Week 1 - Intro to Transportation Planning

Question 1

What are some examples of the expected future of transportation?

Answer 1

• complete streets (designed for all users)
• MAAS (mobility as a service - make it sellable)
• Uber (controversy, disruption of tax industry)
• hyper loop (vacuum tube at high speed)
• active transportation (cycling and walking)
• platform economy (ex. Uber, AirBNB)
• HSR (high speed rail)
• 2.0 (make everything new and improved)

Question 2

What are the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed ON hyper loop and the expanded all-way, 2-way GO train service?

Answer 2

Pros: 
- TO to Montreal in 39 mins 
- pollution-free 
Cons:
- costly
- farmers unhappy because cuts through land
- for train, what about outside GTA?

Question 3

What makes up a transportation system (things)?

Answer 3

• roads
• connection points (ex. node on a network)
• stations/transit hubs
• infrastructure (ex. bridges)
• material flows (moving stuff around - ex. goods & garbage)
• vehicles (buses, trucks, cars)
• airports
• docks/ports
• navigable waterways (locks/canals)
• railways
• maintenance yards
• investments (money)
• rockets (for satellites)
• tunnels
• sidewalks
• bikes/equipment
• pipelines
• fuels/energy
• trails and bike lanes (rec or purpose)
• safety infrastructure (ex. signage)

Question 4

Who are the actors in a transportation system and what are their responsibilites?

Answer 4

• freight forwarders: facilitating intl shipments
• drivers/pilots/captains: safety & efficiency
• governing bodies: mun, prov, fed regulators
• political government (ex. socialist vs. private sector): provision of services and infrastructure
• carriers: firms that provide servics
• engineers/geologists: construction/maintenance
• uber: services
• maintenance works: clearing snow
• consumers: demand services
• public transit providers: moving people