Transport problems that matter - social and psychological links to transport disadvantage

This paper presents an analysis exploring self-reported measures of transport disadvantage and how these relate to social exclusion and well-being in Melbourne, Australia. A sample of 535 individuals sourced from a household survey explores ratings of 18 types of transport problems. The questionnaire also measured social exclusion represented in five dimensions including income, unemployment, political engagement, participation in activities and social support networks. Well-being was also measured adopting standard psychological measures of ‘Satisfaction with Life’, ‘Personal Well-being Index,’ ‘Positive Affect’ and ‘Negative Affect’.A factor analysis of self-reported transport difficulties identified four statistically significant sub-scales (‘transport disadvantage’, ‘transit disadvantage’, ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ and ‘rely on others’) which together account for 57% of the variance in the responses.Analysis established that those with high self-reported transport problems were more likely to be located in fringe and remote parts of the city and lived in areas where it was not possible to walk to a local shop. However all groups made an average number of trips per day (except the ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ group which make fewer trips) suggesting that self-reported transport disadvantage is unrelated to realised mobility. Analysis further established that only the ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ group was associated with social exclusion and that they also had the lowest values of well-being compared to other groups.Overall findings confirm the methodological concerns associated with the use of self-reported measures of transport problems as a basis for defining transport disadvantage. The majority of those with high self-reported transport problems did not travel less than the survey sample as a whole and they were not associated with social exclusion. However the ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ group was the exception, displaying a significantly higher association with social exclusion and lower well-being.The findings suggest which aspects of transport disadvantage are likely to be of greater concern for social policy. A concentration of research and policy on issues and social groups associated with the ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ factor would be more effective in reducing social exclusion. Transport problems associated with this group including physical access to transport, knowing where to go and feeling safe from theft or attack when travelling may deserve higher priorities for attention. In addition those associated with the ‘Vulnerable/Impaired’ factor including older retired females and those who are more likely to be looking after someone with an illness or disability are clearly a high risk group and should warrant positive discrimination in transport and social policy.     

Route choice and residential environment: introducing liveability requirements in navigation systems in Flanders

Vehicle route planning and navigation systems aim to provide the most beneficial routes to their users while disregarding the impact on the liveability of the surrounding residential areas. Therefore, future integration of route choice behaviour by route planners and measures to improve liveability and safety standards should be pursued. The Spatial Plan for Flanders, which is the overarching spatial policy plan in the northern part of Belgium, determines a system of road categories aimed at optimising the liveability of sensitive areas, such as residential neighbourhoods or school precincts, without jeopardizing accessibility. This paper examines to what extent routes proposed by commercial route planners differ from more socially desirable routes that are guided by the policy principles of road categorisation in Flanders as proposed by the plan. Results show that commercial route-planners’ routes choose more often roads of the lowest category than socially acceptable. However, for some of the assessed connections, the socially desired alternative is a feasible route as well, which is not excessively increasing time consumption or distance travelled. It is concluded that the implementation of the prevailing road categorisation system in Flanders in routing algorithms has the potential to promote more sustainable route choices, while infrastructural measures that discourage cut-through traffic may help materialising the categorisation system.     

The potential of horizontal collaboration in airport ground freight services

Since the global economic crisis of 2007–2011, the increasingly dynamic and challenging air cargo market in Europe has forced freight forwarders to improve their performance. In addition to improving their internal transport efficiency, they have also started to look at previously unexplored opportunities for horizontal collaboration in landside airport transport. The aim of this study is to reveal the potential of air cargo transport collaboration on a horizontal level, i.e. between multiple freight forwarders within a single airport. Reviewing existing literature on horizontal collaboration, with a focus on the air cargo industry, we propose a conceptual framework for transport collaboration in the air cargo industry. Based on a comprehensive study on air cargo transport movements within Schiphol, using a simulation model based on company data of 10,747 shipments (6977 tons of cargo) for a period of 30 days, we find several interesting results. Our main finding is that horizontal collaboration can improve the transport performance, by maintaining a high frequency of transport movements and maintaining an acceptable throughput time for air cargo shipments, and at the same time reduce transport costs by up to 40%. For smaller freight forwarders, the frequency of transport deliveries can even increase, while still allowing them to improve the average load factor of transport movements.     

Transport corridors and regional balance in China: the case of coal trade and logistics

Coal plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of China. Yet, the spatial mismatch between production centers (inland Northwest) and consumption centers (coastal region) within China fostered the emergence of dedicated coal transport corridors with limited alternatives. Serious problems of energy shortage and power rationing have already affected southeastern China. At the same time, enormous interregional coal transfers face a lack of transport capacity along the transport system. Based on first-hand statistics, a disaggregated analysis of coal distribution patterns since the late 1970s provides novel evidences about the local effects of macroscopic trends, such as the shift from dominant exports to dominant imports in terms of changing traffic concentration levels and distribution patterns among routes and ports. The spatial evolution of coal distribution is also discussed in terms of related industry linkages and local influences, coal trade policies and market pricing, port system evolution, and transport network planning. The paper also discusses possible improvements of the current situation through enhancing multimodal transport based on a review of current policies.     

Transport and rural development in Nigeria

This paper examines the road transport programmes of Nigeria's Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) in terms of its expectations and achievements since its inception in 1986 and their general effects on rural development. The analysis shows that, although the Directorate has achieved about 55% of its targeted road programmes, wide variations exist among the states, ranging from 14% to 79%. Nevertheless the construction and/or rehabilitation of about 61 000 kilometres of roads since 1986 has stepped up the production capacity of Nigerian farmers and has opened up several agricultural lands and increased overall accessibility in the country.     

东亚产业内贸易与东亚国际生产分工网络浅析——以机械类产品为例

本文以我国与东亚国家机械类产品（SITC7）产业内贸易为例，首先说明了SITC7在我国与东亚国家贸易中的重要地位及其产业内贸易水平，接着从FDI、零部件贸易和公司内贸易三大方面阐述了东亚产业内贸易的内在机制——东亚国际生产分工网络。同时，我国的加工贸易和“三资企业”也对产业内贸易起到了极大的促进作用。     

Zonal method for urban travel surveys: sustainability and sample distance from the CBD

This paper details a method of surveying the travel behaviour and values of households within inner, middle and outer urban zones. This survey of 400 households in two North Queensland (Australia) cities provides details of 3500 urban trips, travel modes and choices linked to household location. Stratified sampling based on distance from the Central Business District shows pronounced methodological advantages. This simple and effective method shows that outer urban dwellers used about three times the amount of fuel as their more central counterparts, placing them at the vanguard of unsustainable urban travel, a great challenge for policy, developers and city planners.     

Scatters and clusters in time and space: implications for delivering integrated and inclusive transport

This paper calls for a refinement in the literature on social exclusion/inclusion, and an alteration in the counterpart policy practices, in order to take account of ‘scatter’ and ‘cluster’ dimensions in the patterning of transport deprivation. Disaggregating social exclusion and inclusion data to enable the identification of scatters and clusters is key to the development of appropriate transport planning strategies. The degree to which lack of mobility is scattered or clustered can have profound implications for the ways in which time and space are treated by policy.     

Transportation and The International Trade of Eastern and Southern Africa

We use new data on transportation to determine its effect on the international trade of eastern and southern Africa (ESA). The effects were estimated with gravity models using alternative techniques to check for robustness. Freight forwarders provided information on freight charges (price), average duration of shipment (time) and variability in time. The new transportation variables and the more commonly used distance variable appear to have smaller effects overall than some previous research indicated, although our distance coefficient is identical to that of Coulibaly and Fotagné for West Africa. In contrast to other research critical of distance as a proxy for transport impediments, we find similar effects from distance and our measure of transport time, but both of these variables have significantly larger coefficients than price and variability. Landlocked ESA countries are twice as dependent on trade as the whole region after accounting for control variables, but they are not significantly more affected by changes in price and time, and they are less affected by distance and variability. The relative size of the time coefficients suggests that measures to lessen delays in shipping, for instance, faster border clearance, might encourage more trade than cost cutting measures that lowered price proportionately.