Managing Transport with People

Abstract

This chapter describes the human element in the management of safe and sustainable transport systems. It comprises four sections: the road safety audit practice from the experience of Thailand, the cooperative road management with users' input from Japan, the community-based development and transport in Metro Manila, and the IT-based public participation and traffic survey from Japan. The road safety audit (RSA) section gives an account of the development of RSA in Thailand and how it was used to enhance safety in the design and construction of roads in terms of engineering audits and training of people who are interested to become auditors; as well as raising the awareness of local government officials by conducting workshops on RSA. In the cooperative road management, a new road management system called the Road Performance Management (RMS) was introduced. One of its main objectives is to involve the local roads and facilities users in the decision making of the provision and maintenance of the transport infrastructure. The key concepts of the system are cooperation with road users, collaboration among administrations, and reflection of local needs, outcome-based management and the classic Deming's cyclical PDCA management. A case study of a successful application of the system on the National Route 17 in Kumagaya City was described. The community-based development and transport in Metro Manila describes the urban renewal process of the Central University Belt of Manila. A key feature of the process was the participation of the various stakeholders from the start until completion of the project. For the transport sector, the proposed package consists of Pedestrian Facility Improvement Program, Traffic Engineering Improvement Program, Public Transport Service Improvement Program and Parking Management Program. The IT-based public participation and traffic survey section gives two examples of the use of IT with public participation in reporting and accessing information via the internet. The IT-based Hazard Information System for Traffic Safety provides a traffic safety map showing Frequent Accident Occurrence Sites, and the accident hazard map called ``Hiyari-Hatto Map{''}. Another system is collecting traffic data with the use of floating vehicles. The most interesting trial was the ``taxi-probe{''} experiment conducted by Internet ITS Consortium in Nagoya in 2002 using taxis as floating vehicles to collect and transfer traffic data e.g. speed, to the traffic control center. Vast potential thus exists for using IT with the participation of the public in improving transportation planning, traffic safety, traffic engineering and control.