Impact of land transportation and transportation research for development

Introduction

Urban light transport system in UK

Transportation geography is planning transportation according to the geographic and demographic characteristics. It is a very detailed process of in-depth research on transportation patterns, economic requirements and demography requirements. Transportation demand arrives due to transportation of cargo, passengers and information.

Basically this emerged due to following areas: vacation, routine transportation and routine domestic requirements. This might come in different levels according to the different characteristics of economics. Therefore, in-depth research and analysis is a compulsory requirement for planned, organised and efficient transportation system in a country.

In Sri Lanka, RDA, CMC and UDA are assigned with constructing of transportation infrastructure in the country. Apart from that, transport modes are necessary to carry the volumes required by the different economies. This concept is named ‘modalism’.  In our country, infrastructure plays a greater role to develop the transportation. For that, the country has to identify necessary per capita areas for different modes of transportation. As a parameter, USA uses 564 Sq.M. per vehicle while Canada is segregating 720 Sq.M. per vehicle. This is a very important yardstick that the planners can utilise in order to construct roads and the parking spaces which can have a smooth flow in between two transportation nodes. Other parameter is parking spaces for land vehicles. This is also a burning issue in our country where a lack of parking space creates congestion and prevents a smooth traffic flow due to parking on roads.  

Congestion management

Congestion management is a very critical area in transportation. There is a very important principle in transportation, i.e. “distance is not time”.  This principle came out with different kind of congestion problems created in between nodes. This can be averted by proper parking management, flow management, peak hour management, terminal management and intermodal management etc.  

When it comes to parking management, the developed countries are segregating 21% of total city area for the parking spaces. Hempstead City in New York is the best example. Because the city planners have given higher per capita space for vehicles (564 Sq.M.) and given a total 21% city area for parking. It had controlled unnecessary congestion in the city and created smooth flowing of vehicles. This creates better accessibility for the vehicles.

Peak hour management is the other factor. The time has to be segregated identifying the peak hours and the non-peak hours of the flow. Different kind of transportation can be introduced during the off peak hours without hindering the core requirements of the demography of the industry. This has to be identified by doing the proper analysis of the vehicle flow and the different individual requirements of the people and the industries.

Terminal management is the other factor which counters the congestion stresses.  One can envisage that many places in our country terminals are hindering the smooth flow instead of improving the transportation. In Sri Lanka, we have seen many bus stands and bus halts create congestion to the public as well as the railway stations are not geared for the parking facilities of general public even the intermodal facilities. Due to that, instead of improving transportation some of those terminals are hindering the flow of vehicles.

Intermodal management will create ease and efficiency in transportation of cargo and passengers, which means changing of cargo/passenger from one mode to other mode, as an example, from a bus to railway or from railway to aircraft.  Due to the lack of this important function, people lack opportunities of speedy transportation of goods and passengers. That is one of the reasons for higher prices of some commodities in the country. During the Dutch era, many streams have been used for transportation which has been abandoned now, but it created great advantages during that time. They had better intermodal facility to change the cargo from one mode to the other. This is also famous as fluvial transportation. At the moment, Sri Lanka has started fluvial transportation in a small way but it decays day by day due to less intermodal facility in the terminals and lack of basic marketing techniques in the process.

These are a few areas which can avert catastrophic states of congestion to a certain extent.  Also, this can be averted by governance principles like decentralisation of industries, new settlements and the alteration of demography’s by giving equal opportunities. Then people will not agglomerate to present urban areas once they have necessary facilities in the respective cities. Therefore, the above is the best answer to reduce congestion.  

Conclusion

The main factor to avert this sad situation is giving a professional touch to the different areas that I have described in previous paragraphs. Therefore, the need to employ professional transportation managers to address the requirement with their capabilities and knowledge is of importance. The other area is applying international standards and parameters for transportation to suit our country requirements because we have seen the respective organisations which I have mentioned making much effort to counter congestion and improve the flow but many times it fails due to no proper analysis with a detailed research and professional touch. One can observe that many times, political decisions are against professional decisions; the best example is the Colombo-Bandarawela main road which runs in middle of Ratnapura Town, which is against the principles of road transportation. But it can be due to the political requirements of the respective areas thinking that avoiding the town will reduce the profit margins of vendors. However, political decisions and professional decisions must go hand in hand to improve the transportation sector in the country because in developed countries business of transportation adds 8-12% of value to the GDP which is extremely a lucrative business.

World Bank priority is a reliable indicator to understand the world trends in the present context. During the year 2007 World Bank has allocated 62% of the total lending to the transportation sector mainly on roads and high ways. Apart from that, 13% is allocated to general transportation, totally 75% is segregated to this important Land transportation industry. Therefore, it is not too late for Sri Lanka to reap the benefits of this valuable sector.  

(The author is a specialist in transportation systems and management. Presently, he conducts lectures on the subject for Transportation and Logistics Management Degree and Masters in Maritime Safety and Environmental Management in CINEC Maritime University. He has published many articles on transportation and management and is presently working at the Central Bank. He can be contacted at [email protected])