The New Age Urban Transportation Systems, Volume II

Book excerpt: Urbanization is a global phenomenon that hugely constrains existing transportation infrastructure in cities. Urban transportation (UT) challenges are more significant in developing countries with rapid development as the land occupation is dense.Limited urban space and infrastructure fail to meet the increasing traffic demands and to provide reasonable service quality. Therefore betterment of UT systems is more required than ever. Infrastructural development and transportation operations are mainly directed at citizen welfare and it requires huge capital investments. States initiate urban development by inviting private participation so that operational and commercial risks are minimized and quality of execution is better. Several aspects in planning and management of global UT projects are common. But the approach and solutions are typically developed for a local context and relevance. Specific UT challenges are land use planning, socioeconomic distribution, project designing, implementation, financial analysis and governmental policies. A comprehensive background of UT systems, challenges involved and various approaches adopted by different countries are presented along with five real-life Asian cases. The book is aimed as a one-point reference on modern day developments on urban transportation for a readership of consultants, practitioners, developers, policy makers, and academicians .