56

GIS-based Fuzzy
(=Means
clustering
analysis of urban
public transit
network service:
the Nanjing City
case study

X.Yang and W. Wang

Refereed Paper
This paper has been critically reviewed by
at least two recognised experts in the field.
Originally submitted: March 2000

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

Abstract
One important task of urban public transit network
planning is to identify poorly served areas and
improve their service level. Due to the limitation of
analysis tools, planners have used a single index,
such as transit network density, to evaluate the
whole network service. But some serious deficiencies
come with this single index evaluation: (1) poorly
served areas can not be efficiently found by this
method; and (2) the relationship of public transit
service demand and supply has not been fully
considered. Areas with low transit network density
could be arbitrarily considered as poorly served area
in this single index evaluation method. If the demand
and supply aspect of public transit service is
considered, it may be found that a less populated
area with a low transit network density could be a
well-served area.
To overcome those deficiencies, a GIS-based Fuzzy
c-Means clustering analysis method has been put
forward in this paper. Fuzzy c-Means clustering
analysis, which has been widely used in pattern
recognition, is a useful tool in classifying and
understanding complicated systems. With GIS's
powerful functions of topology analysis, public
transit network indexes at traffic zone level can be
calculated, and it becomes possible to penetrate the
network and study differences between partitions of
the network. Important indexes that identify the
traffic zone's transit network service, e.g. transit
network density, and population density, have been
chosen as the input vectors of the Fuzzy evaluation
system. Application of this GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means
clustering analysis method in the Nanjing Public
Transit Planning Project has shown good results.
Poorly served areas were identified efficiently. The
analysis results have been found to be correct by
experts from local transit enterprises. With its Fuzzy
characteristic, this method could be used in other
cities without much adaptation.

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

57
INTRODUCTION
Urban public transit network planning is a task that
requires talent and patience. One important task is
to diagnose and identify poorly served areas, and
improve their service level. Due to the limitations of
the technology used in planning and lack of detailed
data, there was no efficient quantitative method for
evaluating the public transit network service.
Planners are used to using a single index such as
transit network density to evaluate network service.
This single index evaluation has some serious
deficiencies. Poorly served areas could not be found
efficiently by this method, and the reciprocity
between public transit service demand and supply
has been neglected in the evaluation process. With
the single index evaluation method, areas with a low
transit network density could be arbitrarily
considered as poorly served areas. If consideration
is been made of the demand and supply aspect of

public transit service, it could be found that a less

populated area with a lower transit network density
could also be well-served area.
To overcome those deficiencies, a GIS-based Fuzzy
c-Means clustering analysis method has been put
forward in this paper. The geographical information
system (GIS), which originated in 1960s, has been
developed for more than 30 years. GIS has been
widely used in public transportation planning,
operation scheduling and passenger information
systems (Zhang 1998). With GIS's powerful functions
of topology analysis, public transit network indexes
at traffic zone level could be calculated. It also makes
it possible to penetrate the network and study
differences between partitions of the network. Fuzzy
c-Means clustering analysis, which has been widely
used in pattern recognition, is a useful tool in
classifying and understanding complicated systems.

Figure 1
Nanjing urban city middle
traffic zoning

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

58
It gives a quantitative and efficient way to analyse
the public transit network service. Murray (1998)
have carried out valuable research on public transport
access evaluation and policy design. Compared with
the method of Murray et al., this method is more
quantitative and considers the fuzzy relationship
between service demand and supply. Application of
this GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis
method in the Nanjing Public Transit Planning Project
has shown good results. First, a general background
information of the Nanjing Public Transit Planning
Project is given; then the GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means
clustering analysis method and its application in
Nanjing urban city are introduced. A conclusion of
the use and effect of this method is given.

NANJING PUBLIC TRANSIT PLANNING

Nanjing Public Transit Planning is an important part
of Nanjing Transportation Planning. Its main
objective is to sketch out strategies for local public
transit enterprises over four years (1998-2001). One
of its main tasks is to effectively improve public
transit service level in areas that are presently poorly
served. This study has been undertaken as joint
effort of Transportation College at Southeast
University, the Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau and
local public transit enterprises.
There were about 1400 buses running in the urban
city of Nanjing, on 42 bus routes carrying a total of
458 million passengers in 1997. Buses play an
important role in Nanjing public transit system. As
there is no rail service in Nanjing, other public transit
modes such as taxi are not the core of planning. In
this paper, public transit narrowly means bus transit.
All the data and evaluation results are strictly
concerned with bus transit.
In the new Nanjing Transportation Planning, the
whole urban city of Nanjing is divided into 122
small zones. These small zones are merged into 32
'middle zones' for special traffic studies. Each
middle zone has an average of 3.8 small zones.
Figure 1 is the layout of Nanjing urban city's middle
zones.
The dimension and size of traffic zones influence
much the diagnosing effect of transit network service.
Differences between zone's transit service will not
be obvious if traffic zones are too large or too small.
The middle zone is selected as the basic unit for
analysis, after careful comparison.

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

GIS-BASED FUZZY C-MEANS

CLUSTERING ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC
TRANSIT NETWORK SERVICE
Fuzzy c-Means clustering algorithm

Clustering analysis is based on partitioning a

collection of data points into a number of subgroups,
in which the objects inside a cluster (a subgroup)
show a certain degree of closeness or similarity.
Hard clustering assigns each data point (feature
vector) to one and only one of the clusters, with a
degree of membership equal to 1, assuming welldefined boundaries between the clusters. But it could
not reflect the description of real data, where
boundaries between subgroups might be fuzzy.
Bezdek (1981) developed a family of clustering
algorithms, based on fuzzy extension of the leastsquares error criterion, and proved the convergence
of the algorithms to a local minimum.
The Fuzzy c-Means algorithm is based on minimisation of the following objective function j :
m
n

.1,,(U,V)=

Ey (iiik r (dik )

(1)

k =1 i-1

where:
c is the number of clusters;
n is the number of data points;
U E M jc is a Fuzzy c-partition of the input data set X;
V = (VI ,V2 ,...,Vc ) E R`P with V, E R P is the
cluster centre of ui, 1 i 5 c;
(C Ik ) 2 =11X k Vi II 2

and

is any inner product

induced norm on RP ;
m E [1, c>0) is the weighting exponent.
Fuzzy partitioning is carried out through an iterative
optimisation of Equation 1.
Steps in the Fuzzy c-Means Clustering algorithm are
as follows:
1 Fix c, 2 < c < n ;
choose any inner product norm metric for RP,
and fix m, 1 < m <00.
Initialise U () E M fe
then at step 1, 1= 0, 1, 2, ...

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

59
2 Calculate the c Fuzzy centres { V,' }

D'")

with Equation 2 and U ")

vi =

y (uik) mx k
k =1

u`"

1.836

2.273

1.858

1.139

1.608

1.868

0.630

0.750

0.294

0.348

0.509

0.370

0.250

0.706

0.652

0.491

Using Equation 1 we get objective function value for

the first iteration:

dik 2/(m-1)
(-)

(3)

dik

j(1) = 8.136
We have iterated 13 times to get the minimal objective
function value.
The minimal objective function value is:

in a convenient matrix norm:

11U "+"

2.200

k =1

4 Compare LP to u(1 + 1)

if

1.767

(2)

using Equation 3 and { Vi") 1 :

j=i

1.071

Using Equation 3 we get UM'.

041 0 m

Update U") to U")

U ik =

1.742

U ") 11 -. EL stop;
j 3) = 4.359
,

otherwise, return to step 2.

An example of the Fuzzy c-Means clustering
algorithm is given as follows:
Set the number of clusters c = 2, and weighting
exponent m = 2. Let the input data matrix X be:

3.21

4.78

3.4 --

2.66

4.29

2.85

X= 1.79

1.79

3.45

3.74

2.75

4.72

2.15

1.60

2.16

Choosing clustering
factors

GIS-based zone clustering

factors calculation

There are 5 data points in X, so n = 5.

Then initiate UO3) randomly.
U`)

0.452

0.856

0.104

0.426

0.787

0.548

0.144

0.896

0.574

0.213

Using Equation 2 we get 1M), the cluster centres for X:

v() =

[2.650

3.219

2.8671

2.526

2.630

3.672]

With a Euclidean distance measure, we calculate the

distance matrix D() between Xk and VI:

Fuzzy c-Means clustering

analysis of public transit
service

Quantitative analysis results

Figure 2
GIS-Based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis of public
transit network service

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

60
The final cluster centre and Fuzzy c-partition of the
input data is:

V"2' =

u''''=

[3.073

4.242

3.3931

2.114

1.793

2.984]

0.971

0.933

0.040

0.597

0.071

0.029

0.067

0.960

0.403

0.929

Using the above data, we could divide X into two

groups: group 1 includes X1, X2 and X4, group 2
includes X3 and X5.

Basic hypothesis and analysis

process
The method analyses public transit service at the
traffic zone level. At this level, the inner relationship
between traffic zones could be explored. The
hypothesis of this method is that traffic zones could
be clustered into groups according to zone characters.
Several indexes associated with public transit service
demand and supply are used as characteristics of
traffic zones.

The main analysis flow can be described as in Figure

2. First, select several indexes to be used as zone
clustering factors. GIS's spatial analysis and inquiring
functions are used to calculate those selected factors.
Then the Fuzzy c-Means clustering method is used
to cluster zones. The results of quantitative clustering
analysis are used as a guideline to help planners
identify poorly served areas.

Choosing clustering factors

We observe public transit service in middle zones
through two approaches: the demand and the supply.
Three indexes have been chosen to express the
demand and supply characters of traffic zones, which
are shown in Figure 3. Transit network density and
transit route length per 10 000 people are used as
indexes of service supply. The bus origin destination
matrix (OD) of the traffic zone, which is the total
number of bus trips that originated or ended in that
zone, is the best index to express the demand in the
traffic zone. However, it is very difficult to obtain
bus OD in cities without large-scale OD investigation.
Studies in Nanjing have shown that traffic zone's
bus OD is closely related to the traffic zone's
population density. Figure 4 shows the intensity of

Transit network density

Service
supply
Transit route length per
10,000 person

Zone
clustering
factors
Transit
demand

Figure 3
Fuzzy cMeans clustering factors

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

Population density

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

61
bus OD in Nanjing middle zone (middle zone's bus
OD divided by its area) has a linear relationship with
population density, and their correlation coefficient
R is 0.97. As the population has a close relationship
with service demand, the higher populated area
requires higher level of service. So population density
is used as index of service demand.
The transit network density is defined as the total
length of road centre lines, which are occupied by
public transit lines on every square kilometre of
urban land. Hence we get the definition for middle
zone transit network densitythe total length of
road centre lines which are occupied by public transit
lines on every square kilometre of urban land in the
middle zone:

transit network density is that the counted variable is

the not road centre line, but the public transit routes:

(5)

= L

Pi

where:
Ti is the transit route length per 10 000 person in
zone i
R1 is the length of public transit route in zone i
1), is the population of middle zone i.
Population density is the density of population in
the middle zone. This demographic data has been
obtained from the Nanjing demographic
investigation.

(4)

GIS-based zone clustering factors

calculation

where:
M1 is the density of public transit network in
zone i

Transit route length per 10 000 person is defined as

the total length of public transit route per 10 000
persons. The main difference between this index and

Common inquiries of the topology relationship of

space objects are 'area to area', 'line to line', 'point to
point', 'line to area', 'point to line' and 'point to area'.

Intensity of bus OD (trips/sq. km )

L, is the length of road centre lines which are

occupied by transit routes in middle zone i
A is the area of middle zone i.

The spatial analysis and inquiring functions of GIS

are used in calculating middle zone transit network density
and middle zone transit route length per 10 000 person.
Topology between space objects in GIS can be simplified
as relationship among points, lines, and areas.

5000
4500
4000

3500

3000
2500
2000
1500

1000
500

4
Middle zone population density (10 000 person/sq. km)

Figure 4: The XY scattered graph for bus original destination (OD) intensity and population density (Nanjing)
Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

62
Table 1
Middle zone clustering factor values(Nanjing)

Middle

Transit

Transit route

Population

zone

network

length per

density

density

10 000 person

(10 000

(km/km2)

(km/10 000 person) person/km2)

3.21

4.78

3.4

2.66

4.29

2.85

1.79

1.79

3.45

3.74

2.75

4.72

2.15

1.60

2.16

1.61

5.84

1.51

7
8

0.90
1.72

1.76
1.26

1.09
1.72

9
10
11

2.52
2.55
1.08

1.80
1.22
0.71

2.11
4.06
2.67

12

1.42

1.45

2.68

13

1.57

2.45

0.94

14

2.45

2.00

3.29

15

1.14

1.66

1.23

16

2.78

1.86

4.11

17

1.29

0.89

2.69

18

1.67

2.23

1.79

19

1.29

3.07

0.85

20

0.71

1.49

0.70

21

0.17

0.84

0.25

22

0.84

1.69

0.81

23

0.00

0.00

0.09

24

0.08

0.54

0.28

25

0.16

37.00

0.01

26

0.61

3.54

0.50

27

0.19

0.49

0.39

28

0.10

0.60

0.20

29

0.00

0.00

0.13

30

0.29

1.64

0.28

31

0.65

3.70

0.30

32

0.10

19.33

0.06

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

Middle zone transit network density

calculation belongs to 'line to area'
topology inquiry. Every middle zone
can be considered as an area, and
the public transit network can be
taken as a collection of road centre
lines. The density of the public transit
network in every middle zone is
exactly the density of line objects in
the zone area. The calculation
method for middle zone transit route
length per 10 000 person is nearly
the same as middle zone transit
network density. Table 1 shows the
values of three indexes for each
middle zone in Nanjing.

Fuzzy c-Means clustering

analysis of public transit
network service
The Fuzzy c-Means clustering
algorithm was used to study the
Nanjing public transit network
service in middle zones at two
different clusters: number 4 and 8.
Figure 5 shows clustering map, while
Table 2 shows the results of the
The
maximum
clustering.
membership of each middle zone is
used to decide its group number.
In the 4 groups division, we can see
that the urban city of Nanjing forms
into two circles. The inner circle
coincidentally matches with the old
Nanjing city and is the most
populated and prosperous district
in Nanjing. The outer circle is formed
mainly by newly developed area.
This clustering result suits with the
urban planning very well.
In the 8 groups division, group 1 is
formed by zones (1, 2}. Group 2 is
formed by zones (7, 13, 15, 19, 20, 22,
26, 30, 311.Group 3 is formed by
zones (21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29}. Group 4
is formed by zones (5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17,
181. Group 5 is formed by zone 32.
Group 6 is formed by zone 6. Group
7 is formed by zones (3, 4, 10, 14, 16).
Group 8 is formed by zone 25.

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

63
Table 2

Table 3 shows the calculated distance matrix between

Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis results

(Nanjing)

groups. As known from experience, group 1 is the

best-served group. According to distance measure,
groups are rearranged according their distances from
group 1. The new order is as follows: group 1, group
6, group 7, group 4, group 2, group 3, group 5, group
8. Group 5 and 8 are public green lands, and are not
of research interest. Group 6, 7, 4 have an average
transit network density of more than 2.1 km / km 2,
and are districts with a fairly high level of public

Middle

4-group

8-group

zone

clustering

clustering

group number

group number

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

28

8 groups division
Figure 5: Nanjing public transit network service Fuzzy c
Means clustering map 4 and 8 group divisions
Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

64
transit service. Groups 2 and 3 are poorly served by
public transit. Group 3 is on the outskirts of Nanjing,
the population density is very low, and it is fairly
distant from the centre of Nanjing. There is less
construction activity in group 3. Group 2 is located
very near the centre of Nanjing. It has a fairly high
population but a low public transit service. The
average transit network density of group 2 is only
0.57 km /km2 . The public transit service in group 2
needs to be improved.

Final clustering analysis results

On the basis of previous analysis, and observation
of constructions in Nanjing urban city, four large
poorly served districts of public transit were
selected: Zhong fu district, Zhong bao can district,
Zhong hua men district and Mu xu yuan district,
as shown in Figure 6. As zones 15, 19 and 22 had
already received a very large improvement in the
evaluation process, they were not listed in the
improvement list.
It should be noted that a conventional single index
evaluation also had been made, but it could not
identify these four poorly served districts.
In order to test the correctness of these analysis
results, a separate discussion was held with experts
in public transport. The opinions of the experts are
the same as the analysis results.

CONCLUSIONS
Analysis results of this GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means
clustering method have aroused great attention from
the government of Nanjing city and public transit
enterprises. The improvement of those present poorly
served districts has been adopted as the key objective
of public transit planning. Public transit service in
several poorly served districts has been improved
during the process of planning. It can be deduced,
after the execution of the new three-year plan (19992001), that present problems of network service will
be totally solved.

Figure 6: District to be improved in public transit

network service

Table 3
Distances between final cluster group centres

Cluster 1

0.000

3.779

5.644

3.394

15.46

2.485

2.763

32.83

3.779

0.000

1.916

1.686

17.34

3.640

3.342

34.98

5.644

1.916

0.000

2.761

18.84

5.440

4.579

36.51

3.394

1.686

2.761

0.000

18.14

4.311

1.827

35.71

15.46

17.34

18.84

18.14

0.000

13.87

18.12

17.67

2.485

3.640

5.440

4.311

13.87

0.000

4.644

31.46

2.763

3.342

4.579

1.827

18.12

4.644

0.000

35.50

32.83

34.98

36.51

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

35.71

17.67

31.46

35.50

0.000

GIS-based Fuzzy c-Means clustering analysis

65
This method gives a quantitative way of analysing
urban public transit service in the background of
demand and supply. The results of quantitative
analysis help public transit planners to discover the
most important problems in transit service coverage.
And with the help of this analysis method more
scientific and reasonable strategies could be made. It
fully utilises the visualisation advantage of GIS
platform, and it requires little data, which makes it
practicable in cities with little or less GIS foundations.
With its Fuzzy characteristic, it could be used in
other cities without much adaptation.

REFERENCES
BEZDEK, J.C. (1981). Pattern Recognition with Fuzzy Objective
Function Algorithms, Plenum Press, New York and London.
MURRAY, A.T., et al. (1998). Public transportation access,
Transportation Research Part D, Vol.3, No. 5, p. 319-328.
ZHANG, J. (1998). Using GIS in public transportation,
Spatial Information Technology Towards 2000 and Beyond The
Proceedings of Geoinformatics'98 Conference Beijing , 17-19
June 1998, pp.470-479.

Xinmiao Yang

is a research assistant to Professor Wei Wang in the transportation college at Southeast

University. His doctoral research dealt with the theory and methodology of public
transportation planning and management. He is interested in GIS-T, especially in using
GIS technology in the public transportation system. He takes part in two China national
research projects: Sustainable Urban Transportation System Study, and Urban Public
Transportation System Planning Research.
Wei Wang

is the Vice-chairman of the Academic Committee of Southeast University, Dean of the

Transportation College, and distinguished research professor. He has a long history of
research and participation in urban and regional transportation planning, management
and ITS. He is in charge of 20 projects which are supported by China national science
funds, and 40 projects which are supported by provincial and ministry research funds.
He has been awarded 17 honours for his outstanding achievement in transportation
research and application.

Contact
Dr Xinmiao Yang
Transportation College
Southeast University
210096 Nanjing
JiangShu Proveince
China
Tel: +86 25 3794101
Email: xmyang@seu.edu.cn

Note
The authors welcome enquiries from anyone wishing to apply the method.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.
59838310) and a grant from the China Education Ministry. The authors wish to thank two
referees for their valuable suggestions on an early version of the paper.

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

66

Local Government News

SALINITY IMPACTS ON LOCAL ROADS

Giummarra

Salinity affects not only agricultural lands and natural

waterways and related ecosystems but also road
infrastructure, where roads traverse areas in which
the water table is close to the surface. Salinity
problems are most widespread in Western Australia;
however, significant effects are also apparent in
South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
More than 80 regional towns and cities have ongoing costs related to salinity. These costs include
damage to building foundations, bridges, pipelines
and roads. In some salt-affected catchments, up to
30% of regional roads are being affected with major
highway reconstruction costing up to $1 million per
kilometre (ENN 1999).

in the Loddon-Campaspe catchments in central

Victoria, and showed that councils spend an average
of $77,000 each year on repairs and maintenance to
roads and buildings directly caused by salinity
(Martin and Metcalfe 1998).
This article highlights the main aspects from the
study report (McRobert and Robinson 2000) and the
measures that local road practitioners can take to
help minimise the adverse impact high salinity can
have on local roads. Similar information can be
found in ARRB TR Special Report 57. Details on this
study and how to obtain a copy are given below.

Main Findings
A study recently completed for the Department of
Natural Resources and Environment on this topic
provided useful information for local government
councils on the impacts of rising water tables and
salinity on local road assets, as well as putting forward
a range of treatments which could be adopted to
reduce these impacts.
The study also included the findings of a case study
attempting to quantify the costs of dryland salinity

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

High water tables and salinity pose considerable

costs for local government. A number of interrelated
issues are involved in the deterioration of road assets
in catchments with high water tables and salinity.
Issues of concern for local road managers in affected
areas include:
High water tables causing the saturation of the
underlying road formation, leading to base failure
of pavements (both sealed and unsealed);

Local Government News

67
Loss and degradation of important remnant
vegetation on roadsides;
There can be increased surface flooding and
inundation of roadways, which can lead to
increased erosion and subsequent siltation of
structures;
Roads themselves disrupt natural drainage
patterns and can be perceived as contributing to
salinity problems on adjacent farmland;
Loss of seal, and potholing in extreme cases, can
be due to high concentrations of salt deposition in
the base layer immediately below the surfacing
causing debonding of the thin bituminous surface
course. This would most likely be due to use of
saline water during construction rather than any
capillary action of ground water; and
Structures such as reinforced concrete bridges
and culverts could be affected by capillary rise in
ground water leading to deterioration of some
concrete aggregates by salt crystallisation.
Subsequent cracking and oxidisation (or rusting)
of reinforcing steel causing spalling of the concrete
has been observed in older structures. Defective
materials or poor quality construction however
are more likely to be a primary cause of

deterioration in all but the most aggressive saline

environments.

Approaches to Remedial Treatments

The majority of Australia's road network comprises
local roads. These are the sealed and unsealed roads
managed by local government authorities. Funding
and budgeting for these networks impose a major
constraint on rehabilitation and treatment options
for remedying the deterioration experienced in salt
affected catchments.
Various road based rehabilitation options are
available to local road managers and these are
summarised below:
1. Road Reconstructionraises the pavement level
with suitable material to physically separate it
from the influence of saturated conditions and
reconstruct.
2. Major Road Rehabilitation the rehabilitation
options are:
de-water the pavement environment to
provide drained conditions;
stabilise foundation and pavement materials
to reduce their susceptibility to water; or
resheet with a sufficient thickness of pavement
quality material to provide adequate cover to
the weakened subgrade.
3. Road Maintenance implement an intensive
regime of maintenance activities including
drainage maintenance and pavement repairs and
major patching as warranted.
4. Cooperate with the local community groups
by working towards reduction of ground water
recharge and lowering watertable levels in the
catchment areas
Cooperation with landholders will be a critical factor
in determining the success of salinity mitigation
measures to protect catchment assets, including
roads.

Figure 1
Typical base failure of a sealed pavement traversing a salt pan
area - base softening leading to roughness, developing potholes
and flushing of seal.
Heathcote - Colbinabbin Road,
Shire of Campaspe local road, Vic

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Local Government News

68
Road rehabilitation measures alone cannot influence
the root cause of the problem (i.e. saturated and
weak foundation pavement materials) and will have
only temporary benefits. This trend of rising water
tables in cleared catchments across most arable lands
of Australia will only be addressed though changes
in land use aimed at restoring the catchment water
balance.
Planting trees in both ground water recharge and
discharge areas, to lower water tables on farms, has
so far yielded only limited success and will require
many years to have any positive effects on a large
scale. Nonetheless, until there is substantial shift
away from mostly cereal growing and grazing of
annual pastures toward more perennial based
farming systems, water tables will continue to rise
and cause damage.
The installation of drainage and pumping systems
to lower water tables can have local effectiveness but
also generates the problem of where to effectively
treat or dispose of the saline water without causing
further damage to receiving environments.

Options for unsealed roads

A separation and drainage layer, of a coarse-grained
material such as sand, can be constructed to isolate
the unsealed pavement from the underlying
saturated soils. An embankment can be constructed
using coarse-grained materials. However, this would
be an expensive investment into an unsealed
pavement and would also tend to disrupt natural
surface flows and pond catchment water on the
upstream side of the road, unless suitably placed
culverts were introduced.
Existing granular pavement materials can be
stabilised by various means (typically using lime
and or cementitious materials) followed by a resheet
of say 100 mm of new gravel. This would then
require the normal maintenance grading and periodic
topping up with gravel.
Probably the most cost effective way to maintain
unsealed roads in areas with a high water table is to
improve the drainage of the pavement itself by

Figure 2
Local unsealed road affected by dryland salinity,
Shire of Greater Bendigo local road, Vic

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

restoring the surface shape and maintaining sufficient

crossfall (ideally between 4-6%) to facilitate the
shedding of water. This can be achieved through
good grading practice. This will minimise any flat
spots in the pavement and prevent water retention
on the pavement itself leading to reduced potholing.
It should be noted, however, that the maintenance of
sufficient crossfall is sometimes difficult, especially
in low-lying areas where longitudinal drainage
dominates the pavement drainage.

Revegetation options
Tree plantations have been successful in lowering
the watertable in salt affected areas on farmland, in
some land types. There may also be some potential
for revegetation alongside roads as a feasible means
of protecting pavements. Waterlogging and high
soil and ground water salinities can, however, present
major limitations to the success of any revegetation
strategy to protect roads.
The ability of trees to transpire water is affected by
both salinity and waterlogging. Waterlogging
reduces the amount of oxygen in the soil, which then
reduces the production of energy by the plants roots.
Where there is waterlogging under saline conditions,
the roots cannot screen out salts which leads to
increased uptake of salts in the shoots which usually
limits plant growth and survival.
These conditions can severely limit the
performance of tree plantations so there would
need to be investigations at each site to ensure
these conditions are managed to secure the best
results. The practicability of revegetation as a
strategy to reduce the impacts of high water tables
and salinity on roads is covered further in the
Study Report.

Local Government News

69
Other Salinity Study
In 1999, ARRB Transport Research conducted an
investigation on the impacts of salinity on road
assets for Main Roads Western Australia. This
investigation includes determination of the extent of
current and future impacts, control measures and
effectiveness, treatment options and success factors.
The findings from this investigation are detailed in
Special Report 57 entitled: The impacts of waterlogging
and salinity on road assets: A Western Australian case
study.
This publication can be ordered through Don Merritt
at ARRB Transport Research Ltd. Tel: (03) 9881 1547
or email: donm@arrb.com.au.
For further information, contact either Neil Houghton
or George Giummarra at ARRB Transport Research
Ltd on (03) 9881 1555.

REFERENCES
ENN. (1999). Dryland salinity threatens Australia,
Environmental News Network, Friday 25 June 1999.
http: /www.enn.com /mews / enri-stories
McROBERT, J. and ROBINSON, P. (2000). Salinity Impacts
on Local Roads. Contract Report prepared for Department
of Natural Resources and Environment. ARRB Transport
Research Ltd; Vermont South.
McROBERT, J. and FOLEY, G. (2000). The impacts of
waterlogging and salinity on road assets: a Western Australian
case study Special Report 57. ARRB Transport Research
Ltd., Vermont South
MARTIN, L. and METCALFE, J. (1998). Assessing the
Cause, Impacts, Costs and Management of Dryland Salinity.
Occasional Paper No. 20/98. Prepared for the National
Dryland Salinity Program, LWRRDC, ACT.

Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

70

In this, the authors effectively highlight the shifting

focus in transport generally, not only in transport
economics, away from the public policy realm towards
the workings of the private sector. This is an
observation not a criticism, but the transition appears
to have produced some strange inclusions or
exclusions along the way.

Book Review
TRANSPORT: AN ECONOMICS AND
MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE
Authors: D. Hensher and A. Brewer

Oxford University Press, 2000

ISBN: 0-19-877641-1

A new book with the words 'transport' and 'economics'

juxtaposed in the title is a relatively rare event these
days. It was with some eagerness, therefore, that I
undertook to review this book by two eminent
Australian academics in the transport field.
Perhaps I should have looked more closely at the
other juxtaposition in the title, that of 'transport'
and 'management', for this book is clearly aimed at
'improving management performance' (in the
words of the authors) rather than the key dimensions
of public policy that transport economics has
traditionally dealt with.

For example, there are interesting (and, to the public

policy analyst, useful) diversions into the areas of
congestion and externalility pricing (in Chapter 6)
and subsidies for urban public transport (in Chapter
7), neither of which would appear to have particular
relevance to the transport manager other than through
an understanding of the potential impacts of these
issues upon transport operators.
On the other hand, the authors totally omit discussion
of the basis on which the public sector makes decisions
about investment in transport infrastructure, which
even today defines a substantial part of the context
within which the transport manager must work,
although there is a short discussion of 'the benefitcost evaluation theoretical framework' as part of the
chapter on 'evaluating the role of subsidy in supporting
public transport services in urban areas'. Even here,

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one might expect to find reference to the increasing use
of less restrictive methodologies in the public sector,
including the New Approach to Appraisal being
developed in the United Kingdom and the strategic
funding allocation model of the Transportation Equity
Act for the 21st Century in the United States.
The authors set themselves the daunting task of
'offer[ing] a range of conceptual frameworks and
analytical tools to assist in providing ways of thinking
about and quantifying the practice of transport and
organizational logistics within a framework designed
to capture the commitment of a business to multiple
objectives, goals and a vision' (page 4). At the same
time, they acknowledge that readers will need to refer
to 'further material from the extensive set of references
to the wider literature' (page 4).
The list of references is, indeed, an extensive one (at
just over 17 pages) and because of this would have
benefited from either a citation approach that would
allow readers to see where particular works had been
referenced in the text or, even at the cost of some
repetition, being set out on a Chapter by Chapter basis.
Even so, there are some perplexing omissions.
Recognising the need for an international focus to
enhance the marketability of this book, the authors
make extensive reference to United Kingdom and
United States, as well as Australian, experience and
examples. This is often useful, but sometimes a
singular concentration on one of these limits the
usefulness and ease of understanding for those of us
in Australia. The use of congestion cost estimates for the
USA only is a case in point; many Australian readers will
have difficulty relating to the magnitudes for the USA
(especially given the recent substantial changes in the
international exchange rate for the Australian dollar!)
but there are similar estimates for Australia, including
comparisons between capital cities.

Similarly, the authors do not appear to be aware of the

application of the Glaister-Lewis (G-M) model for
estimating appropriate subsidy levels for urban public
transport in Perth, Western Australia. Whilst this
might be understandable, as the report on it only had
limited circulation, it would have provided an
interesting comparison to the authors' own model
and its application to Sydney (Sections 7.4 and 7.5), as
would the results of any other applications of the GM model or similar models. Whilst the results for a
single city might illustrate the model, results for several
cities would better illustrate the range of policy
implications.
The book relies heavily on the use of mathematics,
through equations and statistical analysis. How one
responds to this is, inevitably, a matter of subjective
preference, but I find a good rule of thumb (use of
which is probably not something the authors, with
their analytical bent, would encourage) to be whether
the arguments are still essentially understandable by
those who lack either the skills or the inclination to
delve into the details of the mathematics. A reader
without the time to investigate the mathematics and,
let's face it, how many people have the luxury of that
amount of time these days might find the authors
guilty of 'mathematical exhibitionism' (a phrase for
which I am grateful to Paul Mees who drew my
attention to its use in his recent book, A Very Public
Solution: Transport in the Dispersed Cityl ) or, less
unkindly, a lack of empathy with some of their readers.
Whatever one's views on the extensive use of
mathematics, the paradigms that underly the maths
are what is important. The paradigms on which
Hensher and Brewer base their work can be likened
to those of Newtonian physics: fine within a defined
framework, which broadly equates to the framework
within which they were derived. As public policy

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Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research

Book Review

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increasingly acknowledges the 'complex adaptive
system' characteristics of urban systems, even if the
policy implications and modelling requirements are
by no means clear at this stage, there is real potential
for a developing divergence between public policy
and transport system management (whether by the
private or public sectors). This could form the subject
of a book in its own right, and I am acutely aware that
I have already suggested that the authors have been
ambitious with their current scope; it would, however,
provide some further illumination of the privateprovider paradigm.
The authors make extensive use of diagrams, often to
good effect, but the value of these has been diminished
by the sub-editing their placement often seems to
owe more to the niceties of page layout than to the
relationship to the text. Consequently, it is sometimes
difficult to take in both the diagram and the related text
at the same time.
But enough of the 'style'; what about the substance?
The book is organised around three main themes:
1 The Institutional Environment:
Privatisation and competitive tendering
Economic deregulation, competition policy and
case studies.
2 The Cornerstones of Transport Economics:
Knowing your market: what influences choice
and demand
Knowing your costs
Knowing your prices
Evaluating the role of subsidy in supporting
public transport services in urban areas: theory
and application.

David A. Hensher
Ann M. Brewer

3 The Cornerstones of Organisational Management:

Knowing your organisation from a supplychain perspective
Knowing your business culture
Knowing your work design
Knowing your people.
Of these, the sections on the 'institutional environment'
and the 'cornerstones of organisational management'
will be of the greatest interest and value to most
readers, with the mathematical orientation being most
pervasive in the cornerstones of transport economics.
The scope of this book clearly reflects the distinct
interests of the two authors and the research work
each has undertaken often in the form of 'case
studies' reported in the book. It is not clear that this
provides the best 'recipe' for such a book, as it can lead
to odd omissions and inclusions, some of which have
already been noted.
The authors are at their most accessible when writing
about the institutional environment and
organisational management. For example, they
perform a very valuable service in their succinct
assessment of the range of options that is often
simplistically put under the catch-all of 'privatisation',
even if they do reveal their predilection for the private
sector by reference to 'the extent to which public
enterprises may have 'conned' ministers over many
years in respect of service and cost' (page 19). I very
much doubt that the private sector is immune to very
similar ways of operating, albeit under the cover of the
'working of market forces'.
In this respect, the critique of the concept of
'contestability' as introduced by Baumol in 1982
(pages 21-23 in Hensher and Brewer) is valuable,

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Book Review

73
especially as it appears to remove one of the more
commonly-used planks of support for market-based
solutions.

crying out for a clear and informative treatment,

independent of the many vested interests that
pontificate on the subject.

It is also worth noting that whilst public sector

ownership did tend to lead to deficits and underinvestment, private sector ownership creates
difficulties in the development of public policy because
relevant information is less likely to readily available.

Nevertheless, there is much in this book that will be of

value to a wide range of transport professionals, in
policy, planning and operational areas. The difficulty
for many people will be finding the level of treatment
with which they feel comfortable or for which they
have a need.

It is unfortunate that there is no discussion of other

forms of private sector involvement in what have
traditionally been public sector functions variously
know as 'public-private partnerships' or, in the United
Kingdom, the 'private finance initiative'. The UK
Treasury's own review of the private finance initiative
highlighted the extent to which the private sector had
been able to take significant advantage of the public
sector through its ability to negotiate the transfer of
financial benefits whilst leaving risks with the public
sector.
Some risks, of course, are inherently unable to be
transferred to the private sector, and this is true whether
we are talking models of privatisation or of publicprivate partnerships. In the case of major transport
infrastructure or the provision of transport services
that are essential for the functioning of a region, there
is a widespread presumption that the government
will be a 'provider of last resort'.
Parts of this book have been overtaken by events in
the political cycle, with privatisation per se being
progressively overtaken by partnerships between
the private and public sectors. Yet there is still a
large amount of confusion between the two concepts
and even more between them and the more mundane
one of contracting out. If the authors want a topic for
a further book, private-public partnerships is one

Reviews are, of necessity, subjective and at least as

susceptible to the specific interests of the reviewer as
the work being reviewed is subject to those of the
authors. Reviews also give the reviewer a platform for
indirectly expressing their own views, especially
where these are at variance with those of the authors.
The authors of this book have a leaning towards the
role of the private sector; the reviewer has a public
policy focus. If there is 'truth', no doubt it rests
somewhere in between and I would encourage those
with an interest in how transport decisions are, or
perhaps should be, made to read this book and make
their own judgements.
Reviewed by I.Ker
1

'... there has been no shortage of theoretical arguments

for the public choice model of urban government [but] there
have been few thorough case studies of the effects of
competing urban policy models. This is parallelled in the
urban transport literature by an excessive emphasis on
theoretical computer modelling exercises and "mathematical
exhibitionism".' (Mees (2000, p173), A Very Public Solution:
Transport in the Dispersed City. Melbourne University Press.)
Mees, in turn, acknowledges S J Butlin (1966), 'The Hundredth
Record', The Economic Record, Vol 42, No 100, p 514, as the
original source of this term.

Discussion on the review and the book are encouraged. Please

send your contributions to: Dr. Ray Brindle, Editor, Road and
Transport Research, ARRB Transport Research Ltd., 500
Burwood Highway, Vermont South, Vic. 3133.

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Vol 10 No 2 June 2001 Road & Transport Research