Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries

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Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries

Chapter 6

Public Transport Planning in Urban Areas

6.1 Urban transport planning

The development of the 3Cs (continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive) is very impor-

tant in the planning and development of sustainable transportation infrastructure.

a) Continuing specifies that the planning process be ongoing, frequently reevaluating and

updating the transit plan to reflect changes in the urban area.

b) Cooperative is defined as the need for coordination not only between the various levels of

government (local, state, and central), but also among individual agencies at the same level.

It also implies cooperation between disciplines during the planning process and mandates

that planning teams be interdisciplinary.

c) Comprehensive implies the set of the following 10 elements for which inventories and

analyses are required:

1. Economic factors affecting development

2. Population

3. Land use

4. Travel patterns

5. Existing transportation facilities

6. Terminal and transfer facilities

7. Traffic control features

8. Zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, building codes, etc.

9. Financial resources

10. Numerous qualitative elements, including social and community value factors, such as

preservation of open space, environmental amenities, and aesthetics.

For any metropolitan planning organization (MPO) like the development authorities in In-

dian cities will typically include the sustainable transport infrastructure planning as shown

in Figure 6.1. As can be seen in the figure, any such organization should have a planning

works programe, based on both short term and long term planning elements. The short

term planning elements, generally known as transportation system management (TSM)

elements, are basically meant for efficient use of existing and proposed infrastructure. To-

gether with short and long term elements, the organization will have annual and multiyear

transportation improvement programs, which will be frequently updated and monitored

from time to time.

Figure 6.2 gives the basic steps in a comprehensive urban transport infrastructure planning

process. The same are described as follows:

a. Definition of goals and objectives for the transportation system in the future.

b. Collection of inventories: data about the existing city and its transportation system.

c. Forecasts of changes and conditions in the selected target year for plans.

d. A set of criteria for plan evaluation derived from the goals and objectives.

e. Development of alternative infrastructure plans for the projected future conditions, meet-

ing the defined goals.

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f. Technical elaboration and testing of alternative plans, considering their impact on pro-

jected demand and urban development.

g. Comparative evaluation of alternative infrastructure plans using the set of goal-based

criteria and public hearings, resulting in selection of the preferred plan.

h. Finalization of the selected plan and preparation for its implementation.

This is a conceptual organization of a planning process that includes the entire planning

from data collection to the production of the final plan and its implementation. Each of

these steps further consists of data handling, modelling, technical analysis, etc. Figure 6.3

shows the planning process with more technical details.

Figure 6.1: Planning Process of an Organization

Figure 6.2: Sequence of Basic Steps in Comprehensive Urban Transportation

Infrastructure Planning

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Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries

Figure 6.3: Technical Procedure of Long-range Urban Transportation

Infrastructure

The data collection usually consists of collecting comprehensive information about the

present transportation system and urban area. The following are the main categories of the

essential data required for sustainable infrastructure purpose:

a. Land use characteristics

1. Population of localities

2. Residential areas

3. Commercial areas

4. Educational areas

5. Recreational areas

6. Developable areas

7. Other land uses

For example, Figure 6.4 shows the land use map of Bangalore city for 2003

b. Network characteristics

1. Roads by classification

2. Road properties

3. Road geometry

4. Rail way system properties

5. Other network properties

Fig.6.5 shows the network map of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)

c. Topographical features

1. Contours

2. Soil classification

3. Water bodies

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4. Drainage patterns

5. Quarry identification

6. Forest cover

7. Identification of obligatory points

Figure 6.4: Land Use Map of Bangalore City for 2003

d. Socio-economic data

1. Demographic information

2. Income levels

3. Vehicle ownership levels

4. Occupation

5. Education

6. Family structure

7. Employment (Figure 6.6)

e. Activity information

1. Industrial employment

2. Educational employment

3. Administrative employment

4. Wholesale and retail employment

5. Service employment

6. Informal sector employment

f. Transport system characteristics

1. Capacity

2. Speeds

3. Frequency

4. Comfort

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Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries

5. Reliability

6. Time of travel

7. Modal integration

Figure 6.5: Network Map of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)

Figure 6.6: Employment Distribution in MCGM for 1998

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