Transportation Planning

(BTL2034)

By: AP Dr. Seyed Mohammadreza Ghadiri, April 2021

 Summary Information About This Course

Course synopsis:

This course deals with basics of transportation planning process:

Overview of transport planning and its relation to land use
development under different geo-political context; transport data
collection techniques; transport demand estimation and four-step
transport planning process. It also covers the planning evaluation
concepts that provide the linkage between planning analysis and
selection of preferred course of action.
 Summary Information About This Course

Objectives:

• To explain the basics of land use and transport interrelationships

• To describe the fundamentals of transportation demand estimation

• To describe the fundamentals of transportation planning process

 Summary Information About This Course

Assessment methods and types:

• Attendance, Class Participation, Discussion 10%

• Assignments 20%
100%
• Mid Term Test 20%

• Final Exam 50%

 Summary Information About This Course

Main references:
• Michael Meyer and Eric J. Miller, Urban Transport Plan, McGraw-Hill
Publishing Co, 2nd Edition, 2007.

• Yoram Shiftan, Kenneth Button, and Peter Nijkamp, Transportation

Planning (Classics in Planning), Edward Elgar Publishing, 1st Edition,
2007.

Additional references supporting the course:

• Paul H. Wright and Karen Dixon, Highway Engineering, 7th Edition,

Wiley, 2003.
 Summary Information About This Course

Additional references supporting the course:

• Ortúzar, J.de D., and Willumsen, L.G. (2011) Modelling Transport, 4th
edition, Wiley.
 What is Transportation Planning?

Transportation planning provides the information, tools, and public

involvement needed for improving transportation system performance. It
is a continuous process that requires monitoring of the system’s
performance and condition

❑ Transportation planning plays a fundamental role in the state, region or

community’s vision for its future. It includes a comprehensive
consideration of possible strategies; an evaluation process that
encompasses diverse viewpoints; the collaborative participation of
relevant transportation-related agencies and organizations; and open,
timely, and meaningful public involvement.
 What is Transportation Planning?

❑ In short, Transportation Planning is about preparing, assessing and

implementing policies, plans and projects to improve and manage our
transport systems.

❑ The purpose of transportation planning is to fulfil goals by

developing strategies to meet transportation needs. Therefore the
general goal of transportation planning is to accommodate this need
for mobility.
 General Goal of Transportation Planning

o Within specific context, however, questions such as, whose mobility,

for what purpose, by what means, at what cost and to whom, are
not amendable to easy answer.

❑ Contemporary responses to these questions are largely

rooted in history and have been influenced by many factors
including technological innovations, private interests and
government policies.
 Transportation System and its Characteristics

Modes of the Components of Development

System the Modes of Components

Highways Planning
Railways The Way
Evaluation
Waterways The Vehicle
Design
Airways
The Terminal
Construction
Ropeways
The Control Operation
Conveyors

Pipelines Maintenance
 Transportation System and its Characteristics

For the development of the components, we go through 6 important

steps. Starting from planning, Evaluation, Design, Construction
Operation, and Maintenance; all these 6 steps are important for each of
these components, if we consider way, you need to go through all the 6
steps to develop way completely. It is equally applicable to other
components too; the vehicle system, the terminal system as well as the
control.

❑ Now, if you think of comprehensive study of Transportation

system as a whole, it implies the study of all the 6 steps, related
to all the 4 components in respect of all the 7 modes.
 Typical Urban Transportation Mode

The availability of or the categorization of modes is based on their

technical as well as the level of service characteristics. Accordingly,
we can classify the modes as followings:
▪ Foot
▪ Bicycle
▪ Motorized two wheeler
▪ Personal Car
▪ Private Taxi (Motorized Four or Three Wheeler)
▪ Shared Taxi (Motorized Four or Three Wheeler)
▪ Bus (Express & Local, BRT)
▪ Rail (Light Rail, Commuter Rail, Rapid Transit)
▪ Ferry
 Typical Urban Transportation Mode

❑ Private Taxi, means that one can engage the taxi for their own
purpose, where as in the case of shared taxi, it is a vehicle operated
on a particular route with fixed locations for stopped.

❑ So, when the route and stopping’s are suitable to your requirement,
you take a shared taxi, otherwise you engage a private taxi.

❑ Shared taxi could be a Motorized Four Wheeler or Motorized Three

Wheeler like auto rickshaw.
 Ranking of Modes Based on Their Characteristics

❑ Based on The Users’ Point of View

1. level of service; We categorize or we understand the modes based

on their level of usage available to us or level of service provided by
each of these modes to or requirement. We look at modes to study or
to understand the level of service base on their speed (how fast a
particular mode can take us).
 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

If it is a train you may have to go a long way from home to reach the
railway station. If it is a bus, again you may have to take another mode
to reach the bus stop. If it is your own car it is available at the door
step it provides door to door movement.

2. Accessibility (how easy it is to access the particular mode) is

another criterion that for the users, keep in mind while judging the
level of service of a mode.

3. Cost implication; how expensive is a particular mode of

transportation then probably the level of comfort available in a
particular mode.
 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

Let us first consider speed of the mode as well as accessibility, both

taken simultaneously and rank all the available modes for transport in
urban context, which is the mode that has very less accessibility.
 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

High
Typical Speed (on that Mode )

Commuter M.F.W Uncongested

Road
Rail
M.
Express Private
Rapid
Taxi Personal T.
Transit Bus
Car W
M.Th.W
Congested
Light Road
Rail M.F.W

Shared Taxi
Local
Bus M.Th.W
Ferry
Bicycle
Foot
Low

Very Limited Accessibility Door-to-door

 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

Commuter rail rapid transit generally on the average railway station may be
little far off compared to the other modes of transportation. Next comes may
be ferry, depending upon the location. Then, probably express bus and light
rail which is better accessible compared to the other two. Then , local bus
simultaneously can see the speed is indicated in respect of each of these
modes, then shared taxi.

Next comes private taxi which is easily accessible when compared to shared
taxi could be motorized four wheeler or three wheeler. Next personal car
which is easily accessible and its speed could be very high if the road is
uncongested, and relatively low if the road is congested. Next bicycle easily
accessible but of course speed is much less, and then motorized two wheeler
motorcycles available to you, provide you door to door service. Finally the
well know mode of transportation foot; very slow but provides you door to
door service.
 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

High
M.T.W Uncongest
ed Road
Typical Speed (on that Mode )

M.F.W
Commuter M.F.W
Rail, Personal
Express Shared Private
Taxi
Car
Bus, Rapid Taxi
Light Transit M.Th.W Congested
Rail M.Th.W Road
Local
Bus

Ferry

Bicycle

Foot
Low

Minimum Cost of Travel Maximum

 Ranking of Modes Based on The Users’ Point of View

High Uncongest
ed Road
Typical Speed (on that Mode )

M.T.W
M.F.W
Commuter M.F.W
Rail, Personal
Express Shared Private Car
Bus, Taxi
Taxi
Rapid
Light Congested
Transit M.Th.W
Rail M.Th.W Road
Local
Bus

Ferry

Bicycle

Foot
Low

Minimum Comfort Maximum

 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

High
M.T.W
Typical Speed (on that Mode )

Uncongeste
d Road
Commuter M.F.W M.F.W
Rail,
Light Rail, Express Shared Personal
Taxi Private
Rapid Bus Car
Taxi
Transit M.Th.W Congested
Road
Local M.Th.W
Bus

Ferry

Bicycle

Foot
Low

Minimum Air Pollution Maximum

 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

Question: Why Commuter Rail, Light Rail and Rapid Transit are least
polluting after foot and bicycle?

1. Consider pollution as the amount of pollution per passenger

kilometre (it is for all modes)

2. The tractive force of Urban Rail system is derived from electricity

which is non-polluting source.
 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

Question: Why Local busses are as slightly highly polluting compared

to express busses?

Many stoppages In Local busses means increased fuel consumption,

increased emission and increased air pollution.
 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

❑ Obviously planners have to encourage the least polluting modes

starting from foot, bicycle, rail system, bus system and ferry to
some extent. At the Planning stage we need to give least important
to the other modes; starting from shared taxi, private taxi, and
personal car and so on.
 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

High
M.T.W
Typical Speed (on that Mode )

Uncongeste
d Road
Commuter M.F.W M.F.W
Rail,
Light Rail, Express Shared Personal
Taxi Private
Rapid Bus Car
Taxi
Transit M.Th.W Congested
Road
Local M.Th.W
Bus

Ferry

Bicycle

Foot
Low

Minimum Energy Consumption Maximum

 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

❑ It has been found that bicycle is the least energy consuming mode
of transportation and next comes the mode foot per passenger
kilometre and the commuter rail transit.

Question: Why rail transit is less energy consuming compared to bus?

❑ The tractive resistance in the case of railway system is relatively

less because of the wheels are metal wheels and the path way is
again metal rail and the contact surface is much less compared to
other systems. That is how the tractive resistance is relatively less
which increases the energy efficiency of the system to a great
extent.
 Ranking of Modes Based on Planners’ Point of View

❑ The occupancy of personal cars is relatively less, even though the

private taxies and shared taxies could be cars, occupancy level is
expected to be much higher compared to private cars. And, we look
at the energy consumption per passenger kilometre. That is how
private cars become highly energy inefficient mode of
transportation.

Question: Suppose you are a transportation planner. By looking at

those figures, what are the modes which will be more efficient in
providing sustainable transportation?

▪ Public transportation mode, Non- Motorized mode such as

Bicycle, even foot to some extent.
 Summary

❑ We have seen in transportation system there are 4 major modes and

3 minor modes, and it is possible to identify a set of components
for each of these modes.
❑ We identified 4 important components of these modes of
transportation. They are the Way, the Vehicle, the Terminal, and
the Control.

❑ Then we realized that there are 6 important steps in the

development of each of these components.

Planning, Evaluation, Design, Construction,

Maintenance, Operation
 Summary

❑ We looked at the list of modes available for urban travel. We found

that there are nine different modes of transportation available for
urban transportation.

❑ Then we ranked these modes of transport based on user’s point of

view, considering the important aspects such as Speed,
Accessibility, Cost of transportation as well as Level of comfort.

❑ Then based on the planner’s point of view, we ranked the modes

considering environmental impact as well as energy consumption
as the basis.

❑ Finally, we realized that it is very important to encourage non-

motorized modes of transportation and urban mass transit to design
a sustainable transportation.
 Recapture!

Question: What is study of transportation system about?

Study of transportation system or comprehensive study of transportation
system is the study of planning, evaluation, design, construction operation
and maintenance of all the components, namely the way the vehicle the
terminal and the control concern with all the 7 modes of transportation
namely highways, railways, airways, waterways, ropeways, pipeline and
conveyors. This is how we can adjust and we can understand the
comprehensive study of transportation system.
 Recapture!

Question: Based on the users of the different modes, what are the
major factors that rank the different modes of transport?

Level of accessibility to the different modes, cost implication with regard

to each of the modes, and then level of comfort available in these modes.
These are the factors that are influencing the ranking in their own
perception by the users.

▪ Mode Choice between Private and Public Transport in Klang Valley,

Malaysia (the article by Onn Chiu Chuen et al, 2014)

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/394587/
 Recapture!

Question: What are the major modal characteristics which form the
basis for ranking of the different modes of transport for the purpose of
transportation system planning? Or in other words in planners’ point of
view how the different modes are ranked?

Planners rank the modes based on global factors like environmental

impact made by each of this modes and energy consumption by the
different modes.

❑ Environmental impact is measured in terms of air pollution cost by

different modes per passenger kilometre of travel. And energy
consumption is also considered in terms of energy consumed per
passenger kilometre.
 Overview of The Factors Influencing Travel Demand

Study of causal factors is a very important component of

transportation system planning.
 Overview of the factors influencing travel demand

❑ Demographic & Social Factors

1. Population
2. Household
3. Age
4. Cultural Aspects
 Demographic & Social Factors

1. Population
o More the population more will be the travel demand. A planner should
be concerned about the pattern of increasing population.
 Demographic & Social Factors

1. Population
 Demographic & Social Factors

Demography statistics for selected states, 2018

Source: Department of Statistics, State Socioeconomic Report 2018

https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=165&bul_id=Z1VxWjBnQXRFblE0ZDVKbFJSSFFZdz09&menu
_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09
 Demographic & Social Factors

❑ Life expectancy at birth” actually refers to the average number

of years a new-born is expected to live if mortality patterns at
the time of its birth remain constant in the future.
 Demographic & Social Factors

2. Household
o A household consists of one or more people who live in the same dwelling
and also share at meals or living accommodation, and may consist of a
single family or some other grouping of people. A single dwelling will be
considered to contain multiple households if either meals or living space
are not shared.
o For the time being, you can understand household as just family. Even
though it is not exactly family for the time being let us assume that
household means family .
 Demographic & Social Factors

Question: How does household influence the demand for

transportation?

o When you have more number or households, it is likely you get

more trips, so, irrespective of population households also
influence the travel demand.
 Demographic & Social Factors

3. Age
Question: Consider two similar cities, in one city the average age of
the community is higher than the average age of community in
another city which city will have more intensity of travel, more
demand for transportation?
o The city which has got higher average age will have more of
elderly people whose mobility will be relatively less compared to
younger and middle age group of people. So that is how we must
understand the influence of age on demand for transportation.

❑ In the developed countries now, the concern is higher level of

average age that is really telling on, the overall productivity of the
nation itself apart from other aspect like travel demand and so on.
 Demographic & Social Factors

4. Cultural aspects
o The cultural aspects are closely related to the activity pattern of
households. It may have historical connections and the activity pattern
is closely related to the travel demand. So, that is how we need to
understand cultural aspects also have a very important role to play in
influencing the demand for transportation in urban areas.
 Demographic & Social Factors

A closer look at the first aspect of population in respect of this country,

Malaysia.

Malaysia Population 2019: 32,025,003

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/malaysia-population/
Demographic & Social Factors

Population of Malaysia between

2005 and 2010 (Department of
Statistics, 2010)

Urban population of Malaysia

between 2000 and 2010 (World
Bank, 2008)
 Demographic & Social Factors

The above graphs showing urban development in Malaysia in the years 2000,
2005 and 2010 (World Bank, 2008)
 Demographic & Social Factors

Question: How did the population of our cities and towns increase?

o There is a significant migration of rural population to urban areas to

take advantage of better employment opportunities available in urban
areas, better educational opportunities available in urban areas, better
health facilities available in urban areas and so on. So, it is mainly
due to migrative process our cities and towns are growing at a very
fast rate.

❑ This indicates that in the near future, the economic developments of

most of the countries are going to be decided by the rated development
of the urban areas.
 Demographic & Social Factors

The urban areas are going to be really engines of economic development of any
countries. That is a trend, that should be understood very clearly and this fact
has been reinforced by a study by United Nations organizations.
 Demographic & Social Factors

Globally, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. In 2007, for the
first time in history, the global urban population exceeded the global rural
population, and the world population has remained predominantly urban
thereafter (United Nations (Global urbanization trend) , 2015).
 Overview of the factors influencing travel demand

❑ Economic Factors
Let’s look at the economic factors that may have influence on the demand
for transportation.

▪ What are the possible economic factors that might influence travel
demand?

1. Employment
2. Income
3. Vehicle Ownership
 Economic Factors

❑ The most important one is employment; more the employees in a society,

more will be the demand for transportation at least for work trips and
related activities. In other words, when you have more employees per
household, there will be more demand for transportation.

❑ Another related economic factor is the income itself, more the income,
more will be the demand for transportation mainly because the increase of
income might result in higher proportion of disposable income.

❑ Then vehicle ownership, when you have vehicle available to you, it is easy
to make trips and the ease with which people make trip, motivate them to
make more trips.
 Economic Factors

❑ What do you understand by disposable income?

Any family will have some basic needs like food shelter, clothing and so on.
So, they have to spend some money to meet these basic needs. Disposable
income, also known as disposable personal income (DPI), is the amount of
money that households have available for spending and saving after
deduction of taxes and other mandatory charges. So, disposable income is
made use of to satisfy your wants, whatever you want, you can refer to you
can try to by using a disposable income.

❑ So, when the income increases, there is flexibility and the wants of the
people increases, which generate more trips for various activities.
 Economic Factors

❑ Question: How vehicle ownership can increase demand for transportation?

For example, the work place for a person is at a distance of about 3

kilometres from home. If the person is using public transit to go to work
from home most probably, he or she will carry lunch also to work have her
lunch in the office itself and return home one in the evening. If the person
wants a motorized vehicle like two wheeler or car, he or she may be tempted
to come home for lunch too, it is possible to come back quickly have a hot
lunch and then go back for work.

❑ So, that is how vehicle ownership encourages people to make more trips for
different activities. In this particular case, if we find that the number of trips
simply get double, 2 trips become 4 trips, because vehicle is available. That
is how vehicle ownership has very important role on the demand for
transportation.
 Economic Factors

Let us look at, what is happened to about growth of motor vehicles in

Malaysia.
Economic Factors
 Economic Factors

The likely trip rate (trip: one way movement from an origin to a
destination), Per Capita Trip Rate in developed countries is around 3.5
trips per head per day. Why it is so high in developed countries?

❑ Vehicle ownership is the main reason. Furthermore, road

conditions, and income all together. In short higher level of
social economic activities leads to increased mobility in
developed societies compare to what is happening in
developing countries.
❑ In the developing countries even the mobility level is low, we
are unable to manage our traffic. How are we going to meet
the demand for transportation in the near future?

NOTE: Per capita means per person. It is a Latin term that translates to "by the head." It's
commonly used in statistics, economics, and business to report an average per person.
 Factors Influencing Urban Travel Pattern Over Time

The next slides show the effect of the influencing factors on travel
pattern over a period of time, this is discussed based on a series of
plots made and based on the experience of developed countries. They
have already observed, how each of these factors have changed over
period of time. The time in those plots is taken along X axis and
change in various factors is taken along Y axis.
Factors Influencing Urban Travel Pattern Over Time
 Factors Influencing Urban Travel Pattern Over Time

The plots showed how we must try to relate the causal factors to the
traffic scenario that we observed on our roads. This is a
comprehensive presentation of various factors that influence the travel
demand and the resulting traffic that we observed on the road.
However, this is not the end of the story, total travel in vehicle
kilometre is known to us, but this travel is a complex commodity.

❑ The travel demand is spread over time and space, each

individual is travelling from a particular origin to a particular
destination at a particular point of time.
Typical Distribution of Trips During the Weekday
 Typical Distribution of Trips During the Weekday

As it is shown in the graph there is a very high traffic movement in the

morning peak falling between 7:30 and 10:30 am (a very high demand).
Similarly, during evening peak between 5:30 and 7:30 again it picks up.
So, this temporal variation in demand for transportation creates lot of
difficulty in transport system management. If you allow all the vehicles
to meet or to go towards work places, then during return trips all the
vehicles will be returning empty.

❑ So, we must find some way out to effectively make use of the
available fleet of transit system.
 Summary!

To summarize today’s discussion, we started our discussion in

understanding the factors that influenced demand for transportation
particularly in urban areas.

❑ First we discussed about demographic and social factors that influenced the
demand for transportation starting from population household, then age of
the population and cultural background of the population.

❑ Then we discussed about economic factors that influence the demand for
transportation starting from employment, income and vehicle ownership.

❑ And finally, we took an over view of all the factors put together and found
that all these factors have their own contribution towards increased vehicle
kilometre that we observed on city roads. And meeting this demand is a
challenge, because this demand is spread over space and time.