Transportation

Question 1

Discuss the major transportation problems that exist in many urban areas and critically assess the various attempts used by policy makers to address those problems.

Answer 1

• Urban form heavily shaped by automobile usage (e.g. most houses built with garage space), along with lowered funding for transit -> low transit usage inevitable
• Traffic congestion (reduces efficiency); 50s + 60s approach is to build bigger expressways (e.g. many of the highways in toronto)
• Crowding on public transit; concentrated at rush hours; lack of investment
• Off-peak inadequacy of public transit -> one could argue those who are most in need
• Non-pedestrian friendly - automobile ownershiip less of a choice
• Environmental impact of excessive car usage
• Public health + accidents (carcinogens, obesity, road fatalities)
• Parking difficulties (a lot of space is required)
• Canada: relatively car-centric; most cities no transit; auto congestion major problem even in cities with transit
• Three appoaches of fixes: supply fix, management fix, and work schedule fix

Question 2

Down’s Law

Answer 2

Improvements in road networks will not improve traffic congestion as expanded capacity will be filled again as transit becomes underfunded/less convenient

Question 3

Transportation-Activity System

Answer 3

The idea that the linkage must recognize the two points it’s connecting, the surrounding activities, and the people it’s serving (e.g. why would people use the linkage?)

Question 4

Supply Fix Transportation Policy

Answer 4

• Aims at building more infrastructure (e.g. expressways in 50s + 60s)
• Curse of Down’s Law
• Resulting in underfunding of transit (e.g. TTC largely self-financed from revenue, not from funding)
• Also tackles transit affordability + efficiency (low fares, enough vehicles, appropriate routes, one ticket system) (e.g. Presto)

Question 5

Three types of transportation fixes

Answer 5

Supply Fix, better Transportation Systems Management, and indirect fix via Non-Transportatin Initiatives

Question 6

Transportatin Systems Management

Answer 6

-Approach emerged in 70s
-Seeks to increase efficiency and capcity of existing networks with minimal physical change
-Makes heavy use of ICT (e.g. realtime monitoring software)
-Other ex: tolls (price usage, e.g. London congestion charge),
auto restraint (Barcelona “super blocks”), shared economy (Uber Lyft)

Question 7

Indirect Transportation Fix via Non-Transportation Initiatives

Answer 7

• Address transportation and work patterns to indirectly affect traffice
• Alternative work schedules, e.g. flextime, compressed work week, working remotely