Search results

Purpose – To examine the cost-effectiveness of UK government policy with respect to the mitigation of carbon emissions from the transport sector.

Methodology/approach – Existing policy as set out by the Department for Transport in Low Carbon Transport: A Greener Future is examined. This document elaborates a Low Carbon Transport Strategy intended to achieve annual emissions savings of 17.7 MtCO2 by 2020. A wide range of policy areas where further action could be taken to reduce carbon emissions are examined and their cost-effectiveness considered.

Findings – Measures that influence behaviour including smarter choices, eco-driving across modes, freight best practice and modest price increases are highly cost-effective. More cost-effective routes to saving 17.7 MtCO2 are identified, as are further cost-effective savings.

Originality/value – It appears that government targets could be delivered and indeed exceeded at lower cost than the Low Carbon Transport Strategy. However, policy development is influenced by a wide range of factors which help to explain why cost-effective measures are not always fully exploited.

Changes in physiology associated with ageing mean increased concern for the safety of older drivers and the risk they may pose on other road users. The risk of older drivers is distorted by their fragility; they are more likely to be injured or die in road collisions compared to a younger person. Older drivers are, overall, safe drivers who pose similar risks to other road users as middle-aged drivers, but who are at risk themselves because of their fragility. The fragility is greater in older females than older men; females over the age of 80 are nine times more likely to die from their injuries compared to 40–49-year old females, while men are at least five times more likely. Older drivers are overrepresented in collisions at junctions that have no formal traffic control and underrepresented in crashes that involve excess speed. While it is not possible to put traffic signals in every junction, it is suggested consideration be given to mini roundabouts or three-way stop-sign junctions (as found in United States and South Africa). There is no evidence that stringent testing for licence renewal has advantages in reducing older driver risk. Assessments at specialist centres, such as mobility assessment centres, are a more effective way to pick up drivers who are no longer safe to drive.

Community rail is a grassroots movement that spans Britain, made up of hundreds of community groups and partnerships that engage people with their railways and stations and provide a bridge between the rail industry and the public at a local level. The movement has grown up from the grassroots, but it has also been increasingly supported and nurtured by the rail industry, with train operators proactively encouraging its spread and development. They, and national and devolved governments, recognise the value of community rail, and its contribution to social inclusion, sustainable development and the railway’s ability to prosper and serve passengers and communities well, now and in the future. This idea is supported by passenger data showing that railway lines with community rail partnerships – working to enhance, promote and aid access to those lines – outperform comparable lines. A swathe of qualitative evidence shows community rail partnerships and station groups having a demonstrable impact on their localities and people’s lives, and appreciation of this role by industry leaders. The many examples of community rail volunteers and practitioners bringing about positive change resonate with academic research exploring how civic engagement and local efficacy and communications can support change, particularly with regard to sustainable behaviours and development. A range of researchers argue that localised, interactive engagement and communications may be the key, when it comes to bringing about the major shifts in behaviour needed to address the global, existential threat posed by the climate crisis, which unsustainable behaviours and policies have brought about. In this way, evidence suggests that engaging communities with their railways, and local transport networks generally, is critical, both to these networks operating in a truly sustainable manner and to achieving inter- and intra-generational equity within the communities they serve.

The discrete Fourier transform (dft) of a fractional process is studied. An exact representation of the dft is given in terms of the component data, leading to the frequency domain form of the model for a fractional process. This representation is particularly useful in analyzing the asymptotic behavior of the dft and periodogram in the nonstationary case when the memory parameter d≥12. Various asymptotic approximations are established including some new hypergeometric function representations that are of independent interest. It is shown that smoothed periodogram spectral estimates remain consistent for frequencies away from the origin in the nonstationary case provided the memory parameter d < 1. When d = 1, the spectral estimates are inconsistent and converge weakly to random variates. Applications of the theory to log periodogram regression and local Whittle estimation of the memory parameter are discussed and some modified versions of these procedures are suggested for nonstationary cases.

Purpose – To provide a policy perspective on the relationship between transport and climate change.

Methodology/approach – Two key themes are identified and discussed: the meaning of a major change in a policy perspective, covering the Climate Change Act and the development of a Low Carbon Transition Plan. A theoretically informed framework applies and highlights the importance of understanding policy change from a historical perspective.

Originality/value – The largely incremental nature of the policy change is considered in terms of whether there are real prospects of a radical change in transport policy that will deliver a low carbon transport future, whilst also allowing transport to fulfil its many other roles.

Findings – The chapter demonstrates that the current approach to climate change policy has seen only minor adjustments to existing policy tools which are not consistent with the more radical shift in policy targets. This incremental approach may reflect the significant uncertainty over technological change or a reluctance to tackle the difficult issue of travel behaviour. Whilst oil prices remain high this may not be problematic but more proactive steering will be necessary in the coming years.

This chapter presents a framework which is accessible to port authorities to assess the potential environmental impact of maritime operations. Pursuant on globalisation, increased numbers of ship movements have generated more frequent routine maritime operations in ports but few formal approaches exist for assessing their environmental impact, which potentially could be significant. In a novel framing of environmental assessment a business process modelling technique is deployed in a systems approach which highlights inputs, service processes and outputs. In an initial focus, primary processes at strategic level are defined which affect the environmental assessment of present and future operations and their potential impacts. Later, tactical service processes define the integrity of processes that guarantee service level and quality. Finally, outputs are defined by operational processes. The contribution of applying the systems approach to plan more sustainable maritime operations is assessed in a case study of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners (FHC) which regulates much of Falmouth Harbour and hosts the UK's largest offshore marine bunkering operation. Following EU designation of a North Sea Sulfur Oxide Emissions Control Areas (SECA) Falmouth recently recorded a significant rise in the number of vessels calling, and volume of fuel sold as more passing vessels take onboard low-sulfur fuel. The systems approach which empowers FHC to mitigate potential risks and assess development proposals proactively is easily transferable to other ports.

This study compares the performance of two types of clustering methods, time-based and non-time-based clustering, in the identification of river discharge patterns at the Johor River basin during the northeast monsoon season. Time-based clustering is represented by employing dynamic time warping (DTW) dissimilarity measure, whereas non-time-based clustering is represented by employing Euclidean dissimilarity measure in analysing the Johor River discharge data. In addition, we combine each of these clustering methods with a frequency domain representation of the discharge data using Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) to see if such transformation affects the clustering results. The clustering quality from the hierarchical data structures of the identified river discharge patterns for each of the methods is measured by the Cophenetic Correlation Coefficient (CPCC). The results from the time-based clustering using DTW based on DFT transformation show a higher CPCC value as compared to that of non-time-based clustering methods.

This exploratory paper discusses the undemocratic agenda setting of elites in Britain and how it has changed politics within a form of capitalism where much is left undisclosed in terms of mechanism and methods. It argues for a more radical exploratory strategy using C. Wright Mills’ understanding that what is left undisclosed is crucially important to elite existence and power, while recognising the limits on democratic accountability when debate, decision and action in complex capitalist societies can be frustrated or hijacked by small groups. Have British business elites, through their relation with political elites, used their power to constrain democratic citizenship? Our hypothesis is that the power of business elites is most likely conjuncturally specific and geographically bounded with distinct national differences. In the United Kingdom, the outcomes are often contingent and unstable as business elites try to manage democracy; moreover, the composition and organisation of business elites have changed through successive conjunctures.

The ageing process impact negatively on driving ability and behaviour, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Traditionally, research tends to have been top-down and as such misses the needs, motivations and attitudes of the drivers themselves. This research worked in-depth with a small number of older drivers using a grounded theory approach to elicit their needs and requirements with regards to the driving task. It identified a number of issues that previous research had highlighted, including shortened reaction times, increased fatigue and problems with glare but in addition emphasised some novel issues, including maintaining the vehicle speed at a consistent level and issues with distraction. The role new technology has in meeting such needs is briefly discussed.

Purpose — The Department for Transport's 2011 GPS National Travel Survey (NTS) pilot study investigated whether personal GPS devices and automated data processing could be used in place of the 7-day paper diary. Using GPS technology could reduce the relatively high burden that the diary places upon respondents, reduce costs and improve data quality.

Design/methodology/approach — Data was collected from c.900 respondents. Practical changes were made to the existing methodology where necessary, including the collection of information to support data processing. Processing was undertaken using the University of Eindhoven's Trace Annotator. Results from the GPS pilot were then compared to those from the main NTS diaries for the same period.

Findings — There were no insurmountable problems using GPS devices to collect data; however, the processed GPS data did not resemble the diary outputs, making GPS unsuitable for the NTS. The GPS data produced fewer and longer trips than the diary data. The purpose of a quarter of the GPS trips was unclear, and a disproportionate share started and ended at home.

Research limitations — Further work to manually inspect trips identified via validation as unfeasible and subsequently refine the processing algorithms would have been desirable had time permitted. GPS data processing may have been hindered by missing GPS data, particularly in the case of rail travel.

Originality/value — This research used an accelerometer-equipped GPS device to better predict the method of travel. It also combined addresses that respondents reported having visited during the travel week with GIS data to code the purpose of trips without using a post-processing prompted-recall survey.