The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland

The dry port concept is based on a seaport directly connected by rail with inland intermodal terminals where containers can be dealt with in the same way as if they were in a seaport. The main purpose of the article is to extend the theory behind the dry port concept and to define three dry port categories; distant, midrange and close. The findings show that the dry port concept can help identify ways of shifting freight volumes from road to more energy efficient traffic modes that are less harmful to the environment, relieve seaport cities from some congestion and facilitate improved logistics solutions for shippers in the port’s hinterland.     

Synchromodal hinterland freight transport: Model study for the port of Rotterdam

This paper develops a model that enables comparative analysis of intermodal and synchromodal operations from economic, societal, and environmental perspectives. The model captures relevant (day-to-day and within-day) dynamics in freight transport demand and supply, flexible multimodal routing with transfers and transhipments. The capacitated schedule-based assignment algorithm operating specifically at path level allows strategic modelling and evaluation accounting for the freight transport system at operational level. The Rotterdam hinterland container transport case study shows that synchromodal system is likely to improve transport service level, capacity utilization, and modal shift, but not to reduce delivery costs.     

Equity in job accessibility and environmental quality in a segmented housing market: The case of Greater London

Job accessibility and environmental quality are rarely equally distributed in spatial and/or social dimensions within metropolitan regions. Availability of these affects the quality of residential locations, and can be expected to be capitalised into house prices. For prospective house owners, their options will be limited to sub housing markets within certain price bands depending on their available housing budgets. Availability and marginal prices of job accessibility and environmental quality, as well as trade-offs between them, might be different between these submarkets. Using Greater London as the case metropolitan region, this study explored such differences, to shed light on the role of housing market in equity and/or inequity in job accessibility, environmental quality and their interactions. Results of this study show that lower-price submarkets have advantages in job accessibility in terms of marginal price, but are disadvantaged in terms of availability. Differences are more mixed in marginal price and availability between the submarkets for environmental quality. When balancing job accessibility and environmental quality within constrained housing budgets, households in lower-price submarkets would find it relatively easier to gain job accessibility with less sacrifice on environmental quality as compared to those searching in higher-price submarkets, but hard to reach the higher levels of job accessibility that are mainly reserved for the higher-price submarkets.     

Measuring non-motorized accessibility: issues,alternatives, and execution

While the transportation planning literature contains many examples of the calculation of measures of accessibility for urban areas, these measures are largely restricted to motorized modes and to a handful of destination activities. This paper explores the issues related to the development of accessibility measures for non-motorized modes, namely bicycling and walking. We note that difficulties in calculating accessibility measures arise primarily from problems with data quality, the zonal structure of transportation planning models, and the adequacy of models and travel networks for describing and predicting travel by non-motorized modes. We present practical strategies for addressing these issues. The application of these methods is illustrated with the calculation of accessibility measures for a small study area in Minneapolis, MN (USA). The paper concludes with some direction for future development of non-motorized accessibility measures and ideas about their applicability to the practice of transportation planning.     

The impact of orbital motorways on intra-metropolitan accessibility: the case of Madrid's M-40

In this paper, we analyze the impact of orbital motorways on intra-metropolitan accessibility, using as an example the Madrid M-40 orbital motorway. The maps of changes in accessibility show that, as one might expect, the nodes situated near the M-40 are those that most benefit from the new infrastructure and that the further their distance from the M-40, the weaker the changes, although the gradient is much steeper towards the city centre than towards the exterior. All the indicators used point to the fact that the new orbital motorway has brought about relevant changes, but the intensity with which such changes are registered depends on the variable used as a mass (changes are higher in accessibility to population indicators than in accessibility to employment indicators), and on the type of operationalization adopted (the most complex ones are those which least noticeably reflect the effect of the new orbital motorway). It has been verified, in the case of the Madrid M-40, that orbital motorways do not necessarily lead to an increase in the equality of intra-metropolitan accessibility, for this will depend on their location within the metropolitan area: the further out they are, the greater equality they bring, even though they attract less traffic.     

Preliminary investigation of waterfront redevelopment in Chinese coastal port cities: the case of the eastern Dalian port areas

Since the turn of the millennium, waterfront redevelopment has been a new phenomenon in the coastal port cities of China and has become an important component of a global wave. In the context of urbanisation and globalisation, waterfront redevelopment provides not only various opportunities but also unprecedented challenges for the Chinese port cities. From a sustainability perspective, addressing the challenges requires thoroughly analysing the factors driving waterfront redevelopment and discovering the issues facing those coastal port cities. After reviewing the historical process of port development, based on the case of the eastern Dalian port areas, this paper attempts to explore the key factors behind the redevelopment and to discover the main issues facing Dalian cityport. The results show that forces at the global, national and local levels jointly drive redevelopment activities and that some national factors, such as aggressive real estate development in the past decade, play a remarkable role in this phenomenon. Consequently, timing on redevelopment, historic building conservation, reconnection of the waterfront to the city, and building a democratic decision-making process together challenge the sustainable future of redeveloped waterfronts in Dalian cityport and in other historic port cities in China.     

Twenty years of accessibility improvements. The case of the Spanish motorway building programme

This paper presents an exploratory spatial data analysis of accessibility impacts of a large-scale national motorway building programme. Accessibility is calculated for Spanish municipalities from 1980 to 2000 using two indicators: motorway network access and market potential accessibility. The average distance from municipalities to their nearest motorway has been reduced markedly over this period. Market potential accessibility maps show that there have been gains in all locations, but some of the highest gains occurred in some of the more peripheral regions. A review of the theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impacts of transport investments indicates important implications for regional development.     

Measuring the quality of hospitality at Antalya

Tourism has become an important pillar of the Turkish economy. Therefore, service quality of the catering sector deserves and attracts attention. This paper employs data envelopment analysis (DEA), a linear programming method, to gauge the validity of official quality ratings at Antalya, a major seaside resort. This benchmarking‐based technique is applied to standardise the ‘starring’ system used by regulators and rating agencies. This is done by using efficiency scores generated by the DEA technique. Such standardisation helps tourists and tour operators. In addition, a second‐stage Tobit regression identifies the causes of inefficiency, and the managerial implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring accessibility to health care services for older bus passengers: A finer spatial resolution

Health care accessibility is a vital indicator for evaluating areas where there are medical shortages. However, due to the lack of population data with a satisfactory spatial resolution, efforts to accurately measure health care accessibility among older individuals have been hampered to some extent. To address this issue, we attempt to measure accessibility to health care services for older bus passengers in Nanjing, China, using a finer spatial resolution. More specifically, based on one month's worth of bus smart card data, a framework for identifying the home stations (i.e., a passenger's preferred station near their residence) of older passengers is developed to measure the aggregate demand at the bus stop scale. On this basis, a measurement that integrates the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) and the adjusted 2SFCA methods (referred to as the adjusted Gaussian 2SFCA method) is proposed to measure accessibility to health care services for older people. The results show that: (1) almost all home stations experience inflated demand, especially those located in the suburbs; (2) despite abundant health care resources, home stations in urban districts are rarely identified as high accessibility stations, due to high demand densities among the older population; and (3) more attention should be paid to two types of home stations – those with a medical institution and those with bed shortages, respectively. The first type is predominantly distributed in the periphery of the city, in the suburbs where the travel time required to access the nearest health care service by bus is longer. The second type is mostly located in the outskirts of urban districts and in the central area of one suburb. These findings could help policy makers to implement more appropriate measures to design and reallocate health care resources.     

Measuring airport service quality: A multidimensional approach

Currently, airports are expected to be operated as self-sufficient service organizations providing efficient and high-quality services to a variety of customers. In this context, improving airport service quality (ASQ) has become paramount. However, due to the complexity of the airport service environment, an effective process of measuring and analyzing passenger perceptions of ASQ is not easily achieved. Generic scales for perceived service quality might not cover some particularities of the passenger–airport interaction. Furthermore, while some measurement practices have been developed within the airport industry, there has been only limited consideration for validity and reliability. These concerns are certainly relevant to avoid misinterpreting passenger perceptions. In view of these concerns, this paper has a twofold objective. First, to fit a measurement model for perceived ASQ built on typical service measures within the airport industry. Second, to test for the model's equivalence across groups of passengers. Sample data from an extensive survey applied at a major Brazilian airport was used for confirmatory factor analysis. The results suggested that a six-factor structure provides a meaningful multi-item measurement model for perceived ASQ. The model was validated for international and domestic departing passengers with respect to its factorial structure and metric invariance. The proposed measurement model could be considered an alternative for a multidimensional approach in the context of airport performance measurement regarding service quality. Finally, the findings from this research might contribute to the discussion on passenger perceptions of ASQ, particularly concerning its multidimensionality and the need to review current practices for ASQ analysis.     

Spatial analysis of access to and accessibility surrounding train stations: a case study of accessibility for the elderly in Perth,Western Australia

Approximately one-fifth of Perth’s population is aged 60 or older. Projections suggest that this proportion will continue to increase as a result of the large number of children born after the World War II (1946–1964). Access to and accessibility around train stations for the aging population is and will become a more important issue as the elderly population continues to grow. The aim of the paper is to develop and apply a new measure of accessibility to train stations at a fine spatial scale, justified by the special circumstance of the elderly using a case study in Perth, Western Australia. Intercept surveys are used to collect data on factors affecting train station accessibility for patrons aged 60 years or older, at seven highly dispersed train stations. Overall accessibility is measured separately using a composite index based on three travel modes (walk-and-ride, park-and-ride and bus-and-ride). The results illustrate that key variables, such as distance from an origin to a station, walking or driving route directness, land-use diversity, service and facility quality, bus connection to train stations, all affect the accessibility to train stations for the elderly. This implies that improvements to these factors will improve accessibility for this population group.     

The impact of container terminal relocation on hinterland geography

This paper presents a mathematical model for calculating the generalized costs resulting from the transportation of containers from multiple locations in a geographical region to different container terminals serving this region. The generalized costs are calculated using a road and rail transport network model, enabling potential hinterlands of terminals in close competition to be delimited, rather than port hinterlands as is more common in the literature. The mathematical model is used in a case study on the consequences of building a new terminal in the port of Lisbon and closing down an existing terminal, implying a terminal relocation between river banks. The model shows that this relocation has significant implications in the delimitation of container terminal potential hinterlands across southern Portugal. Conclusions and policy recommendations regarding the consequences of such relocation are given in terms of relative competitiveness of the different terminals and suitability of the relocation.     

Road accessibility and articulation of metropolitan spatial structures: the case of Madrid (Spain)

In the last few decades, rapid growth in mobility has facilitated the inclusion of distant places in metropolitan processes and the modification of traditional metropolitan areas into Polycentric Urban Regions. This paper aims to understand the articulation of metropolitan urban regions through a diachronic road network accessibility analysis with a focus on the Madrid Metropolitan Region (Spain) over a period of general increase in accessibility. The findings reveal that the metropolitan core has been reinforced and that its influence area has expanded. However, the main contribution of this work is the proposal of a methodological approach to identify city-profiles among the sub-centres organising the emerging polycentric urban structures.     

Measuring traveler involvement in urban public transport services: The case of Kaohsiung

The city of Kaohsiung has been urgently reducing its rates of ownership and usage of privately owned motor vehicles. The most important strategy undertaken thus far has been to build mass rapid transit systems. This study aims to apply the Involvement Theory to construct an inventory to measure level of travelers’ involvement in public transport services. The results indicate that the number of low involvement travelers is the critical factor that determines whether the new public transport system can effectively operate. They also provide authorities with precise marketing strategies targeting different groups in order to allow the new public transport systems to sufficiently meet public needs.     

Planning for sustainable accessibility: The implementation challenge

The ‘Network City’ planning strategy espouses sustainable accessibility. The aim is to re-orient the existing urban structure by focussing development at places with high accessibility in order to support an effective public and private transport system. The implementation phase calls for changes to planning practices: the need for public transport planning and development change to be mutually supportive; the need for road network planning and road design to place land use-transport integration as the core objective rather than traffic efficiency and for the need to stage development according to planned population and employment targets. This must take place within a new participatory approach. All this requires planners to gain new skills. To achieve this the system of planning must remain strong.     

Impacts of high-speed rail on the inequality of intercity accessibility: A case study of Liaoning Province,China

The rapid development of Chinese high-speed rail (HSR) not only improves the convenience of daily transportation, but also promotes the regional economy of cities along the HSR lines. Accessibility improvement and spatial inequality reduction caused by HSR would play a positive role in transportation development projects appraisal and help achieve the regional coordinated development. Our purpose is to assess how much improvement of economic potential accessibility can each city get from the HSR based on the existing highway and HSR networks, as well as the changes in spatial disparity and accessibility distribution patterns. Taking Liaoning Province as a case, this paper studies the spatial pattern and inequality of accessibility in two intercity transportation scenarios using a gravity-based model. The sensitivity analysis of the parameter and the test of different mass indicators are also conducted. The results show that cities in the central areas have better accessibility than peripheral areas. Cities in the peripheral areas and near the HSR lines tend to benefit more from HSR. The inequality of accessibility decreases a lot in cities with HSR access but only has a minor reduction on a whole scale.     

Public transit accessibility approach to understand the equity for public healthcare services: A case study of Greater Mumbai

Urban public health is one of the most critical yet neglected aspects of urban planning in developing countries such as India. Inequity in access to government healthcare facilities affects the overall urban population and can substantially negatively impact the vulnerable population, who mostly rely on government healthcare services. In this paper, the accessibility measure for healthcare services by public transport is developed using travel time and the number of transit stops (accounting for transit connectivity) for Greater Mumbai. We also identified socially vulnerable wards (administrative units) using a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), developed based on 16 indicators using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Developed regression models showed that the proposed accessibility measure explains the coverage and usage of healthcare services better than the traditional accessibility measure, which is based on only aggregate level travel time impedances. South Mumbai has relatively better accessibility for public hospitals and dispensaries, whereas, lower level of accessibility is observed in the eastern part for public healthcare services. Assessment for the spatial inequity based on the Gini index, bivariate Moran's I, and mean access value reveals a higher degree of spatial inequity for accessing government hospitals for the slum population. The study developed a decision framework to suggest effective policy measures, which can be prioritised based on SVI to reduce the disparity in the spatial distribution of accessibility to government healthcare systems for vulnerable groups. Our findings can aid transportation and urban planners, health researchers, and policymakers to improve accessibility in under-served areas and give special attention to the needs of the vulnerable population.     

Building a bridge between port and city: Improving the urban competitiveness of port cities

Historically, ports have been an important location factor for cities, enabling international trade and investment and facilitating urbanization processes. However, the traditionally strong relationship between ports and port cities has gradually weakened due to the emerging negative externalities of ports. Therefore, port-city municipalities need to better understand the relationship between port activities, urban competitiveness, and the attraction of investment. This paper uses the Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) and related regression models to test this relationship as well as identify the determinants of urban competitiveness. The results show that despite the positive relationship between port and urban networks, port cities currently exhibit no significant advantages over non-port cities in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); in addition, port-city competitiveness depends more on urban characteristics than on port factors. Based on these results, we propose various strategies for port-city developments.