Help with Transportation Project

[Canada_Line]

I'm doing a project on Transportation Planning. This project will be mainly focused around the Metro Vancouver Area. I would like to cover the stages of transportation planning (research, planning (decision making) and implementation) and the different modes of transportation (where each is useful). Lastly, I would like to explore the questiion "How can we make our transportation system more efficient?"

I've been trying to find books on this, but I can't find any good ones. The "Why won't Vancouverites take transit" thread (along with many others) helped a lot, but I still need more info. It would be appreciated if you can help guide me through this project. (ie recommend books, websites, provide info, explain) (I've asked here because there seems to be a number of transportation experts here.)

Please note that this project is a general one as of now but it will get more in depth every year.

Sorry if this doesn't fit into the Transportation and Infrastructure section, please help me move it to a more suitable section if this is the case.

[flight_from_kamakura]

personally, i don't feel too much like going through everything, and anyway, i probably don't know enough to really provide much in the way of insight. but here are four things you can do that will probably get you most of the way to where you want to be.

1) talk with the resident transport expert in the economics department at your school. want to know how decisions are made? feel you don't know enough about valuation schemes in the transport sector? want to get a reading list? s/he will be well positioned to get you what you need, should s/he be inclined.

2) immerse yourself in some of the more interesting scholarly discussions in the north american context (good starting places: 'journal of transportation and statistics', 'journal of public transportation', etc.) and some of the better industry/general audience stuff ('innovative briefs' and 'american journal of transportation' are good ones). for specifically canadian content, the transportation association of canada has a number of journals, and you'll do well with a transport index search via your school library (or maybe even vpl?).

3) i've found that a lot of the best stuff on transport in canadian cities is to be found in m.a. theses and doctoral dissertations. thesis canada has really useful searchable online database (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/t.../s4-230-e.html) as do most universities. here's another helpful tool in this domain - http://www.mcgill.ca/library-findinfo/ref/s-z/theses/ ...and i bet ubc and sfu (not to mention u of t) have similar pages...

4) once you have a basic framework - i.e. once you know what you're looking for, and what it will mean when you find it, dig through translink's archives and request offline planning documents pertaining to ridership calculus, public consultation, strategic plan development and elaboration, etc. they'll give it to you if you ask.

good luck! hopefully you'll share the fruits of your research!

[Canada_Line]

Wow! Thanks for your response...but, I never planned on going that in-depth with this (for now). Perhaps I might consider doing this next year. For now, I would like to just focus on the more general facts about transportation planning...if that's possible?

Please be informed that I'm only in high school..

Could you please give me a reading list of books and websites? Thanks!

[SFUVancouver]

Canada Line, is there a specific area of transportation planning you are focusing on? That would help me and others focus in on some recommendations.

Some good general purpose sources:

Metro Vancouver's 'key facts' webpage: http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/keyfacts.htm
Metro Vancouver's Transit Ridership 1989-2007: http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/growth/keyfacts/transit.htm

Translink's Area Transit Plans: http://www.translink.bc.ca/Plans_Pro...it/default.asp
Translink's Public Consultation Page (includes oodles of information about the various plans): http://www.translink.bc.ca/Plans/Pub...on/default.asp
Translink's 2008 Transit Plan: http://www.translink.bc.ca/files/pdf...nspFinPlan.pdf
Translink's 2007 Transit Plan: http://www.translink.bc.ca/files/pdf...Trans_Plan.pdf
Translink's 2005-2007 Strategic Transit Plan: http://www.translink.bc.ca/files/pdf...7Strategic.pdf

Provincial Transit Plan: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/Transit_Plan/index.html

[officedweller]

On the technical side, see this document:

Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 2nd Edition


http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2326

[Canada_Line]

Well, I'm a newbie at this, so I don't really know all the different areas of transportation planning.

But, I would guess that my area of focus would be around the decision making stage. (after all the studies have been conducted) I would like to mainly research about route alignment and choosing the proper mode of transportation to meet demand.

However, I would still like to research a little on the pre-planning portion. (studies, ridership trends, etc.)

Lastly, I also would like to briefly touch upon all of the other parts of transportation planning.

It would be appreciated if you could provide me with a list of the different areas regarding transportation planning that I could research on.

Thanks for helping me.

[Lee_Haber8]

I think something to consider when trying to make transportation more efficient is that information is critical. People will make efficient and sustainable choices once they have information that shows them accurately each transportation mode and the true costs associated with each one. Information is critical for innovation.

In the market, this information is shown through price. Unfortunately, in transportation there are so many distortions in the forms of subsidies, regulations and externalities that prevent a marketplace from existing. This is big reason why I think transportation has stagnated and even gone backwards.

Take subsidies for instance: drivers are subsidized since everyone bears the burden of road maintenance through property taxes. That means if I walk, bike or take transit I am subsidizing the person who commutes by car from 30 km out of town. It is no surprise that we have so many cars and so much sprawl.

Having road-users pay for roads would eliminate this problem. Until recently, this was impractical as tolling could only be done with physical booths. The best way would be for cars to pay for roads based on how much they drive, when they drive and where they drive using GPS. A Toronto based company Skymeter (www.skymetercorp.com) has developed this technology which accurately records a vehicle's movements later used for billing.

Sorry, this is probably a bit too abstract

Once this subsidy is removed, public transit would also no longer need to be subsidized and could even be privatized. With deregulation, you could have a competitive transport marketplace filled with bike-share, jitney-service, car-share and competing mass-transit systems similar to what exists already in Asia. More environmentally-friendly technology would be encouraged by requiring users to pay for credits or taxes on pollution measured by exhaust sensors.


The point I'm trying to make is I don't think any of us really can say what an ideal transportation network for Vancouver is. I have an idea what it may look like: there will probably be a lot more rapid transit and walkable neighborhoods, but, it is impossible for me or anyone else, to have complete knowledge of what transportation choice is best for every individual. The market should decide.

[Kwik-E-Mart]

delete

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by officedweller

On the technical side, see this document:

Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 2nd Edition


http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2326

this is a *really* good source.

[GMasterAres]

Nothing beats real life experience. I would suggest in addition to looking up the sources provided above, that you get into contact with people working in the transportation business specifically and get their experience. From a transportation planner for a local city such as Vancouver, Burnaby, or Surrey, to the odd bus driver or Translink worker, if you really want well rounded perspective based knowledge of transportation, you have to mix theory with practice, highest planner with basic user.

I find in business that a lot of times the people that draw up fancy reports or get paid the big money to make all the decisions, forget what it's like to be just a regular Joe riding the skytrain to work every day. That regular Joe often has some very key insight into the transportation situation that would benefit higher up people in their decision making if they listened.

[Canada_Line]

Thanks!

but the link on http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2326 got changed.
I can't access it anymore.
That was quite helpful. I was looking for more onto the decision making process though. It would be great if anyone could provide me with a book/website that talks gennerally about the decision making process.

Thanks to all of you for helping me!

[Canada_Line]

so, could it be possible that you recommend me something to read?

[flight_from_kamakura]

dude, there's so much out there, if you're up on your choice modeling enough to get it, this is a good old paper with essential info on vancouver's transportation model:

http://www.inro.ca/en/pres_pap/inter...98/msword5.pdf

and if you really know your economics, here's a pretty good page for you with a few years of relevant work by ubc folks:

http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/AM/Template...CONTENTID=2078

but if you're in high school, just stick with the tcqs manual that officedweller linked to; here's a zipped up copy of that one:

http://www.mediafire.com/?iyodxtdxisa