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Distinguished
Transport Lecture Series 2011
Professor Robert Cervero
Professor, Department of City & Regional Planning; Director, University of California
Transportation Center; Director, Institute of Urban & Regional Development, University of
California, Berkeley, USA
Mixed Land Uses and Sustainable Mobility
Date: 27 April 2011 (Wednesday)
Time: 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Venue: Kwan Fong Lecture Theatre,
Room 223, 2/F Knowles Building, The University of Hong Kong (Map)
Lecture Abstract
Inter-mixing land uses and balancing urban growth can yield significant
demand- and supply-side benefits to the transport sector. Recent research
shows that the co-location of retail, workplace, and residential uses in
master-planned developments increase internal capture rates. Global
cities like Stockholm and Curitiba reveal that efficiencies occur through
encouraging bi-directional travel flows. Balanced growth also shrinks
environmental footprints by shortening trips and encouraging non-motorized
access. Hedonic price model results for several mixed-use settings reveal
that real-estate markets capitalize such benefits. Supply-side benefits
of inter-mixing land uses include opportunities for shared parking and
reduced impervious surfaces for roads and highways. Ancillary benefits,
such as energy savings from co-generation and co-sharing of heating and
electricity by residential and commercial uses, are also possible with
mixed-use development. A Green TOD (Transit Oriented Development) model is
presented in this regard. The talk concludes by addressing possible motivations
for separating urban activities, as embodied in contemporary zoning and land-use
regulatory practices, including social and class exclusion and perceptions of
non-compatibility among uses. Mechanisms for overcoming barriers to mixed
land uses are offered.
About the Speaker
Robert Cervero works in the area of sustainable transport policy and
planning. His current research is on the economic benefits of balancing
infrastructure investments with place-making. He is a frequent advisor and
consultant on transport projects, both in the U.S. and abroad. Professor
Cervero was the first-ever recipient of the Dale Prize for Excellence in
Urban Planning Research and has twice won the Article of the Year award from
the Journal of the American Planning Association. Presently, he is Chairman
of the International Association of Urban Environments and the National
Advisory Board of the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation. Professor Cervero was recently appointed to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), responsible for the human
settlement chapter of the 5th IPCC assessment. He is also an author of the
forthcoming 2013 Global Report on Sustainable Transportation for the UN-Habitat.
Professor Cervero currently serves on the editorial boards of 10 scholarly
journals.
Please click <here>
to download the presentation file.
 
Professor S.C. (Chan) Wirasinghe
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada
Mode Transition in a Public Transit Route and
Related Issues of Capacity, Speed and Waiting Time
Date: 7 November 2011 (Monday)
Time: 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Venue: Wang Gungwu
Theatre, Graduate House, The University of Hong Kong (Map)
Lecture Abstract
As a transit route evolves with time (over several decades) due to land
use and other changes, the public transit mode (or mix of modes) that
serves it may have to transition from one to another several times. Two of
the characteristics that must be considered in the transition are the
capacity and average speed of each mode. They impact the passenger waiting
times and in-vehicle travel times respectively, as well as operating
costs. Data on observed maximum flows and average speeds of routes have
been collected from sources worldwide and analyzed. In addition to
intrinsic variations, there is scatter in the data caused in part by lack
of information about some aspects. For example, information on transit
priority at traffic signals that influences average speed is not available
in all cases. A discussion of where passenger "waiting time" is
spent, and its relationship to the (i) type of service, and (ii) trip
purpose, and (iii) availability of real time bus arrival information is
given. Various modes considered suitable for the South Calgary corridor
are ranked in terms of the line capacity and average speed. The thresholds
are those at which a mode transition is essential. However, mode
transitions may occur well in advance of such thresholds if a new modal
mix is optimal for the corridor in terms of minimizing the sum of the
costs to the users and the operator. An early transition is from a regular
(all-stop) bus route to a route served by both regular and limited-stop
buses, sometimes called bus rapid transit (BRT). Some results on the mix
of regular and limited-stop bus services in a given route are discussed,
including the transit system parameters under which a transition from
regular bus to a mix is optimal. It is argued that passenger-Km's is the
right measure of travel demand that should be considered. A simple
expression and methodology applicable to any bus route is presented.
About the Speaker
Chan Wirasinghe obtained his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the
University of Ceylon (now the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) in
1968. He won a US Fulbright Scholarship to study transportation
engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and completed his
MS in 1973 and Ph.D. in 1976. He joined the University of Calgary in
Canada in 1976 as an Assistant Professor. He is currently a Professor in
the Department of Civil Engineering, and the Academic Director of the
Center for Transportation of the Van Horne Institute. Dr. Wirasinghe
became the founding Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of
Engineering at the University of Calgary in 1988. He became Dean of the
Faculty in January 1994 and held the post until July 2006. In 2005, he led
the naming of the Faculty as the Schulich School of Engineering for a
total matched donation of $50M. Dr. Wirasinghe's research interests are in
urban public transportation, airports, transport in developing countries
and mitigation of natural disasters. He has over 200 publications &
keynote presentations, and has supervised 12 PhD's, 4 PDF's and 11
Master's to completion. He is currently supervising 5 PhD and 2 MSc
students. He has written extensively on bus, LRT and metro planning and
operations. Dr. Wirasinghe is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of
Advanced Transportation. He is currently writing a book titled Transit
Systems - Analysis and Planning. He received the Alberta Premiers Award of
Excellence in 2000, a D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) from the University of
Moratuwa in 2001, and the APEGGA Centennial Award, APEGGA's highest honor,
in 2004. He was named Calgary's Citizen of the Year for 2005. He is a
Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Canadian Society of
Civil Engineers, & an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers,
Sri Lanka, Engineers Canada and the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers.
Chan Wirasinghe serves on the Council of NSERC (an Order in Council
appointment) and on the Council of APEGGA (an elected position).
Please click <here>
to download the presentation file.
 
Professor David Boyce
Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Northwestern University, USA
Urban Travel
Forecasting: a 50 Year Retrospective
Date: 15 December 2011 (Thursday)
Time: 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Venue: Wang Gungwu
Theatre, Graduate House, The University of Hong Kong (Map)
Lecture Abstract
The field of urban travel forecasting in the United States began in the
early 1950s, when the first urban transportation plan was prepared.
Methods for forecasting urban travel developed quickly, in conjunction
with the first mainframe computers available for civilian use, and were
soon exported to Britain, Europe and beyond. Today, urban travel
forecasting is a highly developed field of academic study within civil
engineering, economics, geography, operations research, regional science
and urban planning, and a primary focus of several academic and
professional journals, organizations, societies and software development
firms, as well as public agencies and consultants. In 2003, Professor Huw
Williams and I began to prepare a history of this field, which examines
the subject from three distinct perspectives: theory and practice; network
analysis and discrete choice analysis; the United States and the United
Kingdom. In this seminar, I shall present our principal findings and
insights, and trace the history of the main developments by innovators and
the context of their achievements, especially with respect to computers
and software. Finally, I shall draw discuss what has not yet been
achieved, and identify opportunities for future research and practice.
About the Speaker
Dr. David Boyce, P.E., is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering of Northwestern University, Evanston,
Illinois, and Professor Emeritus of Transportation and Regional Science in
the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering of the University of
Illinois at Chicago. He presently conducts research on urban travel and
location forecasting models, transportation network assignment methods,
and the history of urban travel forecasting methods and practice. One of
his long-term research interests concerns the formulation, implementation,
estimation and validation of large-scale, integrated models of urban
travel behavior, as an alternative to the traditional multi-step travel
forecasting procedure. Professor Boyce was a tenured faculty member of the
University of Pennsylvania (1966-77), the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (1977-88), and the University of Illinois at Chicago
(1988-2003). In 2000 he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Regional
Science Association International (RSAI) in recognition of his research
achievements; in 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the RSAI. In 2003, he
received the Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award of the
Transportation Science and Logistics Section of the Institute for
Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He also
received the INFORMS Fellows Award in 2003, and the Fellows Award of the
American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009.
Please click <here>
to download the presentation file.
 
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