Welcome to the December 2014 issue of Transport comprising six papers covering a range of interesting transport subjects. This issue continues to reflect the broad-based interests of the journal's readership.
The first paper, by Spiers et al. (2014), describes the planning, design, construction and operation of the major improvements made to a strategic route motorway in Northern Ireland – M1/Westlink, a heavily congested urban corridor running through Belfast. The paper, of much relevance to the professional community, addresses issues related to the engineering and management of the scheme, which included widening of the existing road, grade separation at two junctions, bridge replacement, river diversions and public utility diversions, and an introduction of intelligent transport systems technologies. The paper provides lessons learnt during the contract implementation phase.
Moving from Northern Ireland to Portugal, the paper by Batista dos Santos et al. (2014) considers a road-user cost (RUC) model for inclusion in a pavement management system. The main components of a simplified RUC model are vehicle operating costs, accident costs and time costs, as well as a component related to tolling costs. The authors suggest that countries or regions wishing to consider RUC in their road life-cycle cost analysis might lack the means to obtain the data required for such models. The authors propose a simplified RUC model to allow an easy application in different scenarios. The application of the proposed RUC model is demonstrated for two Portuguese motorway networks under private concession, comparing average costs with those for specific work zones and pavement condition scenarios.
The third paper, by Manton and Clifford (2014), addresses the design and maintenance of greenways (off-road cycle trails). The paper starts by presenting the challenges faced in the construction of a national cycling network in Ireland, which aims to rectify a cycling infrastructural deficit and to promote a modal shift from driving to cycling. The lack of guidance for the design, maintenance or route selection of greenways in Ireland has motivated the authors to provide a compilation of international guidelines and literature in this area. This review can inform the development of guidance for the design and maintenance of new greenways in Ireland, and at the same time might provide a useful reference to international best practice for designers, planners and other stakeholders.
Continuing the theme of design and its application to transport policy, the fourth paper, by Moody and Melia (2014), makes a significant contribution to the debate around the implementation of shared space schemes. The concept of shared space, which can be defined as ‘streets designed to minimise demarcations between vehicles and pedestrians', has become particularly influential in the UK. The authors revisited one of the sites (in Ashford, Kent, England) originally included in an evidence-based study that has informed the UK's Department for Transport design guidance on shared space schemes. Their primary research raises a number of questions about the methodology, findings and interpretation. They argue that claims made of shared space have overstated the available evidence, and advise policy-makers and professionals to approach the concept with caution.
The fifth paper, by Aschauer and Starkl (2014), reports on research aiming to reduce the time, cost and carbon dioxide emissions of urban freight operations by rescheduling. A traffic-simulation-based model developed by the authors illustrates, using data from Austria, how shifting trucks from peak periods to off-peak periods might relieve bottlenecks and congested areas, leading to road capacity being used more efficiently and to a large saving potential. However, in order to fulfil the theoretical potential of rescheduling urban freight operations, a cooperative teamwork between public institutions, infrastructure operators and the local industry is required.
The issue's final paper comes back to Portugal and discusses another transport mode – the railway. In their paper, Andrade and Teixeira (2014) explore unplanned-maintenance needs regarding rail track geometry degradation. Following a review of the state of the art of statistical modelling of rail track geometry, they have developed a modelling methodology and analysed inspection records from the Portuguese infrastructure manager using a logistic regression approach. They conclude that the typical planned maintenance criteria proposed by the European Standard EN 13848 (CEN, 2008) are statistically significant predictors of unplanned-maintenance needs. These and other findings reported in this paper can help infrastructure managers, rail companies and researchers in this area gain a quantified understanding of the underlying trade-off between planned-maintenance and unplanned-maintenance needs.
I hope that readers of this issue find the papers informative and stimulating. Readers are welcome to further explore the wide selection of journal papers and books available at the ICE virtual library (www.icevirtuallibrary.com).
