Ch 1. The Profession of Transp. Engineering

1
Ch 1. The Profession of Transp. Engineering
Lecture Objectives

• Know that transportation is a derived demand
• Understand that the quality of transportation
  services will affect the economic growth
• Be able to identify some of the social benefits
  and costs of transportation
• Understand that balanced intermodal
  transportation systems are necessary to reduce
  social costs
• Understand that public policies affect the
  direction of transportation development

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Transportation and Economic Growth

• Couple of statements in page 4 help you
  understand why providing excellent transportation
  services are essential for a country.
• Good transportation, in and of itself, will not
  assure success in the market place however, the
  absence of excellent transportation services will
  contribute to failure.
• Transportation is a necessary condition for
  human interaction and economic survival.
• Transportation is a necessary element of
  government services such as delivering mail,
  defending a nation, and retaining control of its
  territories.
• Transportation systems are developed and built
  to ensure easy mobilization of armies in the
  event of a national emergency.

3
Producers Transportation Networks
Consumers(Essential links)
LA Osamu Corp.
NYC Daikich Sushi
Tuna - the Philippines Salmon Chile Shrimp -
Indonesia
Based on an article in the Daily Herald, 8/21/00
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Social Costs and Benefits ? Need for a Balanced
Intermodal System
Breakdown of livable communities
Services to rural areas
Environmental Disruption (Air, water, noise)
Expanded mobility
Freeway as an example
Expanded economic activities
Divided communities
Loss of lives
Faster delivery of goods and services
Loss of lands
Congestion and delay
Loss of the natural beauty
UDOT, I-15/I-215 Interchange
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Transportation in the U.S.The major contributor
to its GNP
Transport Bill as of the GNP
See page 5 of the text for recent values
Source Transportation in America, 1993, Eno
Foundation
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Highway travel consumes a lot of petroleum
Fuel, oil, asphalt
1993 Total6.23 billion barrels
Source Transportation in America, 1993, Eno
Foundation
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Other Facts

• Over 80 of eligible drivers have drivers
  licenses (185 millions in 1998). About 208
  million registered vehicles. Population ? About
  270 millions. (This is probably one reason why so
  much money is pumped into highways. But is it
  alright to ignore 20 of the people who are
  eligible but not able to have licenses? Remember
  they do pay taxes. Gasoline taxes are used
  basically for construction of new roads. They are
  not enough for maintaining/operating highways.
  They come from other general taxes.)
• Travels an average of 12,000 miles/year
• Transportation industries employ over 11 of work
  force ?14.3 million people in transportation
  industries in 1998 (11.1 of total employment)

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Why automobile travel surged?

• Public policies favored automobile travel
• Successful lobbying by special interests
• Large public investments (subsidies) in highway
  travel and a miniscule amount of public
  investments in public transit
• Unrealistically low out-of-pocket costs (Drivers
  do not think of the true cost of driving a car.)

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Are drivers really paying enough?
UD User direct costs UF User fixed costs SS
Subsidies SC Social costs EC Environmental
costs
Vuchic, Transportation for Livable Cities, p.236
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Recent Trend

• Management of the existing facilities
• Less new constructions of highways
• Reinvestment in public transit (TRAX for
  instance)
• Intermodalism
• Reduction of vehicle kilometers (miles) of
  travel VKT or VMT and delays due to
  congestion
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Coordination of land use and transportation
  network

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Example of intermodalism in our community (in the
near future)