Transportation Planning - Assignment Example

Transportation Planning Introduction The movement of goods and individuals from one point on the mapto another is a part of the fundamentals which make up our modern civilization. Not only in national terms but also international trade, humanitarian assistance, global commerce and even the process of globalization itself could be completely stalled if the present means of international transport were not there. The IRU (2002) reports that, “Any transport network failures may be assimilated to ‘blood clots’ obstructing free movement of people, goods and services, and hindering sustainable development of world economy (IRU, 2002, Pg. 1).” On a local level, Americans have become used to an extensive road, rail, air and sea based network which connects all cities in the continent from New York to Los Angeles. However, it must be realized that the transport network we enjoy today was not built overnight since it took many years of planning, development and significant investments before this network could become operational. The most commonly seen and the most widely used system for transport is the road and highway network that crisscrosses across America and the issues surrounding the development of such a system deserve a closer look. Challenges for Transport Planning The first issue faced by individuals who seek to develop a road network is the issue of setting the proper goals of the road under construction. Is the road supposed to alleviate pressure at some other point of the city? Is the road going to provide greater access to some locality? What sort of traffic i.e. light or heavy is the road going to see? Will people be dislocated from their homes due to this road? Will the project create additional problems and how will they be solved? These questions need answers which become the objectives of the road network expansion process (Weiner, 2004). Road and rail network planners are always seeking rational and logical methods to plan their networks but quite often political considerations or implications effect the ways in which networks are planned. For example, a developing business district may require more highway exists since ease of access would help develop the commercial zones (Weiner, 2004). Similarly, expectations of development and even the news of road expansion plans can have an effect on the prices of surrounding areas since they become ripe for further development. Environmental and ecological challenges are often just as important as financial or goal oriented challenges. The plans for a road or rail network may pass through a forest or any other protected area in which case the planners have to consider the negative impact on natural environments (Weiner, 2004). Internationally, rising oil prices and the cost of maintaining automobiles has also led to the increased use of behavioral psychology in the field of transportation planning to encourage people to use public transport systems or subway trains rather than private automobiles. This of course is a part of the future of urban transport planning but the history of the subject, especially as it concerns the United States is quite interesting and important (Wikipedia, 2006). Historical Background The American road network is the most extensive road network in the world today. The National Highway System extends to more than 160,000 miles which includes the interstate highway systems (Wikipedia, 2006). The entire system and its planning is the responsibility of the United States Department of Transport but regional authorities, especially those which are working in suburban and metropolitan areas are also involved in the planning of the system. The earliest systems for highway planning began taking shape due to the increased number of individuals venturing out of the cities to go to neighboring areas. Weiner (2004) reports that highway planning was studied and implemented as early as 1904 where for the first few years the demand for highways only meant that cities which had heavy traffic had to be connected with each other. Later on, the government recognized the need to improve the efficiency of the system as well as to make plans which allow the roads to carry heavier traffic. After rapid expansion of the network which was one of the reasons why America came out of the great depression, the Second World War showed the government why proper planning for the expansion of the road and highway network was necessary. In 1962, the Federal-Aid Highway Act established the mandate for urban transport which was based on several decades of information analysis and studies. Urban planners looked towards the highway system as an example to improve their own transport systems and the expansion continued with the development of better systems. According to the BTS: “In some ways, the urban transportation planning process and planning techniques have changed little over the thirty years. Yet, in other ways, urban transportation has evolved over these years in response to changing issues, conditions and values, and a greater understanding of urban transportation phenomena. Current urban transportation planning practice is considerably more sophisticated, complex, and costly than its highway planning predecessor (Weiner, 2004, Pg. 1).” This simply means that the fundamental objective of the road network has always remained the same, i.e. to connect one point to another through the roads but the methods and ways in which the connections were made have changed drastically. Thirty years ago only a few departments and individuals could have completed and finalized a plan for a road development project but today many different government departments, private consultants and planning professionals may need to be used before a plan can be accepted. Historically, the federal agencies have set the policy, the guidelines and the broad objectives of the road networks while local and state bodies actually figure out how the road will take the path that it does. The federal planners provide economic assistance and technical consultancy to state developers who need to follow the recommendations of the federal body to apply for financial aid. The shape and structure of the federal body has undergone several changes through the years since it was the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1965 which was responsible for road network planning (Weiner, 2004). In 1968, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration was made a part of the Department of Transport (DOT) and the administration was then called the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was passed by congress in 1966 which led to the establishment of the National Traffic Safety Agency and the National Highway Safety Agency. These were merged in 1970 to make the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the Department of Transport (Weiner, 2004). In fact, it is the Department of Transport which is most involved in the transport planning process and the secretary of that department is the principal player for the national development of the road network. Presently it is Mary Peters who is serving as the nation’s secretary for transport. She was nominated by President Bush in September 2006, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to take the role of the Secretary of Transportation in the same month. She has more than twenty years of experience in designing solutions for various transportation planning issues around the country. She is also responsible for the ultimate control of the department of transport which has more than sixty thousand employees and a budged of more than sixty billion dollars (DOT, 2006). If we step back and take a broader view of the situation, there are many more thousands of individuals and many different departments who are involved in the transport planning process (Weiner, 2004). The Department of Health and Human Services for example has to play its part in making sure that road networks and transport systems remain accessible to individuals with disabilities. The Department of Commerce is involved in the taxation, toll gathering and port regulations for various entry and exit points. Similarly, other departments of the government become involved whenever there is a presence of interest for them. Current Situations Air pollution is a very important topic for discussion and research since air itself is required for every creature and living thing on the surface of the planet. Not only on land but also in water since air pollution has an effect on the level of contaminants in the sea as well. Undoubtedly, air pollution levels have been rising in the recent past and the overall blame for that is given to human activity and the industrial and commercial ventures of civilization as a whole. While the effects of air pollution on the environment are often disastrous and not easily reversible, the central issue with air pollution concerns itself more with the quality of life on the planet. Since human beings are the predominant creators of air pollution and they are also the life form which objects violently to air pollution, the solution for the problem also has to come from them. There are several ways and means which are currently being utilized to prevent air pollution from becoming a mammoth problem and some of those are discussed in this paper. The results from the research clearly show that the largest and most significant causes of air pollution are the industrial and commercial activities of humans. Whenever fossil fuels are used to drive cars, operate industries or light our offices and homes, a significant amount of harmful gasses are created which are released into the atmosphere as pollutants (Green, 2005). While a certain amount of pollution in the atmosphere can be controlled and nature has the magnificent ability to manage excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and other harmful chemicals, the present rate of creation of these compounds is simply too much for nature to handle. Americans produced more Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and atmospherically damaging gasses than any other nation in the world. In 2003, nearly 6 billion tones of CO2 were produced and there is no sign of this amount being significantly reduced (Schulte, 2006). The majority of this output comes from the coal burning furnaces which produce electricity and heat for housing as well as the cars and trucks which provide transport for people and goods across the country. The gases which are released can create acidic rain, are destroying the Ozone layer and are having negative effects on the health of people in certain regions (Green, 2005). The method for preventing air from getting polluted is simple i.e. the activities which are polluting the air have to be stopped, limited or controlled. Of course it is impossible to ask people to give up automobiles or stop heating their homes, therefore alternative fuels need to be developed, controls have to be placed on industrial pollution and people have to be made aware of the developing situation (Von Ancken, 2006). If the situation is left unchecked, the end result of pollution and the acceleration of global warming could be catastrophic. Another problem which is being faced by the transport network is the improvement of efficiencies in the face of illegal activities. For example, the smuggling of goods across state lines is being conducted on the road networks of America but there is no real easy way to prevent this from happening without significant investments in security. At the same time, constantly stopping trucks for spot checks and cargo examinations can have an adverse affect on the overall efficiency of the system. While the avoidance of taxes through smuggling has been in existence for hundreds of years, the world today is experiencing smuggling for a lot of items which were previously considered innocent. For example, the case of Cigarettes is one such situation where truckloads of the contraband can be taken from one state to another in an effort to avoid local and regional taxes. The motive for such smuggling is purely economic since by avoiding taxes the smuggled goods can be sold for a much lower price than the white market. The profits in these cases are quite substantial although illegal. When it comes to the smuggling of cigarettes, the industry itself shares a lot of the responsibility. Joossens and Raw (1998) suggest that the industry may not be actively engaged in smuggling but it could be turning a blind eye to the present situation. They say that: “Given the sheer scale of smuggling, shown by the gap between exports and imports, it would be odd indeed if the industry had no idea what was going on. It would be like the British admiral Lord Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, putting his telescope to his blind eye and declaring ‘I really do not see the signal’ (Joossens & Raw, 1998, Pg. 69).” Alternatives and Solutions Joossens and Raw (1998) explain how transport companies should monitor the transport of taxable things such as cigarettes, alcohol and even petroleum. To track and prevent their movement across borders, they should be tagged with RFID and other electronic surveillance tools which let individuals know the contents of the containers and their duty status. In fact electronic surveillance means and electronic control of moveable items as well as individuals could certainly help transport companies in reducing expenses and the inefficiencies connected with illegal movements. This has significant implications for the transport network planners of the future. Tools like RFID tracking and monitoring of transported materials could allow law enforcement agencies to simply point an RFID reader towards a truck and know exactly what was in it. These systems could even be automated to the extent that alcohol, tobacco and firearms en route to a destination or for legal sale in a part of the country could be tracked down if they were being taken to another part of the country. This would certainly help in decreasing smuggling of goods and improve the productivity of legal authorities. Similarly, the automation process could also extend to cover a wider region for toll booths and toll plazas that utilize RFID tags and allied technologies to automate toll payments. Cars, trucks and vans could simply continue at a normal speed and be charged preset amounts based on their passing of an RFID scanner placed on the road. While this system is already being used in some area, effective planning and future development should help in deploying these systems across the nation. Of course RFID technology is not the panacea to all of the problems being faced by the nation’s road networks and the planners who develop these systems. Fitchard (2005) reports that RFID needs to be implemented as a method for tracking the transport of goods across the nation since it is expected to become the standard tool by which goods will be tracked across the world. However, while this tool can help transport companies, assist retailers and help law enforcement agencies it does not answer the problems associated with pollution. Public Policy Pollution and the environmental degradation which comes with the creation of a transport network can only be handled effectively if proper policies are made in conjunction with economic realties which need to be addressed. There are important decisions which must be made by the government and the people of America regarding what level of controls need to be placed on air pollution without hurting the transport network. There appears to be no easy solution to the problem since the economic and social development of America may be slowed if the road network or the usage of the roads is reduced as per government policy. At present, the government appears to give more precedence to the economy than to the future environment of the country. It seems that a battle is being raged by economists, politicians, scientists and thinkers on how to handle air pollution and debate continues from several viewpoints (Professional Safety, 2006). Depending on the position of the thinker, they may support certain measures and disapprove of others. The Bush administration for example, did not agree to the Kyoto Protocol since the demands of the agreement could have placed restrictions on economic output which America can not afford due to the current situation of the economy. At the same time, the present government is taking steps which should help in reducing air pollution but if the measures are not put into place quickly, there may not be an environment left to save (Goode, 2006). I believe that instead of waiting for the government and businesses to come up with solutions to the air pollution problem, we should do our own part and try to prevent as much as we can. For instance, taking a short walk may be better than driving to the store and reducing the level of heating could also save energy. Similarly, at the planning level, administrators for the road transport networks should try and give preference to greener running busses or reduce the tolls placed on hybrid cars which help in reducing the pollution problem. This change and the desired effect on the level of pollution caused by the transport network may not be visible overnight but the change would certainly be a step in the right direction with many more steps to follow before we reach our eventual goal. Conclusion and observations The road network in America is essential for the American way of life. However, the costs associated with maintaining and continuing to develop as well as expand the network is gargantuan. The future planners of transport networks across the world will not only have to contend with advances in transport related technology but will also have to find out the greenest methods by which transport can be provided. It must be realized that every action we take on the earth has a certain result which can be either good or bad; therefore, an evaluation of our personal actions could certainly help in the reduction of air pollution levels and in improving how roads are used in our country. Word Count: 3,138 Works Cited Department of Transport (DOT). “Mary E. Peters” dot.gov. 2006. Department of Transport. 7 Oct. 2006. Fitchard, K. “The RFID Revolution” Telephony 246.24 (2005): 28-31. Goode, D. “Bushs Air Pollution Plans Probably On Hold This Year” Congress Daily 3.22 (2006): 2-3. Green, J. Reducing Air Pollution. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2005. International Road Transport Union (IRU). “Terrorism and Security in Transport” IRU.org 2002. IRU. 5 Oct. 2006: Joossensa, L. and Raw, M. “Cigarette smuggling: who really benefits?” Tobacco Control 7.1 (1998): 66-71. Professional Safety. “Solid Waste Incinerator Standards to Reduce 1,900 Tons of Air Pollution Annually” Professional Safety 51.4 (2006): 15-16. Schulte, B. “Turning up the Heat” U.S. News & World Report 140.13 (2006): 34-37. Von Ancken, E. “Air Pollution: Our Impact on the Planet” School Library Journal 52.4 (2006): 67. Weiner, E. “Urban Transportation Planning In The US” bts.gov. 2004. Bureau of Transport Statistics. 6 Oct. 2006. Wikipedia. “National Highway System” Wikipedia.org. 2006. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 6 Oct. 2006. Read More