Journal of Urban Planning and Development

This article presents a land use and transport interaction model (LUTI model) to simulate the overall equilibrium of an urban system. The proposed system of integrated models combines random utility theory with hedonic regression techniques and a transport model with equilibrium between supply and demand to estimate the location of population, economic activities, and average real estate prices in different zones within an urban system. The LUTI model was applied to the metropolitan area of Santander (Spain) to check its base year goodness of fit and therefore its ability to predict the impacts of introducing different transport policies. In the case of Santander, the property price and population/economic activity location submodels showed sensitivity to the different accessibility and transport characteristics of each zone, and the model as a whole provided a good degree of fit.

Significant research has been conducted on how environmental attributes influence people’s decisions to walk. In much of this research, however, environmental attributes are averaged for neighborhoods or census geographies for sampled populations. Moreover, the effect of an agent’s walking choices on other actors is not adequately represented by either objective or perceived measures in the literature. Macro-level patterns of walkability arise from interactions across actors and urban environments. The agent-based approach allows for modeling individual uses of the environment by treating the populations as objects that can interact with the environment and other people. This study builds on previous research on pedestrian movement and geographic information system (GIS) measures of the built environment using the agent-based approach to explore the dynamics of the built environment and people’s decision-making processes concerning walking. The results show that models that take individual perspective into account and include social interaction can better capture characteristics of the built and social environment that influence people’s walking choices. This method lays out a new framework for assessing macro-level patterns of walkability across a city using micro-level data.

This paper evaluates the usefulness of the cumulative logistic regression model for estimating trip generation. The cumulative logistic regression model is a type of discrete choice model that estimates relationships between an ordered dependent variable, for example, person trip generation, and a set of independent variables, for example, household size, income, and workers. In addition to testing the model form, life cycle, area type, and accessibility variables are evaluated along with a set of widely used explanatory variables. A secondary focus of this paper is on the issue of temporal stability. Temporal stability is concerned with how models developed during one period of time transfer to a future period. The evaluation includes models based on widely used explanatory variables in addition to models supplemented with life cycle, area type, and accessibility variables to evaluate whether these variables result in improved stability. Analysis includes models estimated using 1995 survey data, applied using 2006 socioeconomic data, and evaluated against 2006 observed data. The results of this analysis show that cumulative logistic regression models are good candidate models for estimating trip generation and for improving the temporal stability of the model results. With respect to life cycle, area type, and accessibility, this research shows that there is benefit in including these variables to help explain trip making and to improve temporal stability.

Environmental issues are considered increasingly more important in the field of industrial production, especially in the early stages of the planning processes: Eco-industrial parks seem to be effective planning models to reduce environmental impact and to increase firm competitiveness at the same time. By describing the Raibano industrial area planning process, this paper investigates the opportunities offered by strategic environmental assessment as an effective and suitable method in developing real eco-industrial parks. The assessment procedure, also supported by some prediction models, has been implemented by considering the environmental effects generated by the industrial park development and use on every environmental component, and the consequent precondition, mitigation, and remediation measures. The illustrated case shows that the application of environmental assessment principles to an early decision-making level enables the enhancement of some key features of eco-industrial parks, such as the high degree of project preplanning and design and the presence of site management and monitoring mechanisms during its implementation, thus guaranteeing enough flexibility to give birth to spontaneous cooperation and exchanges between the industrial activities.

The operational functionality of the nation’s transportation network determines how efficiently the network moves goods and people from where they are to their destinations. The nation has needs for far more highways that it can afford to build. Currently, highway maintenance, including corrective maintenance and reconstruction, consumes most of the budget in many states. With the shortage of funds for adding capacity and new routes, it has become extremely important to preserve the functionality of existing highways at a high level through effective planning, operational and safety management, and proactive infrastructure maintenance. It is imperative that functionality is considered in all stages of a highway’s lifecycle and that functionality is protected, preserved, and where possible enhanced during the course of planning, operations, and maintenance. Recognizing that importance, the Texas DOT initiated a comprehensive research project to examine what losses to state highway functionality occur over time, the causes of those functionality reductions, and actions that can be taken to preserve, recover, and enhance functionality over time. This paper presents the findings of the research relevant to planning. The paper also presents two in-depth case studies through which the writers investigated in detail how the functionality of two major highways evolved. The products of the associated research and findings presented in this paper serve as valuable guidelines for state and local transportation agencies to select a proactive approach to preserve and enhance the functionality of the transportation system.

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential future use of road pricing for Athens, Greece. Road-pricing schemes are surveyed, focusing primarily on the European experience, and are used to contribute to the discussion regarding the possible future adoption of a road-pricing scheme in Athens, Greece. The main features and problems of the transportation landscape in Athens are outlined, and results from a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis are presented. The key issues, required conditions, and options associated with a possible future implementation of an urban road-pricing scheme in the Athens metropolitan area are presented. The analysis is validated through a series of face-to-face interviews that were undertaken with a panel of key experts. The selected parameters of possible future road-pricing schemes in Athens are simulated and various measures of effectiveness are collected and analyzed. Sensitivity analysis of the demand levels that would result from the deployment of the system is also performed, while the elasticities of the demand in response to the system are also calculated. The results indicate that while currently there are more direct instruments to address traffic congestion, in the future, urban tolls may provide a useful complementary tool toward a sustainable transportation system for Athens.

Xi’an, as a typical inland city in China with a worse integrated transport system, has promoted the use of metro service to ease serious traffic congestion. This paper uses a logistic regression model to examine mode shifts behavior for auto, taxi, bus, electric bicycle, and bicycle users after the implementation of metro service based on stated preference data. The results indicate that auto travelers located in suburban regions are more willing to shift to metro for work trips. Female taxi and auto users are more likely to use metro than males. Longer trips for taxi and electric bicycle travelers prefer to choose the newly introduced metro. Additionally, a preference survey on newly opened metro concluded that metro passengers that shift from auto mode may decrease 8 to 19% because of incomplete transfer facilities. Finally, it was found that the impacts on easing traffic congestion by a single metro corridor are not significant, and some parallel policies need to be adopted. Furthermore, these findings are more useful for developing cities lacking modal joint and integration.

This paper evaluates the physical characteristics, technical performance, and operational issues associated with bus rapid transit (BRT) systems implemented in 13 Chinese cities. BRT systems in China have shown medium performance; the peak ridership averaged $\mathrm{5,874}\text{passengers}/\mathrm{h}/\text{direction}$, and the peak hour speed averaged $20.2\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{h}$. Compared with Latin American BRT systems, Chinese BRT systems operate at a comparable speed but carry much fewer passengers. The empirical analysis of Chinese BRT systems implies that the technical performance of BRT is not significantly related with urban size. This paper gives some evidence that overtaking lanes and shared lanes have significant impacts on peak ridership and frequency, and long station-spacing has a positive impact on peak hour speed. Although BRT has become a viable option of transportation improvement, some notable disadvantages identified in Chinese BRT design and operation should be taken into consideration for improving BRT implementation.