The process of transportation planning involves the elements of situation and problem definition, search for solutions and performance analysis, as well as evaluation and choice of project. The process is useful for describing the effects of a proposed transportation alternative and for explaining the benefits to the traveler of a new transportation system and its impacts on the community. The highway and traffic engineer are responsible for developing forecasts of travel demand, conducting evaluations based on economic and noneconomic factors, and identifying alternatives for short, medium and long-range purposes.
Transportation Planning is an integrated field of Transportation Engineering, Statistics, Behavioral Sciences and Data Sciences. Transportation Planning deals with estimation of existing and futuristic mobility pattern and development of plan to match transportation supply with travel demand, which represents the need for transportation infrastructure and to ensure smooth flow of traffic from transportation network and infrastructure. The fundamental purpose of transportation is to provide efficient access to various activities that satisfy human needs. Therefore, the general goal of transportation planning is to accommodate this need for mobility.
Transportation systems of regional and national extent are composed of networks of interconnected facilities and services. It follows that nearly all transportation projects must be analyzed with due consideration for their position within a modal or intermodal network, and for their impacts on network performance.
The basic purpose of transportation planning and management is to match transportation supply with travel demand, which represents the need for transportation infrastructure. A thorough understanding of existing travel pattern is necessary for identifying and analyzing existing traffic-related problems. Detailed data on current travel pattern and traffic volumes are also needed for developing travel forecasting/prediction models. The prediction of future travel demand is an essential task of the long-range transportation planning process for determining strategies for accommodating future needs. These strategies may include land use policies, pricing programs, and expansion of transportation supply—highways and transit service.
There are different levels of planning, directed to different types of problems. The terminology for these levels of planning and analysis varies according to the context. For example, the expressions ‘‘micro,’’ ‘‘meso,’’ and ‘‘macro’’ are sometimes used to describe the level of detail or the size of an area used for an analysis. Similarly, the expressions ‘‘site-specific,’’ ‘‘corridor,’’ and ‘‘area-wide’’ or ‘‘metropolitan’’ are used to describe variations in the scope of a problem. The approach and techniques for analyzing and forecasting travel would vary according to the level of analysis. Even for a particular level of analysis, the techniques may have to be adjusted to match the constraints of available data and human resources.
Objective of transportation planning of a project is to accomplished the goals and criteria that are set to optimized overall performance of transportation network. Transportation Planning Objectives are statements of purpose, such as to reduce traffic congestion; to improve safety; to maximize net highway-user benefits; and to reduce noise. Criteria are the measures of effectiveness that can be used to quantify the extent to which a proposed transportation project will achieve the stated objectives. For example, the objective “to reduce traffic congestion” might use “travel time” as the measure of effectiveness. The characteristics of an acceptable system should be identified, and specific limitations and requirements should be noted. Also, any pertinent standards and restrictions that the proposed transportation project must conform to should be understood.
Transportation Planning delivers direct and indirect benefits to the various sectors of society and factor of transportation infrastructure. By implementing the selected interventions, the journey time will reduce, cities will become more accessible and air quality will improve.
The transportation planning process comprises seven basic elements, which are interrelated and not necessarily carried out sequentially. The information acquired in one phase of the process may be helpful in some earlier or later phase, so there is a continuity of effort that should eventually result in a decision. The elements in the process are:
The four steps of the classical urban transportation planning model are:
Transportation development is a key driver of socioeconomic development. Transport development allows our people to access jobs, markets, social interaction, education, and other services, enabling people to rise out of poverty and overcome social exclusion. Transport adds value to goods brought to markets, links rural areas to cities and global supply chains, driving economic development.
Urban transportation planning is the process that informs decisions on transportation policies and infrastructure programs. In the transport planning process, planners develop information about the impacts of the provision of alternative transportation facilities, such as new highways, changes in public transport or parking restrictions.
Urban transportation planning involves the evaluation and selection of highway or transit facilities to serve present and future land uses. For example, the construction of a new shopping center, airport, or convention center will require additional transportation services. The process must also consider other proposed developments and improvements that will occur within the planning period.
Urban transportation planning is concerned with two separate time horizons. The first is a short-term emphasis intended to select projects that can be implemented within a one- to three-year period. These projects are designed to provide better management of existing facilities by making them as efficient as possible. The second time horizon deals with the long-range transportation needs of an area and identifies the projects to be constructed over a 20-year period. The urban transportation planning process can be carried out in terms of the procedures described as follows.
The strategic transport planning process relies on travel demand forecasting, which involves predicting the impacts that various policies and programs will have on travel in the urban area. The forecasting process also supports analysis at a more detailed level for use by engineers and planners in preparation of detailed designs by providing information such as traffic volumes or bus patronage.
This Transport Policy reflects the Government of aim to create a world class transport sector. The Transport Planning and Policy provides a vision, governance principles, policy objectives, contributions for each subsector, and the implementation arrangements. An accompanying Master Plan will identify necessary interventions to achieve the vision and policy objectives.
Transport policy is usually developed through a collaborative process, receiving inputs from many key stakeholders from across federal and provincial government agencies, transport operators, the business sector, academia, and civil society.
The Transport Policy builds on the strength of long-term vision, goals and guiding principles established in the development goals and strategy of Government. The Transport Policy sets out the framework and the overall priorities which will guide transport investment in air, sea and land transport sectors over the next planning horizon. It defines clear project pipelines for infrastructural, institutional and operational, legal and regulatory, financing and technology & innovation measures. It identifies where funds from national, IFI and other financing sources can most effectively be invested in the transport system so as to achieve the targets and objectives set.
The primary objective of the Transport Policy is to provide a prioritized programme and targets for planning horizon to guide the development of the transport sector and achieve the Policy Objectives of the transport development and policy. Specifically, the Transport Policy aims to achieve the following:
A successful implementation of the Transport Master Plan will enable to improve (i) the movement of passengers and goods, as main drivers of economic, social and environmental well-being across the country; (ii) enhance the institutional capacity of the transport sector, in terms of future planning, management and operation of the transport system; (iii) invest in a structured and effective manner with an evidence-based prioritized transport investment plan; and (iv) attract private sector investment into the transport sector.
The strategic focus of the Transport Policy is to prepare and ensure the accessibility for people is continued and improved, whilst managing the pressure on the urban transport system and seeking better use of the long-distance rail and water infrastructure. Therefore, the following six basic strategies in development of Transport Policy:
The main instruments in development of transport policy includes,
It includes the scope of the Transport Policy, the background and trends in the transport sector and the overall strategy including the targets.
It covers the interventions per sub-sector including roads, rail, air transport, maritime transport, pipelines, inland waterway transport and cross cutting subjects urban transport, multimodal logistics, and horizontal actions.
It covers the financial implications as well as the implementation modalities and monitoring and evaluation requirements.
Transport Planning in Logistics determines how and where freight moves, and because the goal of logistics management is to minimize costs, an understanding of these movements and the associated costs is important to the transport planning process. Movement of a product from point of production to point of consumption consists of several separate movements, each of which has costs associated with it. Factors to consider include the number and location of storage sites, storage time at each site, transport modes used between sites, and shipment sizes.
Associated costs include building and operating storage facilities costs, inventory costs, shelf life costs, transport costs, loading and unloading costs, loss and damage, order costs, and stock-out costs resulting from late deliveries.
Freight transport decisions are based on cost and also on customer satisfaction. Therefore, reliability and the ability to deliver goods undamaged, on time, and when needed is as important as minimizing the cost associated with that delivery.
