Journal of Urban Planning and Development

The sequential travel forecasting procedure is widely accepted without question by transportation planners, yet its origins are obscure, its effects on practice and research may well be negative, and by focusing attention on individual steps, it tends to impede overall progress in improving forecasting methods. Alternatives to the sequential procedure proposed by researchers over the past 30 years are examined, and recent advances are presented. A call for a new travel forecasting paradigm concludes the paper.

Urban governments show considerable interest in formulating policies for a more sustainable transportation sector. In Australia, despite the Commonwealth Government Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Transport Working Group making over 40 recommendations for more sustainable urban transportation a decade ago, a recent Institution of Engineers Australia, Transport Panel found little progress with transportation indicators of sustainability and appropriate analytical techniques. A review of the international literature is made to determine definitions of a sustainable urban transportation and land use system, and objectives that would form the basis for determining suitable indicators of performance. Drawing on hierarchical diagrams from decision theory, we show the link between higher-level policy objectives for sustainability and lower-order actions, measurable attributes, and performance indicators. The analytical framework for sustainable urban transportation analysis includes descriptive statistics—exploratory and graphical methods, spatial mapping, spatial statistics (to identify geographical patterns and to identify outliers in the data), regression analysis, travel preference functions based on Stouffer’s intervening opportunity model, and linear programming. These analytical techniques are illustrated with examples of travel and urban form in Sydney using data from the Census of Population and Housing, 1961–1996. The need for geographically based indicators and transportation and land use policies is emphasized.

This paper adopts the World Bank’s 1996 definition of sustainable transportation and attempts to identify ways of improving the urban transportation planning process and methodology. After a literature review of related studies conducted in different parts of the world over the past decade or so, the major theoretical and methodological advances in stated preference (SP) surveys are summarized. Then, the paper continues to suggest ways of how SP techniques can be used side-by-side with the traditional four-stage transportation planning model. Lastly, it concludes with some future directions of change if these useful techniques are to play a more important role in planning for sustainable urban transportation.

A transit operational planning process includes four basic components performed usually in sequence: (1) network route design; (2) setting timetables; (3) scheduling vehicles to trips; and (4) assignment of drivers. This planning process is extremely cumbersome and complex and often creates confusion in its interrelationships among researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this work is to construct a framework and to provide an overview and examples of certain practical methodologies aimed at solving the transit scheduling problems. In the past 20 years, a considerable amount of effort has been invested in the computerization of the four components mentioned above. This is in order to provide more efficient, controllable, and responsive schedules. Nonetheless, despite the software used, no system is yet able to solve large scheduling problems, and manual intervention is necessary. There is a need to bridge the gap between the software system designers and the transit schedulers via the identification and organization of all the elements involved, including the current availability of data. This work emphasizes certain data needs along with examples for crystallizing and clarifying the transit scheduling undertaking. It is suggested that most of the scheduling tasks can be performed automatically, but it is preferable to undertake some of them through a conversational man-computer mode.