and services. Providing regulatory environment in which transportation firms

can compete while still maintaining profitability.

Institutional Arrangement New institutional arrangements have come about as a

response of perceived deficiencies in the existing system , and were imposed by legislators or government and in many cases they have been resisted by established institutions.

Areas of institutional change: Adjustment to the relation between the public and

the private sectors. Attempts to overcome modal and jurisdictional

fragmentation.

The challenge is to overcome jurisdictional fragmentation in traffic control, data management, information services, and other areas affected by the ITS initiatives.