Benefits of Integrated Transportation - Research Paper Example

First Last Number: Benefits of Integrated Transportation INTRODUCTION In the modern scenario with the continuous increase in the private and public transport vehicles, the issues related to adverse impact over the environmental have enlarged in a significant manner. Additionally, there is a continuous increase in air pollution as well as overcrowding in various nations, which are significantly influencing the environment worldwide. In this regard, various policies have been introduced in different nations, which assist the nations to preserve the environment by reducing traffic in transportation through proper and efficient transportation management. Furthermore, the policies have been formed with restrictive regulations in the national level for transportation management. Thus, in the broader context, the approach of transportation policies allows the respective governments of the nations to take major steps over the reduction of traffic cognition in the national landscape. Moreover, the policies further allow in minimizing the involvement of vehicles in certain locations with respect to the major steps taken to reduce the environmental concern. In addition, the integration of the transport system enables the reduction of traffic jams in a way to reduce the pollution level. Thus, the paramount approach to integrate the transportation system is not only to take respective steps to minimize the environmental concerns from the growing level of vehicles, but also to provide better mobility, lessen the level of congestion, and provide high safety and security to the public (Black 3-10). THESIS STATEMENT Correspondingly, the research paper intends to address the integrated transportation approach of Europe and reflect its benefit in the context of Boston Massachusetts. Additionally, the paper reflects the viability of the integrated transportation system in Europe. INTEGRATED TRANSPORT APPROACH IN EUROPE Transportation is fundamental in the context of any economy or society in the nation, as mobility from one place to another is integral for maintaining quality of life which allows maintaining all round development of an economy. Besides, the concept of transportation is a global approach and thus the international cooperation is integral for maintaining integration in transportation within the world economy. In this regard, the program i.e. Transport Challenge relating to ‘smart, green as well as integrated transport’ is an approach of Europe to build the transportation system of Europe in terms of resource efficient, climate concern, environmental friendly, and safety for the overall beneficial of citizens, societies and economy at large. Furthermore, Transport Challenge induces investment of €6,339 million for the time of 2014-2020 by keeping focus on the program, over four different key objects (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). To minimize the impact of transportation system over the environment as the European nations try to improve the efficiency over the use of natural resources and reduce the dependence level over fossil fuels To reconcile the growing need of mobility, the transportation program of Europe emphasizes the transport flexibility in a way for providing innovative solutions in terms of seamless, inclusive, safe and secure, affordable and robust transport To promote innovation and meet various challenges that arise within the transportation system and meet the societal needs Source: (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”) Respectively, in Europe, the transportation industry is regarded as an integral part, as it directly helps to provide employment to around 10 million peoples and contribute 5% in nation’s GDP. Thus, Europe through integration of transport system is trying to build it transportation approach competitive and sustainable. Apparently, the new transport plan of Europe is aiming towards integration of European Union (EU) network of transport to reduce greenhouse emission and dependence over the import of oil. Additionally, program also aims towards changing the way in which freight moves and improve people’s mobility to boost the competency of the economy and create more job opportunities. Besides, through the integrated transportation, EU is planning to meet the goal by 2050 through focusing on people travelling within and between the cities as well as in the dimension of long-distance travelling (European Commission, “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area: Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”). Moreover, the planning for the integration of the transport system also aims towards phasing out the use of petrol cars and shifting over to the use of rail and water transports. Another approach of integration is to increase the use of low carbon fuels by 40% in the air transportation and cut the emission of carbon by 40% in shipping transportation. In this regard, it has been expected that through meeting these targets, the rate of greenhouse gases will be reduced by 60% within all the mode of transportation by 2050 (European Commission, “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area: Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”). BOSTON TRANSPORT SYSTEM Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and one of the oldest cities of the US. Boston transport system has been developing connection and integration in road, air, rail as well as sea modes for people and freight transportation. The entire transport system is being managed by different authorities such as the Port of Boston that includes shipping in South Boston as well as the Logan International Airport is been operated under Massachusetts Port Authority. Additionally, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates the transport system relating to bus, subway, rail and water services in the entire city. On the other hand, intercity bus organization operates the public transport. The current transportation strategy of Boston city is aiming towards reducing the congestion through reduction in use of cars to minimize the rate of traffics. Additionally, transport system focuses over the improvement in access of public transport. Boston with respect to long-term improvement of transportation system should working towards improving road network and road sites (Lincolnshire County Council, “Transport Strategy for Boston 2006 to 2021 and beyond”). Moreover, an important fact revealed that around 2,735,000 people travel in Boston city everyday of which around 927,000 individuals travel from rest of the regions. Thus, the overall transportation system of Boston comprises various people moving within and outside the region, which has led to the requirement of highly integrated transport system that will allow maintaining sustainability and development of the economy at large (Boston Transportation Department, “Boston Transportation Fact Book and Neighborhood Profiles”). APPLYING THE APPROACH OF INTEGRATED TRANSPORT OF EUROPE IN BOSTON With the event of increase in the level of pollution in the general environment due to adverse impact to carbon emission, the nation has increasingly endeavored to bring mobility and expanding the transportation system through utilizing the most convenient means of transportation. Additionally, the approach of the integrated transport is regarded as the general approach of combining different modes of transport in the transportation chain. The strengths of different alternative are being utilized in such a manner that it will provide opportunities to minimize the threats of over utilizing any one mode of transport within the society. However, the implementation of transport planning i.e. integrated transport of Europe in Boston is very much dependent on various factors including rationalizing the importance and benefits that it will provide to the nation. Besides, it has been equally important before the implementation that the existing conditions of the transport would be monitored carefully. Furthermore, considerations of forecast regarding the future population and employment opportunities, aim at identifying the growth possibility which will also be important for the development of the transport network. Boston is one of the counties of the US, whereas the EU establishes transportation integration with the nation through the collaboration of different modes of transport. Thus, majority of the differences within the integrated transportation system lies in the working procedures and policies of the these nations (Beal, McLaughlin and de Bruijn, “European–United States Transportation Research Collaboration Challenges and Opportunities”) Correspondingly, the approach of integrated transport system that has been applied in Europe is viable in the context of applying it in Boston, Massachusetts, as the approach will significantly provide the opportunity to take effective steps in minimizing the adverse impact over the environment that arises mainly because of transportation system. In addition, the use of the single mode of transport can never be possible in the real practice, which can be able to meet the possible increase in the demand of transportation. Furthermore, the effective use of different modes of transport will significantly assist the Boston to interrelating and creating connection and provide opportunity to eradicate the rising demand of transportation. In this regard, it can be affirmed that development of new framework of transport system is possible but it requires efficient planning and investment with having the prior consideration of social costs and benefits. Moreover, re-evaluation is also needed to be considering in relation to the investment plan with respect to the environmental effect and public preferences. Besides, proper financing and pricing mechanism are needed to be integrated appropriately for economic and social effectiveness. Notably, the increasing level of population has significantly been remaining the key reason of increase in the level of traffic. Moreover, this will likely increase the use of fuels and vehicles. Apparently, one of the most considerable issues that transport system of Boston faces is regarding the winter snow that impacted the transport system especially the roads. However, integrated transportation will provide the opportunity to integrate transport system efficiently (Hofherr, “US Transportation Department’s Bleak Study Resonates with Bostonians”). In addition, continuous growth in the population has diversified the modes of transportation. The key approach of integrated transportation by maintaining sustainability and all around development is a vital constituent in this purview. Contextually, for integrating the transport system, Boston needs to improve and enhance in the rail and air transport for effective development of the transportation network. Furthermore, for ensuring success of the integrated transportation, planners need to accept the roles and the processes of integrating the system. In this context, applying the approach of integrated transportation will significantly allow in building railroads in the different places that will provide the opportunity to utilize rail transports and accordingly, airplanes will work as the alternative over the use of cars for long distance travelling. In this respect, it has been quite important prior to the development of the integrated transport system for outlaying as well as integrating operating costs in the hand of public and private parties, environment, and impact over the energy, social equity and level of acceptability. Moreover, the different modes of transportation provide several advantages in terms of cost, environmental impact, safety, comfortable and convenience to the inhabitants of Boston. Furthermore, it will provide the opportunity to maintain economies of scale through managing the transport that would likely improve the overall performance and lower the cost of transportation effectively (Kanafani, “Connecting Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”). It has also been argued that ineffective policy of transport will discomfort the economy and increase the level of congestion. For instance, importance over the development of road transport system will likely to influence the people to utilize private cars and other public road transportation over rail, air and ships transports, which in turn would increase the use of fuels and carbon emission. Apparently, in order to develop the transportation system in accordance with the need of developing a proper transportation network, proper funding towards the integrated transport plan is important in the next thirty years as applied by EU. Moreover, the plan should be highly based on the demand for air, rail, roads and water transport linked with multimodal transportation based on the current and proposed system. Considerably, the integrated plan should be based on social, environmental and economic costs of different alternatives on the basis of costs over climate change. Thus, in an overall context, transportation is needed to be highly integrated to maintain quality of life and respectively, the US transport system is regarded to be one of the most efficient transport systems, but it significantly faces considerable challenges in the current scenario. The prior reason for gridlock in the existing transport system was delay in the airlines, high level of congestion in the urban highways and transit. Furthermore, the nation is likely to face challenge in passenger and freight demand in a twice and tripled manner in the next 20 to 30 years respectively. In this context, innovative solution is highly recommendable to meet the anticipated demand in achieving the national goal. In addition, the approach of integrating the transport system will allow working with public and private sectors in preserving the national security and enhance the quality of life (Kanafani, “Connecting Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”). BENEFITS OF INTEGRATED TRANSPORT TO BOSTON The key benefit of the integrated transportation is that it significantly allows developing individual mode of transport to increase efficiency. Moreover, the integrated transportation will cover all the modes of transportation that will assist in reducing congestion, encourage public transport, and improve accessibility, environmental stability, economy and maintaining overall quality of life in Boston. In this regard, it can be affirmed that interconnection of transport could be highly beneficial to Boston, as it allow mobility, safety, less impact over the environment and lower operation costs (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Likewise, the key benefits that Boston can achieve through the implementation of the strategy are provided hereunder. Proper management of traffic. Integrated transport system will significantly allow improving the traffic condition, as citizen will not have to rely over a particular mode of transportation and are facilitated with the opportunity of making chooses based on their convenience (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Benefits to the transport users. All the transport users are identified to be having different choices through available different mode of transport throughout the Boston city (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Environmental benefits. With the event of continuous rise in population and demand of transportation, the adverse impact over the environment has possibly increased mostly because of carbon emission from vehicles. However, the approach of integrated transportation is regarded to be effective approach in providing green, safe and less environmental issues means of transport (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Benefit to overall economy at large. Similarly, through integrating the entire transportation system, the accessibility in the entire Boston will be enhanced and accordingly, dependence over a single mode of transport will be reduced (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). VIABILITY OF INTEGRATED TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN BOSTON Correspondingly, integrated transportation system assists in enhancing the use of conventional fuel cars mostly in the city that will likely to reduce carbon emission. Furthermore, this approach will not eradicate greenhouse emission completely; rather it will assist in reducing emission to a considerable extent. In addition, road freight will aid to shift over other modes of transportation in a significant extent in the future. Development and modernization of air traffic management could also be achieved through integrated transportation approach (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Safety and security. In order to meet the growing demand of transportation services, safety and security will remain the prior goals for minimizing crashes, incidents and mishaps. Furthermore, the approach of integrated transportation will allow providing high level of safety to the users, as the users are facilitated to have different transportations choices. Notably, the integrated transport system allows building and designing transportation systems for meeting and providing maximum level of security to the nation at large (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Maintaining energy and environmental suitability. Furthermore, integrated approach could be highly beneficial, because it will aids in mitigating energy related issues that arises from energy consumption. In addition, another point of benefit of applying the integrate transport system is that it encourage the users to shift their perception from carbon fuel vehicles to non-carbon fuels vehicles (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Development of new vehicles. Integrated transportation system will allow and influence different companies to develop new technology for better eco-friendly vehicles and proper traffic management, which likely to shift the perception of the citizens and lower the rate of emission in Boston (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). Reduction in the rate of congestion. Congestion remains a virtual issue in the global environment and the approach of integrated transportation system will significantly allow the citizens to make alternative selection in terms of mode of transportation. This could likely be beneficial in reducing the rate of congestion in the area (European Commission, “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”). In a similar perspective, it can be affirmed that integrated transport will be beneficial to the economy at large, as with the reduction in the rate of emission and congestion, people will become highly attracted towards the city that will apparently boost other sectors in terms of growth as well as development. Furthermore, it can be recognized as an approach that will help in developing effective core network in interconnecting the intercity transportation efficiently. Likely, it has been asserted that freight shipments are highly dependent on trucks for short and medium distance (Shaheen, Camel and Lee, “Exploring the Future of Integrated Transportation Systems in the U.S. from 2030 to 2050: Application of a Scenario Planning Tool”). In this regard, integrated transportation will significantly allow the government to work over the different transport modes and encourage effective transportation solution to the users. Moreover, the users were not restricted over the use of one mode of transportation rather they are allowed to make their choices through optimizing their plan based on energy usage, emission and minimize environmental impact. As affirmed earlier, integrated transportation system allows mixing of different transport modes for the development of a well-organized transportation network. Therefore, this approach will ensure in meeting the increased demand for public transport and people will tend to switch from private transport to public modes for traveling. Likewise, the approach of integrated transport is highly beneficial, because it will allow Boston to develop smart, cost effective, user-friendly as well as high capacity transportation system. Besides, the approach permits to identify the challenges and based on which it can develop effective solution that will relatively reduce investment as well as operational costs, develop reliability, and increase overall effectiveness and usability of transport facility for users. It will ensure on maintaining strict safety standards and infrastructure requirements based on the new transportation system that will effectively enhance the overall growth (Lincolnshire County Council, “Transport Strategy for Boston 2006 to 2021 and beyond”). In this regard, it can be asserted that integrated transportation will work towards having an innovative approach that will improve the efficiency of transport system by optimizing the use of energy within the whole system. This approach will provide seamless multimodal travelling experience to the citizens and will provide effective solution to meet the customer’s door-door intermodal travelling approach by integrating the aspects of travel planning and proper safety of the travellers. Conceptually, with the event of growing amount of vehicles and population in Boston, the detrimental impact over the environment and health of the public is quite unsustainable. In this regard, the approach of new system will enforce formation of development of new generation transportation technologies that enable to restrict carbon emission as well as air pollution and also lessen the amount of noise pollution. Correspondingly, introduction of particle filters, brake components to improve the air quality and emission rate will highly contribute to take effective actions for mitigating health hazards. Moreover, other key benefits that the integrated transport system will provide to Boston include capacity augmentation and overall productivity improvement by the mean of advancement of technology up gradation and modernization. Besides, this will enhance the overall capacity of the area through optimal utilization of resources and intermodal mix. In addition, the approach will likely to enhance the economic efficiency through incorporation of competitive impulses with regard to provision and maintenance of overall transportation infrastructure and services. Notably, it will promote towards developing sustainable transportation system by integrating the concept of safety, efficiency of energy, environment and its relative social impact. Nevertheless, regardless in approaching towards achieving the overall benefits from the integrated transport system, it has been quite important that the approach will take into concern the various social costs while pricing the transportation services. Moreover, in this context, it has been affirmed that the optimal allocation can only be possible through proper pricing in the transport system will reflect the real cost (Pant, “Integrated Transport Policy”). CONCLUSION Based on the above discussion, it can be affirmed that in the current context, mode of transportation has witnessed immense growth and plays an integral role in the overall development of an economy. Additionally, with eventual growth in population, utilization of private and public transport vehicles has also been increased that relatively prove to have adverse impact over the environment. With the continuous increase in air pollution and level of congestion in various nations have significantly impacted the environment. Europe has significantly planned to integrate the transport system in order to develop a highly competitive as well as sustainable position in transportation through the approach of integrating the overall transportation in an optimal manner. Apparently, this transport plan aimed towards reduction of greenhouse emission and over dependency of oil in the EU network. Moreover, improvement and development of transport infrastructure and its services along with the expansion of the network is integral, which tends to be one of the most challenging aspects. Air, rail as well as sea are integral modes of transportation for the people and freight transit in Boston. Besides, in this context, it can be affirmed that it has become necessary to formulate integrated transportation to ensure adequate, efficient and high quality transport infrastructure and services to the inhabitants. Additionally, while formulating an integrated transportation system it will be quite important that the different modes of transport are integrated in such a manner that each mode of transport are been utilized in an optimal manner. Furthermore, in this context, in order to implement the integrated transportation, reorientation of the transportation policy will be formulated. Besides, the approach of integrated transportation will be highly beneficial for Boston because it will allow the city to shift its emphasis of providing the transport infrastructure and services with the means of technology up gradation and modernization in order to ensure more mobility, accessibility and safety in the hand of inhabitants. On the other hand, this will likely to enhance the capacity of providing high quality services and work towards optimizing inter modal mix of transportation by adopting appropriate pricing and charge policy. Works Cited Black, William Richard. Sustainable Transportation: Problems and Solutions. New York: Guilford Press, 2010. Print. Beal, Glenda., Mary McLaughlin, and Paul de Bruijn, “European–United States Transportation Research Collaboration Challenges and Opportunities.” 2009. Web. 30 Mar 2015. “Boston Transportation Fact Book and Neighborhood Profiles.” Boston Transportation Department. 2002. Web. 30 Mar 2015. “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport.” European Commission. 2013. Web. 30 Mar 2015. “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area: Towards a competitive and Resource Efficient Transport System.” European Commission. 2011. Web. 30 Mar 2015. Hofherr, Justine. “US Transportation Department’s Bleak Study Resonates With Bostonians.” 2015. Web. 30 Mar 2015. < http://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2015/02/10/transportation-department-bleak-study-resonates-with-bostonians/aKvZsN4XX9XHpJdkohRMhN/story.html> Kanafani, Adib. “Connecting Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” 2008. Web. 30 Mar 2015. < http://www.uctc.net/access/33/Access%2033%20-%2002%20-%20Multimodal%20Transportation.pdf> “Transport Strategy for Boston 2006 to 2021 and beyond.” Lincolnshire County Council. 2006. Web. 30 Mar 2015. Pant, K. C. “Integrated Transport Policy.” 2001. Web. 30 Mar 2015. Shaheen, Susan A., Madonna Camel and Kunik Lee. “Exploring the Future of Integrated Transportation Systems in the U.S. from 2030 to 2050: Application of a Scenario Planning Tool.” 2013. Web. 30 Mar 2015. Read More