Transport Planning ( CEng 6304) An essay on Sustainability of transport planning

Sustainable Transport planning

Transport planning uses the general concept of planning which is a future
oriented process; concerning the relationships of ends and means, to guide the
implementation of a desired development goal in the best possible way!! But the
concept of Sustainable transport planning focuses on continuation to response of needs
and priority as per a performance duration and overall environmental impact in addition
to the pure planning concept aforementioned above. This leads to the development of
transport policy by different nations stating… in a business-as-usual scenario the demand
for both passenger and freight transport can be expected to increase at a rate similar to or higher
than the economy as a whole, and that the road sector, already under pressure, will take the main
part of this increase.

The Commission of the European Union dealt well in its white paper from 1992 gives the
following reasons behind development of a common transport policy:-
 Transport users have not been obliged to pay the full cost of the services that
they use.
 Public investment in infrastructure has been reduced in real terms over the
last ten years, while traffic has increased.
 Planning requirements and resistance due to public opinion have imposed
increasing restraints on the development of new projects.
The White Paper finds that the outcome will be a shortfall in the level of
infrastructure needed to meet this demand. To remedy this situation, the White
Paper points to intermodal transportation, so under used capacity from modes other
than roads is utilized. A basic principle presented in the White Paper is that it will
be essential to look at the true· costs of transport and the necessity of internalizing
costs so to ensure the development of a sustainable transport system.

A major task within transport planning and road infrastructure planning in

coming years will be to make the sustainability concept operational and
incorporate it in planning guidelines and develop new procedures. An important
task will be to develop a price mechanism which can be used to regulate and
balance transport modes. The paper also states that… “The main emphasis will be
on the development of a Community framework for the charging of
infrastructure and other costs to users. Such a framework is the essential
foundation for the realization of the objective to sustainablity mobility for the
Community as· a whole. If costs are not being properly allocated, stresses are·
bound to arise as users favor disproportionally the transport service that don’t
charge their full costs.’’ With regard to new procedures, multimodal planning and
intermodal planning are relevant planning processes to be strengthened and
developed; sometimes these terms are used interchangeably. However, they differ
and. can be defined as follows
Multimodal planning is a process of:

Master program in Road and Transport Engineering at AAiT

Transport Planning ( CEng 6304) An essay on Sustainability of transport planning

Defining a transportation problem in a generic way (that is, in a non-mode

specific manner);
Identifying more than one modal option to solve this problem; and
Evaluating these modal options in a manner that provides for an unbiased
estimation of each mode's contribution, either individually or in
combination, to solving the problem.
Intermodal planning is a process of:
Identifying the key interactions between one or more modes of
transportation where changing the performance or use of one mode will
affect another;
Defining strategies for improving the effectiveness of these modal
interactions, and;
Evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies from the perspective of
enhancing the overall performance of the system affected by the intermodal
connections.
Both planning processes as defined' are currently being developed in the USA
on the basis of the "Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991"
(ISTEA). This act, among other things, requires statewide and metropolitan
planning processes, which must include such considerations as land-use,
intermodal connectivity, methods to enhance transit service,' and needs' identified
through six management systems, which each state must implement. The new act
has thus made new tools necessary. The six management systems concern:
1. Highway pavement
2, Bridge
3, Highway safety
4. Congestion/mobility
5. Public transportation, and
6. Intermodal
The management systems are regarded as interrelated. For this reason a
management system no. 7, Integrated systems, has been described for coordinating
the six management systems within the ISTEA legislation. Current knowledge is
best for establishing the pavement, bridge and safety management systems. For the
public transportation and intermodal management systems, the processes of
multimodal and intermodal planning, as outlined above, will serve as a bond
between these systems. Both systems are also planned to take advantage of data
equipment technology and incorporate the Intelligent Vehicle Highway System
(IVHS) concept. The congestion/mobility management system is regarded as
especially challenging to planners, one reason being that measures must be
developed to reflect the relative mobility levels of different client groups. Another
concern in this respect is due to the clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990.

Master program in Road and Transport Engineering at AAiT

Transport Planning ( CEng 6304) An essay on Sustainability of transport planning

This legislation operates with so-called non-attainment zones for air quality
standards and, most importantly, a funding system with penalties for not
complying with these standards is defined within the planning. Progress for air
quality is tied to the outcome of the whole plan and at least every three years
transportation plans must be analyzed for their emission consequences.

In Ethiopia, partial of intermodal transport will be developed when railway

service is effected in coming years and users expect to be charged on new Adama
to Addis Ababa roads. However it is not enough to the increased demand on road
users. Here in Addis Ababa it is frequent congestion prevalent in every major city
highways. That needs further improvement on aforesaid managerial systems
through sustainable transport planning and design of these sectors prior to the
commencement construction.

It is therefore everywhere in a globe sustainable transport planning shall be

subject to a common laws to alleviate it’s economic restriction and bad
environmental impacts owing to attain a prolonged performing transport sector that
minimize the need of routing maintenance, revision and growing cost of
transportation sector.

Master program in Road and Transport Engineering at AAiT