Final Report March 2000
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- Signal Timing
- Incident Management
- Emission / VMT Tax
- Buy-back of Old Cars
Land Use PlanningLand use planning in the aspect of TCM is designed to decrease the regional travel demand with a new development strategy. With this strategy, the regional communities can form a massive development site. Since a variety of economic activities are provided in the vicinity of residential areas and workplaces, the transport can be reduced. What is more important is that people would commute with a bike, public transport and even on foot. The ultimate decision falls to local government authorities and private developers. Signal TimingThe traffic signal system can be developed to improve traffic flows on main roads. In this point, original analysis and timing should be rearranged in the target area. Along with this arrangement, the system of traffic signal should be also monitored and coordinated. The influence on the emission is to stem from lessening the extent of traffic congestion rather than decreasing the vehicle transport. The concerning traffic divisions in the state agency are willing to take charge in this policy bolstered up by the highway division of state government. Incident ManagementThe program of incident management covers the method of mitigating and eliminating the traffic jams by vehicle breakdown or traffic accident. The program depends mainly on the abilities of information communication, which is comprised of the appropriate discovery, capable human resources, rapidly corresponding devices. The original purpose of the program is to upgrade the physical efficiency of existing facilities in a way of improving traffic flow, which is not much different from the case of signal timing. The program can be embodied by the highway division under the state government and concerning traffic divisions in the region. Emission / VMT TaxSeveral policy alternatives are included in this scheme. A fine on pollutants emission is scheduled to replace or complement the existing registration fee based on the extent of emission. The authorities in the city and state will impose fees by the standard of discharged pollutants or total mileage gas and emission factor. In approximate application of this fine system, vehicles are grouped and charged by the extent of emission or by the age of vehicles. Accordingly, the vehicle maintenance and replacement will be encouraged. Buy-back of Old CarsThis policy is a funding support to make an owner of old vehicle replace it with a new one. In general, this could contribute to the emission reduction because the old vehicles discharge more pollutants due to the deterioration of its emission control device. Buy-back program is operated usually by the vehicle-related agencies such as the vehicle makers, oil companies or the government. Yet, its efficiency and practicability could be changed by the regional condition. UNOCAL was a large-scale buy-back program enforced by the Southern California. UNOCAL bought and junked the old vehicles made before 1971 using its own fund.
The efforts to decrease the traffic accidents have been underway in many of the member economies of APEC. Among them, the most noteworthy can be found in the State of New South Wales in Australia. 9.4.1 Traffic Accidents in New South Wales New South Wales is the biggest state in Australia, composed representatively of Sydney, Canberra and other cities. The State currently has a population of 6,190,000 as of 1996, which is equivalent to 34% of total population of Australia. The casualties of traffic accident in New South Wales were recorded as 581 people in 1996, about 30% of total death toll. Casualties of NSW in 1985 were 1067 people. The fall of traffic accident casualties was presumably due to the efficient implementation of traffic safety policies. The Australian government has established and enforced the safety policy ‘Road Safety 2000’. It could be summarized as follows. 9.4.2. ‘The Road Safety 2000’ of New South Wales The Sydney city in Australia is scheduled to host the summer Olympics in 2000. To this end, the state government has prepared another event called Road Safety 2000, a strategic program of traffic safety. The Roads and Traffic Authority has dealt with this program under the state government of New South Wales. ‘Road Safety 2000’ was established in 1990 and pictured with a blue print of 30% reduction of traffic accident casualties by 2000. It meant 650 deaths a year. The standard of traffic safety in New South Wales state was equivalent to that of developed countries in 1990 with 2.5 casualties per 10,000 vehicles when this program was started. However, the state government boosted its drastic scheme to achieve the safety program. To accomplish the target of this program, the task-force team was organized by mutual cooperation between the state transport division and the police agency. The target was achieved with a surprising speed. In 1994, the number of casualties decreased to 647, 6 years earlier than the target year. Thus, the state government of New South Wales revised the target in 1995 to achieve additional decrease amount to 23%, which was equivalent to the reduction of 500 death tolls by the year of 2000. The newly-adjusted target will be likely to be achieve in that annual fatalities was recorded as 576 people in 1997. Now the traffic accident casualties of New South Wales state are reduced much more than those of the U.S. or Germany. (New South Wales) (581)
(1.75)
(9.4)
9.4.3 4 Major Policies of ‘Road Safety 2000’ According to the analysis of the state government in New South Wales, 4 major reasons of traffic casualties are categorized as speeding, DUI(driving under intoxication), fatigue driving and no seat-belt. ‘Road Safety 2000’ was a successful policy to attain its purpose by its aim at exterminating 4 reasons above.
- the extent of auto distortion in case of a bump - the length of skid mark
Also, unmanned camera monitoring has played a crucial role in disclosing the violators in a high accident point. The road traffic division analyzed the accident data, and then provided a list of a high accident points to the police. With these data, the police installed monitor cameras in those spots to supervise the violators and then confirmed its effects by measuring the change of accident decrease. Moreover, the accident-frequent spots with speeding were managed and monitored specially, and speed limits in residential areas, school districts and mixed traffic zones of pedestrians and vehicles were strengthened. Except in a few dense cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, in Australia a driver easily feels the fatigue and sleep in driving because of the long distance between cities and the sparse volume of traffics in highways. The standards to prove the existence of driving in fatigue are as follows : In case of getting out of the road without skid mark in a straight or curved road 9.4.4 Conclusion So far, the policies of traffic safety in the state of New South Wales have been discussed. Actually, there are no special methods in the ‘Road Safety 2000’, which is quite similar to the most of policies in other countries. Simply, it is noteworthy that the traffic accident could be reduced with the harmony between the civil consciousness and the effective policy implementation of the government.
Though each of the cities or countries in the APEC region has its unique public transport system, there exist common issues. Many of large cities in the APEC region are still suffering from traffic congestion, bad air quality and high traffic accident rates caused by rapid urbanization and motorization. In particular, many cities in the developing APEC region are rapidly modernizing with significant car ownership increases and have put most of their transportation capital into new roads and other infrastructure. Especially, many cities are thriving to establish a good public transport system through the expansion of mass transit facilities and/or the improvement of existing public transport system. From their experiences and policies, we can learn some strategies to divert auto users to public transport. First, we review socio-economic benefits of public transport in general. Secondly, several revitalization schemes of the public transport are suggested. Finally, several countries where the schemes have been applied are exampled. To view the relationship between development and transit system, one has to look at the development patterns of a metropolitan area from the air. You can see all of the office buildings, residential complexes or buildings, hospitals, universities, shopping areas, and large manufacturing plants generate large amount of traffics. High-capacity vehicle access (i.e., transit) is the only way such huge areas can avoid gridlock due to the limited capacity of streets, highways, and parking facilities. In most highly developed cities such as New York and Chicago, 75% or more of all people arrive by transit. Streets cannot handle more than a small fraction of the vehicles needed to convey the numbers of people involved. One full 40-foot bus, which holds about 70 people including standees, equals a line of moving automobiles stretching; 6 city blocks if traffic operates at 25 mph and 4.5 blocks if traffic operates at 15 mph. At the estimated national average of 1.2 persons per automobile, one bus is equivalent to 58 automobiles. A full heavy rail car, which accommodates about 180 people including standees, is equivalent to a line of moving automobiles stretching; 95 city blocks if traffic operates at 25 mph and 68 blocks if traffic operates at 15 mph. One full six-car heavy rail train carries 1,080 people, thus replacing 900 automobiles. The ability to travel freely is one of the hallmarks of a free society. Yet, many people have been restricted their mobility, because they do not own motor vehicles, cannot afford to drive, or are physically unable to drive. Transit is the only means of mobility for most of these people to jobs, medical services, recreation, and shopping. Transit vehicles contribute far less atmospheric pollution than automobiles. Emissions of CO2 from road transport are the fastest growing contributor to climate change - the greatest global environmental threat facing the international community. It threatens unpredictable extremes of weather with more frequent and intense storms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. For typical work trips based on the United States’ average vehicle occupancy rates, pollutant emissions in grams per passenger mile are as shown in Unit: g/pass-mile Increased traffics have made our streets more threatening for pedestrians and cyclists. Children's freedom to play, or to walk or cycle to school unaccompanied has been severely curtailed. Americans walk less than they used to and cycling, other than for leisure, is mostly left to a few enthusiasts. Intercity & commuter railroads Airlines
Intercity buses School buses
Transit buses 0.04
0.01
0.02
For many persons, transit is much more economical than driving alone to work, especially those commuting to central business districts. Annual costs for transit per person range from just less than $200 to over $2,000 in the United States, depending on mileage traveled, and whether time-of-day, express, transfer, and parking charges are applicable. These amounts do not include the fixed cost to own an automobile that AAA estimates at $12.34-$17.07 per day (based on 15,000 miles per year). These costs include insurance, license, registration, taxes, depreciation, and finance charges. Also excluded from the costs listed above are costs to build, maintain, and operate highways, parking facilities, and transit agencies. These costs are mostly paid by all citizens through taxes and are not directly related to use of an automobile or transit. The energy efficiency and conservation potential of transit are considerable. Based on the data from U.S. Department of Energy, APTA(American Public Transit Association) estimated fuel efficiency of transit compared to the average commuter auto as follows: - 1 full bus equals 6 autos. - 1 full rail car equals 15 autos.
- 85 million gallons for a 10% increase in transit ridership in the five largest U.S. cities; - 135 million gallons for a 10% nationwide increase in transit ridership.
- Transit bus 3,711 BTU/Passenger Mile - Transit rail 3,397 BTU/Passenger Mile
- Commuter rail 3,102 BTU/Passenger Mile During snow and ice storms, transit patronage often rises as numerous people avoid driving under such conditions. After the 1989 San Francisco earthquake the entire city was paralyzed, but the BART rail system resumed operations after a few hours to check for damage. Service was expanded to 24-hours-per-day since the bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland was closed for several weeks. Numerous estimates have been made in the USA on why retail sales, especially in central business districts, are enhanced by the presence of good transit service. There are several reasons:
An APTA study, "National Impacts of Transit Capital and Operating Expenditures on Business Revenues," estimates that a dollar invested in transit results in a $3 to $3.50 increase in business revenues nationwide. Download 1.53 Mb. Share with your friends:
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