TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

HIGHWAY AND RAILROAD ENGINEERING
Transportation System Issues and Challenges
• Traffic congestion exists wherever demand exceeds the capacity of
the transportation system.
• Traffic congestion is a condition on transport networks that occurs
as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip
times, and increased vehicular queuing.
Challenges
• Performance of the transportation system
• Managing congestion
• Improving safety
• Providing equal access
• Protecting the environment
• Performance of the transportation engineering profession,
economic and political system
• Incorporating new technology
• Securing financial resources
• Developing adequate institutional arrangements
Managing Congestion
• The usual response to congestion was to build more capacity.
• This approach was always limited by the availability of funding.
• Political support for major expansions of the urban highway system
is now lacking due to the potential environmental impacts.
Managing Congestion
• Recently, it has been popular to seek solutions involving more
sophisticated traffic control.
• Since 1960s, there have been repeated calls to shift from private
automobiles to urban passenger transportation because of the
environmental consequences and the cost of expanding the system.
Managing Congestion
• In addition, there have been suggestions that traffic congestion can
be reduced through better urban land-use planning, or through
congestion pricing.
• Congestion pricing | is a system of surcharging users of public
goods that are subject to congestion through excess demand such
as higher peak charges for use of bus services, metros, railways,
and road pricing to reduce traffic congestion.
Traffic Safety
• A second major challenge is the continued improvement of traffic
safety.
• Traffic accidents are of concern for all modes of transportation, but
are perhaps most visible in highways and commercial air.
• Traffic safety is continuing challenge for the transportation
engineering profession because of public expectations that safety
will continue to improve.
Traffic Safety
• The focus of agencies involved with transportation safety are
improvement of safety of vehicles, traffic safety, safety research and
development, and collection of accident data.
• These agencies investigates selected accidents involving all
transportation modes, identifies safety problems, an serves as an
advocate for transportation safety concerns.
Highway Traffic Safety
• The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals was created on
November 8, 1968 during the United Nations Economic and Social
Council (UNESCO) Conference on Road Traffic at Vienna, Austria. A
total of 52 contracting countries including the Philippines agreed to
accept the system as described in the convention.
• Informative sign | is a very legibly printed and very
noticeable placard that informs people of the purpose of an object,
or gives them instruction on the use of something.
Examples of Informative Signs
Highway Traffic Safety
• Regulatory signs | are traffic signs intended to instruct road users on
what they must or should do (or not do) under a given set of
circumstances. Other types may be signs located on streets and in
parking lots having to do with parking, signs in public parks and on
beaches or on or in architectural facilities prohibiting specific types
of activities.
Examples of Regulatory Signs
Highway Traffic Safety
• Warning sign | is a type of traffic sign that indicates a hazard ahead
on the road that may not be readily apparent to a driver. In most
countries, they usually take the shape of an equilateral triangle with
a white background and a thick red border.
Examples of Warning Signs
Some Traffic Safety Ads..
Some Traffic Safety Ads..
Equality of Access
• Another continuing challenge has been to provide adequate access
to the transportation system for all sorts of people.
• Three groups in particular that are seen as generally undeserved.
• Physically handicapped
• Elderly
• Poor
Environmental Protection
• One of the most important challenges to the transportation system
is that of dealing with its environmental impacts.
• These include impacts on air quality, energy consumption, and land
use.
Environmental Protection
• Site-specific impacts include those related to the:
• Displacement of resident and businesses
• Noise
• Impacts on wildlife
• Impacts on water quality
• Visual impacts
• Temporary impacts during construction (noise, dust, reduced
water quality due to erosion of unprotected slopes)
• Impacts in environmentally sensitive areas
Environmental Protection
• Examples of such areas are:
• Habitats of threatened or endangered species
• Flood plains
• Wetlands
• Coastal zones
• Prime agricultural lands
• Historical or archaeological sites
• Wild or scenic rivers
Environmental Protection
• Air pollution is commonly perceived as being the most serious
environmental problem resulting from the transportation.
• Most transportation-related air pollution is the result of the use of
highway vehicles in densely populated metropolitan areas.
New Technology
• The major technological development of the past 20 years has been
a concerted effort to take advantage of rapid advances in electronic
technology.
• These technologies include information processing,
communications, and control systems and are collectively known as
intelligent transportation system (ITS).
• These ITS technologies are the subject of a major technological
initiative involving government, business, academic, and research
organizations.
New Technology
• The goals of the ITS program are to:
• Improve safety
• Reduce congestion
• Improve mobility and accessibility
• Reduce the environmental impact and increase energy efficiency
• Improve economic productivity
• Create a domestic ITS industry
New Technology
• These goals are to be achieved through:
• Improved traffic control systems
• Improvements in the provision of information about the
transportation system to its users
• Automation of administrative and regulatory functions
• New or improved systems for warning users of hazards
• New vehicle control systems
• And other applications of electronic technology
Funding
• Securing adequate financial resources is another perennial
challenge, both for
• public agencies, providing transportation facilities
• private-sector firms, providing transportation services.
• The most common forms of user charges:
• Fuel taxes, which have been applied as fixed charger per
gallon/liter of fuel sold.
• Direct fares or tolls
Institutional Arrangements
• New arrangements have come about as a response to perceived
deficiencies in the existing system. Often they have been imposed
by outside agencies and in many cases they have been resisted by
established institutions.
• In the recent past, the most conspicuous and enduring areas of
institutional change have been (1) adjustments to the relationship
between the public and private sectors and (2) attempts to
overcome modal and jurisdictional fragmentation.
Bibliography
• Highway Safety Design Standards. (2012). Department of Public
Works and Highways.

• Hoel, L. A., Garber, N. J., & Sadek, A. W. (2008). Transportation

Infrastructure Engineering: A Multi-Modal Integration.