Transportation 3 (1974) 413-423 © Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in the Netherlands

BOOK REVIEWS

Bishop Hugh Montefiori (Chairman). Changing Directions. The Report of the Indepen- dent Commission on Transport. Coronet Books, Hodder Paperbacks Ltd., Warwick Lane, London, (1974). 365 pp. No price given.

The broad perspective and common sense of this effort to prescribe remedies for Britain's transportation problems suggest what has been lacking in transport study groups to date. Planners and economists need to be more closely associated with bishops, philosophers, poet laureates, professors of pastoral theology, and Friends of the Earth. For out of such a group, addressing itself to the growing consumption of transportation and its global side effects, there has come a notable plea for renouncing palliatives and Changing Directions.

The report documents the British aspects of the universal trend toward rapidly expanding car ownership, more .travel, greater use of resources, and mounting social costs. The Commission report acknowledges the many benefits of the new mobility but it concludes that society will increasingly regret the adverse effects that this mobility is producing. The Commission considers further deterioration of living conditions as inevitable, it sees no promise of an improvement in the existing situation, and it calls for radical changes in policies to halt the growth of traffic. Less driving is seen to be the only way of lowering the accident toll, reducing the conflicts among automobiles, pedestrians, and the environment, and conserving land and beauty.

Among the basic reforms recommended are improvements in the management of transport, creation of a legal framework that protects society from the worst abuses of present day mobility, and bolder use of pricing, subsidies and taxes to promote socially desirable transport systems. The Commission censures the use of narrow profit-making criteria for public transit, and tackles head-on the difficult and neglected ethical and human aspects of the way we move ourselves and our goods.

From the standpoint of energy conservation ("no one doubts that eventually there will be no more oil and that alternative sources of energy will have to be f o u n d . . . " ) the report recommends changes in vehicle and engine design that conserve fuel; a shift to rail and bus from auto so that the theoretical efficiencies of mass transport may in fact be realized; reduced vehicle speeds (30 percent fuel savings could be realized by lowering speed limits from 70 mph to 50) and encouragement of electric battery power for automobiles. Vehicle designs should be such as to slow the rate of obsolescence and corrosion, and public standards should be imposed on vehicle manufacturers to reduce the waste of present design practices.

If society is to overcome the severity and frequency of highway casualties in Britain (one million seriously injured or killed per year), seat belts, improved car design and stricter licensing practices and controls over anti-social driving are not likely to be enough. The projected doubling of traffic by the end of the century is

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considered to impose unacceptable conditions, and only measures to avoid these projections and to reduce the total volume of automobile use can be expected to yield positive improvement.

The usurpation of land by road transport is to an important degree a result of the encouragement of a dispersed pattern of living made possible by the automobile. The accompanying destruction of harmony and beauty in our daily surroundings is often dismissed as something that people will never miss, but the Report rejects this view. "If these qualities are destroyed, our descendants will indeed miss them, even if they do not know exactly what it is they are missing, and their lives will be diminished."

The Commission does not understate "the blessings and enrichment of life that flow from movement and mobility" but questions the extent to which these benefits have been worth their cost. We are reminded that access, not movement, is the true aim of transport. "One may have access to facilities (and people) without moving much at all." This can be achieved only through the location of facilities and services, which ought not be accessible only by car. Concern for the walker is part of the Commission's focus, along with the needs of public transportation. Forty-nine percent of the people of Britain own no car, and in rural areas millions of people are seriously inconvenienced by lack of public conveyance.

Decisions concerning the location of shops, libraries, recreation facilities and schools have tended to favor larger units at greater space intervals because of presumed economy of operation. The Commission believes that without taking private transport costs into consideration many of these location decisions may be uneconomic.

A basic cause of transportation difficulties in England, as everywhere else, is that private decisions based on present conditions do not reflect what people really want. The fact that external effects of the automobile are paid by society and do not enter into private decision-making is a basic reason for rejecting the idea that things are the way they are because of c, onsumer choice. The consumer can choose only from the options open to him, which may be wholly unsatisfactory. A combination of prices to cover social costs of driving, plus subsidies to reward socially desirable methods of transportation, could bring about a more beneficial allocation of traffic.

Chairman of the Commission, the Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames, sees the negative aspects of transportation as pre-eminent among "the principalities and powers" from which we need to be freed. Making transportation serve the community and the needs of human beings is accordingly the basic objective.

Wilfred Owen The Brookings Institution

Washington; D. C.

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Stockholm Area Transportation Study (TrafikundersOkningar i Stoekholmsregionen TU 71). Reports 1 & 2. Stockholms L/ins Landsting, Trafikn~imden, Fack, S-105 40 Stockholm 40. (1973 and 1974) Report No. 1 :140 pp. Report No. 2:125 pp. Sw Kr 10.00 per report.

Swedes from early childhood get used to exposing their private life to their authorities close interest. In surveys they are asked to tell not only when they were born and how much they earn, but also such things as whether they own a refrigerator or a summer house. This picture of the Swedes as positive interview victims is confirmed in the extensive traffic survey that was carried out in Stockholm during the autumn of 1971. The survey is called TU 71 and two reports with results from TU 71 have now been published.

The first report was published last year and is called "Weekday travel in the Stockholm region". It gives a comprehensive picture of the Swedish capital and its transportation network. The objective of the report has been to give the background of weekday travelling in Stockholm by describing the structure of housing and

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households and the transportation network. The second report was published in June this year and is called "The house-

holds: time, occupations and travelling',. The purpose of this report has been to describe how the observed pattern of activities and movements is connected with different characteristics of the individuals. A great part of the report is devoted to time-budgets for persons from different household categories. The loadstar of the report was a statement that was made in 1958 by some American traffic planners: "Traffic is a phenomenon of human behavior. It is with people (and their daily travel) that there should be most concern."

TU 71 consists in fact of three different surveys: - one home interview survey containing about 10,000 interviews in about 4,500

households, which gives characteristics of the persons interviewed and their travel pattern in a twenty-four hour period;

- one cordon survey around Stockholm in which both motorists and transit pas- sengers were asked about their trip origin and destination, their trip purpose, etc.;

- travel time surveys in which both travel times, waiting times and times for change of travel mode have been investigated during peak and off peak periods for different modes.

It is important to note two facts regarding the structure of Stockholm. First: Stockholm's 1,3 million inhabitants make it the largest city in Scandinavia, after Copenhagen. Second: Sweden has the highest number of cars per person in Europe. Since the Second World War there has been a remarkably high density concentration of the growth of Stockholm in radial corridors along subway and railway lines. This is primarily a result of the extensive possibilities of land-use control that legislation By tradition gives to the Swedish authorities. Another interesting result of the strict land-use control is that as much as 78% of the households in Greater Stockholm live in apartment houses.

in spite of a continuous increase of the number of cars, it has been possible to retain a large portion of the trips by transit, (72% of the households live within

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500 meters walking distance from a station on a direct line to the central city). Stockholmers between the ages of 13-74 years make an average of about 0,9 trips per day by transit and 1,4 trips per day by car, which means that 40% of the trips are made by subway, commuter trains or buses. This is a high proportion. It could, for example, be compared with Chicago, where an average of only 0,4 trips per person and day is made by rapid transit. Chicago is considered to have one of the best public transportation systems of all American cities.

The well-functioning transit system of Stockholm is the result of a thoughtful approach over a long period of time. The latest important reform was the so-called "50-card", that was introduced a few months before the TU 71 survey was under- taken. The "50-card" gives the holder the right to make an unlimited number of trips on all public transportation within all Stockholm county at the price of 50 Swedish crowns per month (about US$11). The card has been a success. It has increased the total number of trips by public transportation but has only to a very small extent allured motorists into a change of mode. The backbone of Stockholm's public transportation is the rail systems, where subway and special computer trains on the state railway account for the majority of the traffic. The streetcar system was closed down in 1967 when Sweden switched to right-hand driving.

The current total length of the rail system within the region is 212 kilometers of railways and subways including 181 stations. The subway system is not yet completed. Additional lines will be opened within the next years.

In Spite of the extent and quality of the public transportation system, TU 71 clearly shows that the car is superior for most trips. The work trips take, for example, an average of 42 minutes by public transportation while with a car they are confined to 22 minutes. The car is still superior during off-peak periods. An average of 55% of the households have a car.

The first report includes some comments on the users' choice of travel mode in Stockholm. The portion of trips with public transportation to the centre is consider- ably lower from the outer suburbs than from those close to the central area. The explanation is primarily that the outer suburbs have poorer access to public transpor- tation, a higher portion of car households and longer trips to the CBD, which usually creates bigger timesavings for the auto users. However, for car owners, it seems as if the quality of public transportation does not affect the choice of mode.

The choice of mode is different for men and women. Onethird of the men and half of the women travel by public transportation to their jobs, while half of the men and one quarter of the women go by car. The difference is related, among other things, to the fact that, to a considerable extent, the women have no driving licenses.

TU 71 differs from many other traffic surveys by also treating the walk trips. The great importance of walking as a travel mode appears by comparing it with trips by car and public transportation.

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No of trips per person and weekday

public transportation 0,9 car 1,4 walking (and cycling) 1,7

Every fifth work trip is made by walking. More than half of the non-work trips are made by watking.

The collected data-base of TU 71 has made possible an extensive analysis of the traffic in Stockholm and its connection with other human activities of society. The application stretches from purely transportation planning use (i.e. traffic forecasts) to more sociologically oriented studies.

The reports give a clear and easily understood picture of travelling within Greater Stockholm. Both include an abundance of good diagrams. The first report is available with an English translation. The second report is so far only available in Swedish.

Ingemar Lundin and Jan SiSderstr6m Statens Viigverk

P~ck S-102 20 Stockholm

Stephen Zwerling. Mass Transit and the Polities of Technology: A Study of BART and the San Francisco Bay Area. New York: Praeger Publishers, (1974). xiv + 159 pp. $14.0.

How can anyone spend £ 500m on a new rapid transit system without seriously considering how it will be linked with the local bus system? That is the real question about BART and not its present technical troubles.

Transport planners are well aware of the different characteristics of fixed track rail and bus systems. Zwerling looks at their differing political and social impacts on the community and the attitude of their management to the public. Bus operators are more responsive simply because their product allows them to be so.

Towards the end he examines the possibility of cooperation between two agencies involved in the Bay Area (BARTD and AC-Transit) and greater political control over them. Nonetheless the emphasis is on rapid transit v. buses. It is incredible that the Americans, with so much systems analysis, have not accepted the 'systems approach' to the provision of public transport.

Perhaps Zwefling will push them in that direction but the book should be required reading in other parts of the world too.

Tony M. Ridley Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive

All Saints Newcastle upon Tyne NE120A

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Samuel Eilon, C. D. T. Watson-Gandy, and Nicos Christofides. Distribution Manage-

ment - Mathematical Modelling and Practical Analysis. London: Griffin, (1971). 240 pp. No price given.

Despite the extensive advances that have been made over the last twenty years in network analysis, our ability to design optimal networks in practical situations is often extremely limited. For some problems, in particular for transportation and logistics, this capability has in fact been almost non-existent. To be sure, our accumulated experience in transport planning does enable us to avoid the most ineffective kinds of networks. But this is quite different from knowing what kinds of networks are truly optimal.

For many modes of transport, we do not even know which of significantly different networks is better. In air transport for example, a major argument is now taking place in Europe over whether a more connected or (as in the United States) a less connected network is to be preferred; and a similar debate is also taking place in the United States over whether the connectivity of the operational network on the railroads ought to be changed by the introduction of more through trains. Finally, there is continuous disagreement among those interested in urban goods movement about whether consolidation or similar warehouses are desirable. Curiously enough, these discussions are generally carried on without the benefit of any analysis, let alone of the kind of mathematical network analyses that have been so successfully perfected.

The book by Eilon, Watson-Gandy and Christofides is a significant contribution in this context. At last we have a reference which clearly describes and contrasts the different kinds of approaches that are available, that assesses their relative usefulness for practical problems, and that provides some clues as to what kinds of solutions are desirable. As a further plus, the exposition is clear and easy to read.

The authors write with authority, justly due to their extensive academic and practical experience. They are all on the faculty at Imperial College in London, the premier technical center in the United Kingdom, and have been teaching about distribution and logistics for many years. In addition, their work there has been combined with extensive consulting work so that they have been able to develop a direct sense of what kinds of problems arise in practice and what analytic approaches are most useful.

The first half of the book focuses on the depot location problem. It features an extensive review of the literature (much along the same lines as that published as a short article by ReVelle, Liebman and Marks) coupled with a critical review of the relative modelling and computational advantages of the competitive approaches. This experience is illustrated through a case study of an actual large-scale problem.

The second half covers the associated problems of vehicle scheduling, loading and the determination of fleet size. The nature of the presentation is similar to that of the first half. The major difference is that the state of the art in these areas does not allow such definitive statements as for depot location. So while the treatment is inherently somewhat inconclusive, it appears to be the best that I have yet encoun- tered for practical problems.

Overall, the text is an excellent introduction to practical analysis of networks for

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logistics and distribution management. Supplemented by descriptions of recent inter- esting advances, such as those of David Marks' group on garbage collection or of Nigel Wilson et al. on consolidation terminals for urban goods movements (all available through the MIT Civil Engineering Systems Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass. 02139), this text is a good basis for a course in distribution. It also provides a first-rate reference for operations researchers practising in this area. The book is highly recommended for both purposes.

It is a pity that this worthwhile work has been unfamiliar to the US public. This is possibly due to the fact that the UK publisher himself is relatively little known in North America. If this is the case one would hope that he - along with other publishers of good texts - would co-venture their work with transatlantic distributors so as to facilitate the dissemination of such works.

Richard de Neufville Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

E.J. Cantilli. Programming Environmental Improvements in Public Transportation, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath and Company, (1974). 224 pp., $12.50.

At first glance, this book seemed to me to have several ingredients for success: it deals with the amenities offered by public transportation, at a time when efforts are being made to make trains and buses more attractive alternatives to the energy- wasteful and environmentally-damaging automobile; it sets out to develop a quanti- tative index of priorities for spending scarce funds, at a time when considerable attention is being given to systematic methods o f resource allocation; and it stresses the importance of obtaining patron opinion, at a time when citizen participation is becoming more and more widely accepted in planning.

On closer inspection, however, I found the book disappointing, for reasons that will become apparent in the subsequent paragraphs.

The first part of the book contains background information on "community values" and "environmental amenities". Chapter 1 reviews tools for evaluating social considerations. Concepts such as "effectiveness" and "utility" are introduced, and tools such as "cost-effectiveness", "cost-utility", and "cost-benefit" are briefly dis- cussed. The second chapter looks at the results of several earlier surveys of public attitudes toward transportation and concludes that comfort and convenience are factors of extreme importance, as well as safety, reliability, and time-cost savings. A number of amenities that are considered components of passenger comfort in rail facilities are listed in Chapter 3. The amenities are placed in categories of convenience, cleanliness, aesthetics, temperature, noise, illumination, and safety; each category is then discussed in terms of acceptable standards and tolerance levels.

In these early chapters there is frequent reference to other studies, and it is

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sometimes difficult to follow the thread that holds the material together. At times it seems as if the author is determined to include everything that he uncovered in his research, regardless of its immediate relevance. For example, the first chapter ends with rather uninformative sections on linear and dynamic programming, which seem to bear little relationship to what is said elsewhere.

In the second part of the book, an allocation technique is developed and test values for each parameter are presented. The technique is based on an index described as a "utility factor" which indicates the priority to be given to improving a given amenity at a specified station. For each amenity i (where i= 1,2 . . . . . . . . n) a series of "meaningful increments" is defined, where "each increment represents a clearly distinguishable unit of public recognition, with the lowest level corresponding to a patently undesirable state, and the highest level to 'comfort ' or acceptability". The levels are indicated by the subscript j (where j= 1,2 . . . . . . . mi). The index is given by the equation

t~ij=S i Ri__ ( j - 1)

d 6

where R i is the normalised ranking (by patrons) of the amenity i, di! is the cost of transition from level j to the next level, and S i is the weight to be given to a particular station.

Two methods of employing the index are described. The first is based on a calculation of the average cost of transition from one level to the next, and results in a recommended number of increments to be improved for each amenity; the second considers marginal rather than average cost and allocates funds in an iterative fashion to the amenity whose index is maximum for the transition from the existing to the next level.

The book goes on to develop test values for each parameter, with reference to the New York City rapid transit system. In establishing the public opinion preference ranking Ri, a number of pilot experiments were initially carried out, followed by a system-wide survey using a questionnaire which required the allocation of $1 among ten amenity categories plus one write-in category (the latter was subsequently eliminated from the discussion, without explanation). The analysis here is presented in a rather confusing manner; two rankings are generated (one based on the sum of the rank values in each category, and the other on gross expenditure) and it is not clear which the author intends to use in formulating the utility index.

Next to be developed is the "set of average comfort or acceptance levels" for the amenities, with the establishment of "meaningful" or "noticeable" increments. Of the figures chosen, all are subjectively determined and to a large extent seem arbitrary. The reasoning that does appear is difficult to follow at times; for example, in considering noise, "85 db is taken as 'comfort level' even though it has been found that 80 or 90 db can contribute to accidents, dilate the pupils, and cause the skin to pale and the flow of adrenaline to increase."

The transition costs dij are presented next. These are calculated in an unsophistic- ated manner, no account being taken (for example) of the interest incurred on capital

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expenditure. An "overload factor" is also established for each amenity; this is the additional load that is thought to justify the provision of another unit of the amenity, and it seems to be determined arbitrarily.

In the third part of the book, the two methods of allocating resources discussed earlier are applied to the New York system. Initial levels of the amenities are presented for three representative stations, and weights S i are set equal to average annual daily traffic at each location. The results of the application are presented in a series of figures and tables, and are analysed in the text. I found the analysis rather confusing; the author's main aim seems to be to compare the results given by the two different methods and he concludes that "Method 1 favors, to some degree, choice by cost, while Method 2 favors, to a lesser degree, choice by level, and by rating." He does not suggest which method should be employed in practice.

In my opinion, the author gives too much attention to the comparison of allocation methods, while he fails to adequately justify the equation which defines the utility index and therefore underlies the whole approach. The index appears to have been developed by gathering together all of the parameters that seem important, and incorporating them into the simplest formula that seems intuitively reasonable (or, at least, not unreasonable). In discussing the inclusion of cost as a denominator, for example, the author's only stated concern is to ensure that "the index number can retain its character, and at the same time reflect cost-utility (by producing a larger number for a lesser cost)".

Apart from its somewhat arbitrary formulation, the index has other weaknesses that are not mentioned. One arises from the impficit assumption that Ri, the patron ranking of amenities, is independent of the existing state of the system (even if, as the author shows, it seems to be independent of existing levels at particular stations). In fact it seems more likely to me that patron ranking would change as different amenities reach the top of the priority list and receive funding for improvements.

Another weakness stems from the fact that the ranking is not tied to the specific "meaningful increments" that are being considered; i.e. the patrons are not asked to rank the installation of an additional 25-foot rise of escalator against raising the temperature in winter by 5°F, but rather the need in general for "escalators" against the need in general for "station heating in winter". This means that the value of the index for a given amenity (and therefore its priority in receiving improvements funds) can be adjusted simply by changing the definition of a "meaningful increment". Indices based on different increments are not commensurable.

As I mentioned earlier, despite its potential, this book proved disappointing. In parts it is written in a confusing manner; it is not sufficiently selective in its references to material from other sources; and it gives far too little attention to underlying principles and assumptions. Most important of all, the "utility" index on which the allocation technique is based, is inadequately justified and turns out to have important weaknesses.

W. David Conn, School of Architecture and Urban Planning

University of California, Los Angeles

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The following publications have been received between June 1st and August 3rd 1974 and will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue of the journal:

Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium on the Future of Conurbation Transport. Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (1974) v+100 pp. No price given.

Verkehrsplanung - Stadtplanung: Beispiel zur Integration yon Fachplanung in iiber- geordnete Gesamtplanung and 3 other titles. H. Habekost and others. VeriSffent- lichungen des Instituts fiir Stadtbauwesen, Heft 14, Technische Universit~t Braun- schweig, 33 Braunschweig, West Germany (1974). iii + 184 pp. DM 25.

Seminar fiir Planungswesen an der Technische Universitdt Braunschweig. Konrad St6cker (ed). Ver6ffentlichungen des Seminars fi~r Planungswesen der Technische Universit~it Braunschweig, Heft 11, Technische Universit~t Braunschweig, 33 Braun- schweig, West Germany, (1974). 128 pp. No price given.

First Interim Report, Sheffield/Rotherham Land Use Transportation Study: Transport Facts and Figures. Alan M. Vorhees and Associates Ltd. and Colin Buchanan and Partners. Sheffield/Rotherham Land Use Transportation Study, 9 Staniforth Road, Sheffield $9 3HB (1974) vii+164 pp. No price given.

Transportation and Environment: Policies Plans and Practice. Proceedings of a Symposium at Southampton University, April 1973. J. H. Earp, M. McDonald and T. E. Williams (editors). Department of Civil Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton S09 5NH (1974). approx. 210 pp. £10.

Urban Transport: Studies in Economic. Policy. M.E. Beesley. Butterworth and Co. London (1973) 413 pp. £10.

Social and Political Consequences of the Motor Car. P. M. Townroe (editor). David and Charles, Newton Abbot (1974). 189 pp. £5.25.

Catford Traffic Management Study. Keith Pearce and Carol Stannard. Greater London Council, Department of Planning and Transportation. County Hall, London SE1 7PB. (1973). Vol 1.60 pp. £2.00. Vol. 2. approx. 500 pp. £6.50.

Ocean Transportation. Ernst G. Frankel and Henry S. Marcus. The MIT Press. Cam- bridge, Mass. (1973). 822 pp. $25.00.

Airport Economic Planning. George P. Howard (editor). The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1974). 638 pp. $15.00.

Urban Planning in the 1960s: A Design for Irrelevancy. Marshall Kaplan. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1974, paperback), viii+129 pp. $2.95.

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Balance Preventiva del E/ercio 19 74 (92 pp); Memoria y Balance Ejercio 19 73 (67+8 pp); Datos de E/ercio (82+16 pp). Sociedad Privada Municipal Transportes de Barce- lona SA, Apartado 151, Barcelona (1974). No price given.

Personal Rapid Transit I I: Progress-Problems-Potential. J. Edward Anderson and Sherry H. Romig (editors). Department of Audio Visual Extension. University of Minnesota, 2037 University Avenue, Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455. (1974). xii+645 pp. $15.00.

Basisnetwerk-Programmatuur-Reistijden. Projectbureau Integrale Verkeers- en Ver- voerstudies. Rijkswaterstaat and Centrum voor Vervoersplannen. Dienst Verkeers- kunde, de Rijkswaterstaat, Koningskade 4, The Hague (1974). 35+29 pp. HFL 50,00.

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